THE CLANS AND THEIR GENEALOGIES.
[Sidenote: State of the Highlands in the sixteenth century.]
The forfeiture of the last Lord of the Isles, and the annexation of a
great part of his territories to the crown, finally brought the whole
clans of the Highlands and Islands into direct subjection to the royal
authority, but the removal of the old hereditary rulers of the
provinces, and the substitution of a central authority which could make
itself but little felt beyond the Highland Line, left the clans without
any practical control, and the sixteenth century is mainly characterised
by internal conflicts between the clans themselves, which increased the
power of some, and broke up the solidarity of others, and by the gradual
advance in influence and extent of territory in Argyllshire of the
Campbells, whose astuteness and foresight led them to a uniform support
of the royal authority, while the Mackenzies acquired a hardly less
influential position in Ross-shire.[457]
From the early part of the fifteenth century, when Donald of the Isles
had invaded the Low Country at the head of a Highland army of ten
thousand men, till the outbreak of the civil war in the reign of Charles
the First, the clans had never broken through the barriers which
separated them from the Lowlands in the form of one united army; and it
was not till Montrose raised the Highland clans to make a diversion in
favour of the king in the north that their power as a united people was
at all recognised. The rapid and brilliant campaigns of Montrose showed
what the clans were capable of effecting when brought together and
skilfully handled, though opposed by all the power and influence of
Gillespie Gruamach, the Earl of Argyll and head of the Campbells. The
normal relation of the Highlanders and Lowlanders to each other is
graphically put by one of the greatest of modern writers, who was
thoroughly acquainted with the subject, when he says, ‘The inhabitants
of the Lowlands were indeed aware that there existed, in the extremity
of the island, amid wilder mountains and broader lakes than their own,
tribes of men called clans, living each under the rule of their own
chief, wearing a peculiar dress, speaking an unknown language, and going
armed even in the most ordinary and peaceable vocations. The more
southern counties saw specimens of these men following the droves of
cattle which were the sole exportable commodity of their country,
plaided, bonneted, belted, and brogued, and driving their bullocks, as
Virgil is said to have spread his manure, with an air of great dignity
and consequence.[458] To their nearer Lowland neighbours they were known
by more fierce and frequent causes of acquaintance; by the forays which
they made upon the inhabitants of the plains, and the tribute, or
protection-money, which they exacted from those whose possessions they
spared.’[459]
[Sidenote: Names and position of the clans.]
Repeated attempts were made by the kings to control the turbulence of
the clans, and to bring them under more complete subjection to the
government, but it was not till the reign of James that a serious effort
was made by Parliament to effect this, when three very important Acts
were passed, which put us in possession of detailed information as to
the number and names of the clans at the time. In 1587 an Act was passed
‘for the quieting and keeping in obedience of the disorderit subjectis
inhabitants of the Borders, Highlands and Isles.’ It is unnecessary to
enter into any detail as to the description given in this Act of the
state of these parts of the country, which is sufficiently highly
coloured, and of the remedies proposed by the statute; but annexed to it
are two rolls—one ‘of the names of the Landlords and Baillies of lands
dwelling on the Borders and in the Highlands where broken men has dwelt
and presently dwells;’ and the other, ‘of the Clans that have Captains,
Chiefs, and Chieftains, on whom they depend ofttimes against the will of
their Landlords, as well on the Borders as the Highlands, and of some
special persons of branches of the said clans.’[460] Here the landlord
or feudal overlord is distinguished from the captain, chief, and
chieftain, or tribal head of the clan, both characters being sometimes
united in the same person, and at other times vested in different
persons. Neither are the titles of captain, chief, and chieftain
synonymous. The captain was the person who actually led the clan,
whether representing the founder of the clan in the male line or not,
while the chief was the _Ceanncine_, or hereditary head of the tribe,
who possessed that character, and the chieftain, the _Ceanntighe_, or
head of a subordinate sept. The chief was usually also the captain, but
when he was either set aside from incapacity, or the pre-eminent
military and administrative talents of a member of the clan led to the
tribe taking the unusual course of adopting him to be their leader, as
better able to protect them, he was simply termed Captain of the Clan,
and the position and title usually remained with his descendants,
especially if he had obtained a feudal title to the lands.[461] The
whole of the clan, however, seldom acquiesced in the adoption of a
leader separate from the hereditary chief, and in every clan where the
actual head of it bore the title of Captain we find a controversy as to
the right to the chiefship, and a part of the clan holding off from the
rest.[462]
Another statute was passed in 1594 ‘for punishment of thift, reif,
oppression, and sorning.’[463] It contains within it a list of clans and
surnames inhabiting the Highlands and Isles, and likewise a list of
broken men of surnames inhabiting the sheriffdoms of Argyll, Bute,
Dumbarton, Stirling, Perth, Forfar, Aberdeen, Banff, Elgin, Forres,
Nairn, Inverness, and Cromarty; and stewartries of Stratherne and
Menteith. These lists of clans and broken men, with a list furnished by
MacVureach of the clans who joined Montrose, gives us a tolerably
complete view of the state of the Highland clans at the time, and they
may be thus stated, following the order of the districts which they
inhabited.
