The Old Mackie House

Built in 1742 for Dr. John Mackie (1695-1758) and his wife Mehetable (1711-1771) shortly after their marriage, the house is one of Southampton’s best preserved and widely admired historic houses. Dr. Mackie was a Scotsman and the house is said to be a replica of his home in Scotland, though built in wood and clad in cedar shingles rather than the original’s stone. At his death he left everything to his family, with the exception of an enslaved member of the household named Pompey, whom he left to his wife. ​ At the time of the Revolution, when the Mackie family was obliged to share their home with British officers quartered there, anti-British exploits — attributed to Pompey — made him a local celebrity. On one occasion, Pompey threatened one of the British guests with a pitchfork. On another, he mixed pounded glass with the British horses’ feed, leaving the officers horseless the next morning. Pompey pled ignorance and got away with it. ​Eventually the house passes, through marriage, to the Allen family, whose ownership lasted from the late 1860s to the late 1920s. Additions were made to the rear of the house and while doing repairs, masons make a surprising discovery: a smoke room in the chimney—oak beams having been laid across the chimney for hanging hams and bacon. In 1948, Reinier Gerrit Anton van Der Houde (1885-1962), at one time president of one of the largest oil companies in the world, purchased the house, which remains in his family until 1998. His son who bore the same impressive name, married the daughter of the sixth Earl of Carnarvon whose Highclere Castle is familiar to fans of Downton Abbey.