The Highland district of the earldom of Lennox was occupied by the Clan
Pharlane, undoubted descendants of the old earls of Lennox. The clan
takes its name from Parlane or Bartholomew, a great-grandson of
Gilchrist, third son of Alain, earl of Lennox, and the steps of the
pedigree rest upon charter evidence. Next to them were the Clan Gregor,
on the east side of Lochlomond and around Loch Katrine. In Balquhidder
we find the Clan _Labhran_ or Lauren, and in Atholl the clan possessing
the largest territory was the Clan Donnachie, whose descent from Duncan,
son of Andrew de Atholia, likewise rests upon charter evidence, and
whose name of De Atholia sufficiently indicates that they were the male
representatives of the old earls of Atholl. With Glenshee and Glenisla
is connected a clan called the Clan M‘Thomas. Crossing the Mounth we
find the Highland districts of Mar and Buchan occupied by the Clan
Chattan, who likewise, with their branches and dependent septs, extended
over Strathdearn, Strathnairn, and Badenoch, into the district of
Lochaber. In Ross-shire were the Clan Andres or Rosses and the Clan
Kenneth or Mackenzies, and in the Highland districts of Sutherland and
Caithness, forming the north-west corner of Scotland, were the Clan
Morgan or Mackays and the Clan Gunn. The clans which occupied the
principal position in the great district of Argyll and the Isles were
the different clans into which the descendants of the powerful Lords of
the Isles and Knights of Argyll broke up on the termination of the main
line. There were the Clann _Dubhgal_ or Macdougalls of Lorne, descended
from Dubhgal, the eldest son of Somerled; the Clandonald descended from
Domnall, son of Reginald or Ranald, his second son; and this great sept
was again broken up into six clans. These were the Clandonald north and
south, that is, the Clan _Hustain_ or MacDonalds of Slate, and the Clan
_Eoin Mor_ or MacConnells of Isla and Kintyre, descended from Donald,
eldest son of John, Lord of the Isles, by the king’s daughter, and from
Eoin Mor, his second son, respectively. From Ranald, son of Alaster, his
third son, sprang the Clanranald of Lochaber, or Macdonalds of Keppoch.
From _Eoin Sprangaigh_ and Alaster Og, sons of Angus Mor, came the Clan
_Ian_ or MacIans of Ardnamurchan, and the Clan _Alaster_ or MacAlasters
of Loup in Kintyre. The most important clans after the Macdonalds were,
in Argyll, the Clan _O’Duibhn_ or Campbells, whose original seat was the
district of Lochow and Ardskeodnich, and who succeeded to their power.
In the Isles the Clan Leod or Macleods of Dunvegan and Glenelg, and
those of Lewis, descended from two brothers, were the most powerful; and
next them the Clan _Gilleoin_ or Macleans of Dowart and Lochbowie, and
the Clan _Neill_ or Macneills of Gigha and of Barra, and here we see the
oldest cadets occupying quite as prominent a position as the main line.
The other clans of Argyll and the Isles were, in Cowall, the Clan
Lachlan, and the Clan _Ladmann_ or Lamont, and between Loch Fine and
Lochow the Clan _Neachtan_ or MacNaughtons; while Glenorchy was the
original seat of the Clan Gregor, and in Lochaber the _Clanchamron_, or
Camerons of Lochiel, had their home. In Lochaber and Colonsay were the
Clan _Dubhsithé_ or Macduffies, and in Mull and Skye the Clan _Fingaine_
or Mackinnons and the Clan _Guaire_ or Macquarries.
[Sidenote: Meaning of Clann, and the personal names from which their
patronymics were taken.]
This word Clann signifies simply children or descendants, and the clan
name thus implies that the members of it are or were supposed to be
descended from a common ancestor or eponymus, and they were
distinguished from each other by their patronymics, the use of surnames
in the proper sense of the term being unknown among them. These
patronymics, in the case of the _Ceannciné_ or chief and the
_Ceanntighs_ or heads of the smaller septs, indicated their descent from
the founder of the race or sept; those of the members of it who were of
the kin of the chief or chieftain showed the personal relation; while
the commonalty of the clan simple used a derivative form of the name of
the clan, implying merely that they belonged to it. This system is
quaintly described by John Elder, clerk, in his letter to King Henry the
Eighth in 1542 or 1543. He says—‘Now and pleas your excellent Majestie,
the said people which inhabitede Scotland afore the incummyng of the
said Albanactus (as I have said), being valiant, stronge, and
couragious, although they were savage and wilde, had strange names, as
_Morrdhow_ .i. Mordachus; _Gillicallum_ .i. Malcolmus; _Donyll_ \.i.
Donaldus, and so fourth. Then their sonnis followinge theame in manheid
and valianntnes, called theameselves after this manner of wyse, leaving
their proper names unexpressede, _Makconyll_ .i. filius Donaldi;
_Makgillecallum_ .i. filius Malcolmi, etc., and so they have contenewide
unto this daye.’[464] Thus the head of the whole Clan Donald was simply
Macdonald, the chief of the Clan Ranald of Glengarry, _Macmhicalastair_,
the captain of Clan Ranald, _Macmhicalain_, and one of the commonalty
simply _Domnaillach_ or a Macdonald. Besides the clans the statutes
distinguish what they term surnames. There were in Lennox, Buchanans,
_M‘Cawlis_ or Macaulays, and Galbraiths; Grahames in Monteith; Stewarts
in Atholl, Lorne, and Balquhidder; Menzieses, Fergusons, Spaldings, and
MacIntoshes in Atholl; Farquharsons in Braemar; MacPhersons in
Strathnairn; Grants in Strathspey; Frasers in the Aird; Rosses and
Monros in Ross; and Neilsons in Sutherland. These surnames were of three
kinds. There were first names which had a Gaelic form, as Macaulay and
Macpherson; or the English equivalent of a Gaelic form, as Farquharson,
Ferguson, etc.; secondly, those who had assumed a territorial name, or
whose name bore that appearance, as the Buchanans, who likewise bore the
name of _Macaustelan_, and took the former designation from their lands,
Grants, Rosses, and Monroes; and thirdly, those which were foreign names
and of foreign descent, but who had become so assimilated to the Gaelic
people as to be identified with them in language, custom, and spirit of
clanship, as the Stewarts, Frasers, Menzieses, Spaldings, etc., who had
been long settled in the Highlands.
The system of nomenclature, therefore, which characterised the clans and
the surnames of Gaelic origin was one entirely based upon the personal
name, and was in no respect territorial; but we find, on examination,
that the personal names used by the Gaelic people were of different
kinds, and constituted upon different principles. The earliest personal
names used by the different branches of the Celtic people appear to have
been formed in the same manner, and resemble each other in their
structure. On analysing those both of the Cymric and the Gaelic people,
we can see that they are compounded of two monosyllables, a certain
number of which is used to form the first half of the name and a
different set of monosyllables annexed as a termination, and these are
combined with each other in every variety of form. The initial syllables
are more numerous than the terminal, and it will only be necessary to
specify a few to illustrate the formation of these names. Thus in Welsh,
_Ael_, _Aer_, _Arth_, _Cad_, and _Cyn_ are common initial syllables; and
_Teyrn_, _March_, _Gwyr_, and _Gwys_ common terminations. These form in
combination the names _Aelgyvarch_, _Cadvarch_, _Cynvarch_, _Aerdeyrn_,
_Cyndeyrn_, _Arthwyl_, _Cynwys_, etc. So in Gaelic _Aen_, _Art_, _Con_,
_Dun_, _Dubh_, _Fear_, _Fin_, and _Gorm_ are common initial syllables;
and _Gal_[465] and _Gus_, common terminations, and from them are formed
_Aengal_, _Artgal_, _Congal_, _Dungal_, _Dubhgal_, _Feargal_, _Fingal_,
_Gormgal_, and _Aengus_, _Congus_, _Feargus_, etc. Similar forms existed
among the Pictish names, as in _Ungust_, _Urgust_, _Urgart_, _Dergart_,
_Gartnaidh_, etc.; and besides the Pictish forms which are analogous to
the Irish, we find such Pictish names as _Neachtain_, _Fingaine_, etc.,
occurring in the Highland Genealogies.
The introduction of Christianity among these Gaelic tribes added another
class of names to these older forms. These were formed by prefixing the
words _Maol_, that is, bald in the sense of tonsured, and _Giolla_, or
servant, first to the words _Iosa_ or Jesus, _Criosd_ or Christ, _Faidh_
the prophet, _Easpuig_ the bishop; as in _Maoliosa_ or _Giolliosa_,
servant of Jesus, _Maolanfhaidh_ or _Gillanfhaidh_, servant of the
prophet, _Giollachriosd_, servant of Christ, and _Gilleaspuig_, servant
of the bishop: and secondly, to the names of the founders and patron
saints of the churches, as in _Maolcoluim_ or _Giollacoluim_, servant of
St. Columba; _Maolbride_ or _Giollabride_, servant of St. Bridget;
_Giollachattan_, servant of St. Cathan; _Gillanaemh_, servant of the
saints; _Giollaeoin_, servant of St. John, etc. In these latter names,
when combined with the word Clan or Mac, if they commence with a
consonant, the prefix _Giolla_ is usually omitted, as in Clanchattan,
MacCallum, etc.; but if they commence with a vowel, they form that
numerous class of names in which Mac is followed by the letter L. Thus
_MacGiollaeoin_ becomes Maclean; _MacGiolla Adomnan_, MacLennan, etc.
The conquest of the Western Isles, and the frequent occupation of parts
of the mainland by the Norwegians and Danes, and the intermarriages
between them, added to these forms, after the ninth century, Norwegian
and Danish names, such as Godfred, Harald, Ragnall, Somarled, etc.,
which became _Gofraidh, Aralt, Ranald, Somhairle_, in the Highland
Genealogies. It must not, however, be overlooked that the Norwegians
frequently gave to Gaelic names a Norwegian form significant in their
own language, as Dungadr for _Donnachaidh_, Griotgardr for _Gregair_,
Melkolfr for _Maolcoluim_, etc.
[Sidenote: Original importance and position of Clan pedigrees.]
In considering the genealogies of the Highland clans we must bear in
mind that in the early state of the tribal organisation the pedigree of
the sept or clan, and of each member of the tribe, had a very important
meaning. Their rights were derived through the common ancestor, and
their relation to him, and through him to each other, indicated their
position in the succession, as well as their place in the allocation of
the tribe land. In such a state of society the pedigree occupied the
same position as the title-deed in the feudal system, and the Sennachies
were as much the custodiers of the rights of families as the mere
panegyrists of the clan. As long as the Gaelic tribes and the governing
and dominant race were of the same lineage, and regulated by the same
laws, this system must have remained unaltered; but when the kingdom was
formed by a combination of different races, and the influential class
consisted of a feudal nobility, while the laws of the country were based
upon feudal principles, the position of the Gaelic tribes must have been
that of a people possessing a customary law, and an unrecognised social
system opposed to the law acted upon by the governing authority, and the
latter must always have prevailed in the long-run. When the conflict of
these laws in regulating succession, and the frequent insurrections of
the Gaelic population, with the confiscations which followed upon them,
led to the breaking up of the Gaelic tribes, and to the severance of
those ties which bound the septs or clans which had been developed
within the tribe to each other, the pedigree would cease to be of value
as between clan and clan. The competition between rival interests and
rival races would lead to the gratification of vanity becoming the
ruling motive, in order to maintain a _quasi_ superiority, and likewise,
when the exigencies of their position required it, to a falsification
and imposture in order to enable the clans to maintain their ground in a
field of competition regulated by feudal principles. The pedigrees must
then have been greatly influenced by those into competition with whom
the clan families were thrown, and by the interests affected in
consequence; and when the governing class belonged to a kindred but
different race with a different nationality and nomenclature, there must
always have been a tendency to assimilate their own traditions to those
of the ruling powers. Till the ninth century the Highland tribes and the
ruling powers were of the same race. During the two succeeding centuries
these tribes appear to have remained intact, while the dominating race
and the clergy were of a kindred race though of a different name and
nationality, and the name of Scotia became transferred from Ireland to
Scotland. Feudalism then commenced, and spread over the country, and the
reigns of the kings of the second Scottish dynasty from the accession of
David the First to the death of Alexander the Third was the period of
the breaking up of the tribes, and the complete establishment of the
clan system; and this likewise was the period of the manipulation of the
Chronicles, and the gradual formation of that spurious system of
national history which, originating in the ecclesiastical pretensions of
St. Andrews, was developed during the great controversy regarding the
independence of Scotland, and based upon a Scottish nationality and the
supposed colonisation of the country long before the Christian era by
Scota and her Scottish descendants, till it was finally reduced to a
system by John of Fordun. Its leading features were the colonisation of
the Highlands by Scots in the third century before Christ, their
conversion in the second century by the relics of St. Andrew, the
occupation of the mountain region of the north by the Picts entirely
ignored, and that people relegated to the plains of the Lowlands, when
they were finally exterminated by the Scots in the ninth century.
[Sidenote: First change in Clan pedigrees. Influence of legendary
history of Scotland.]
It is hardly to be expected that the clans should not have claimed their
share in these legendary glories, or that they should have lost the wish
to maintain a separate descent with the gradual disappearance of its
tradition, and thus this new and preponderating influence would
naturally produce the first great change in the clan pedigrees. This
change is very clearly exposed in the remarkable letter already quoted
of John Elder, clerk, a Reddeshanke, to King Henry the Eighth. In that
letter he thus gives the origin of ‘the Yrische Lords of Scotland,
commonly called the Reddshanckes, and by historiographers, Picts.’
‘Scotland,’ he says, ‘before the incoming of Albanactus, Brutus’s second
son, was inhabited, as we read in ancient Yrische stories, with giants
and wild people, without order, civility, or manners, and speaks none
other language but Yrishe, and was then called Eyryn veagg, that is to
say, Little Irland, and the people were callit Eyrynghe, that is to say,
Irland men. But after the incoming of Albanactus, in reducing them to
order and civility they changed the foresaid name Eyryn veagg, and
called it Albon, and their owne names also and called them Albonyghe;
which two Yrische wordes, Albon, that is to say Scotland, and Albonyghe,
that is to say Scottish men, be derived from Albanactus, our first
governor and king.’ At the time John Elder wrote, Yrishe, afterwards
corrupted into Erse, was currently used for Gaelic; and deducting the
nonsense about Eyryn veagg, which seems a fancy of his own, this is the
legendary story contained in our earliest documents before the
Chronicles were tampered with; but then he gave in to say, ‘which
derivation the papistical cursed spirituality of Scotland will not hear
in no manner of wise, nor confess that ever such a king, named
Albanactus, reigned there. The which derivation all the Yrische men of
Scotland, which be the ancient stock, cannot nor will not deny.’ ‘But
our said bishops,’ he adds, ‘deriveth Scotland and themselves from a
certain lady named Scota, which came out of Egypt, a miraculous hot
country, to recreate herself amongst them in the cold air of Scotland,
which they cannot affirm by no probable ancient author.’[466]
[Sidenote: Second change. Influence of Irish Sennachies.]
The clans, however, were soon after thrown into rapidly-increasing
contact with those of Ireland, a people possessing similar pedigrees,
and Sennachies surpassing those of Scotland in information and
acquirements. The native Sennachies by degrees fell into the background,
and the clans began to take their Sennachies from the rival race. The
first connection between them which had this effect, was the marriage of
Angus, Lord of the Isles, who assisted Bruce in his struggle for the
crown, with the daughter of O’Kane, Lord of Fermanagh, and widow of the
great O’Neill. During the two following centuries septs of the Highland
clans were employed as auxiliaries by the great northern Lords of
Ireland, under the name of _Galloglach_ or foreign soldiers, commonly
called Galloglasses. There is ample evidence that during this period a
great proportion of the Highland Sennachies were Irish, and that all
reverted to Ireland for instruction in their art. It could hardly have
been otherwise than that, with the disappearance of the old Highland
pedigrees, every presumption and analogy would have driven these
Sennachies to the better-preserved Irish pedigrees, to replace what had
been lost by connecting them more directly with the Irish tribes, and
thus the second great change in the character of their pedigree would be
produced. For the clan genealogies at this time we must therefore refer
to the Irish MSS., and they are in fact the oldest pedigrees which have
been preserved. The MS. collections in which we find them are, first,
the Book of Ballimote compiled in the year 1383, the Book of Lecain
compiled in 1407, and a MS. belonging to the Faculty of Advocates
bearing the date 1467, but the genealogies in which are obviously
derived from the same source as those in the Book of Ballimote.[467] To
these may be added a few genealogies in other MSS., and those preserved
by MacVurich in the Book of Clan Ranald.
[Sidenote: Analysis of the Irish Pedigrees.]
In these MSS. we find detailed pedigrees of most of the clans enumerated
in the Acts of Parliament of 1587 and 1594, and of several clans not
there mentioned, as well as of some of the surnames. The later portion
of these pedigrees, as far back as the _eponymus_ or common ancestor
from which the clan takes its name, are in general tolerably well
vouched, and may be held to be authentic. The older part of the pedigree
will be found to be partly historical and partly mythic. So far as these
links in the genealogic chain connect the clans with each other within
what may be termed the historic period, the pedigree may be genuine; but
the links which connect them with the mythic genealogies of the
elaborate system of early Irish history, when analysed, prove to be
entirely artificial and untrustworthy. In examining the nature of these
pedigrees it will be convenient to group them according to their
supposed connection with the legendary races of early Irish
history.[468]
The first group consists of the Clan _Cailin_ or Campbells, and the Clan
_Leod_ or MacLeods, who are brought from a mythic personage, viz.,
_Fergus Leith Derg_, son of _Nemedh_, who led a colony of Nemedians from
Ireland to Scotland. This Nemedian colony belongs to the older legendary
history of Scotland before the Chronicles were corrupted, and may
therefore indicate these clans as forming part of the older inhabitants
of the districts they occupy. On examining the genealogy of the
Campbells we may consider it as authentic as far back as Duncan, son of
Gilleaspic, son of Gillacolum, son of Duibne, who is certainly the
Duncan M‘Duibhn mentioned in one of the Argyll charters as possessing
Lochow and Ardskeodnich, and who was contemporary with Alexander the
Second. As the Campbells were undoubtedly known in Gaelic as the _Clan
O’Duibne_,[469] the genealogy as far back as that eponymus of the race
is probably authentic; but as soon as we pass that link we find
ourselves in contact with Arthur and Uthyr Pendragon, and the other
heroes of the Arthurian legend. With the Macleods we cannot proceed so
far back, as Leod, the eponymus of the clan, cannot be placed earlier
than the middle of the thirteenth century; and as soon as we pass these
links in the chain of his pedigree, which have Gaelic names, we plunge
into a confused list of names, partly Gaelic and partly of Norwegian and
Danish kings of the Isles, with which they are mixed up, till we reach
the mythic _Fergus Leith Derg_, whose grandson bears the Norwegian name
of Arailt or Harald, centuries before the Norwegians made their
appearance in the Isles. The earlier portion then of these two
genealogies is obviously artificial.
The next group consists of the supposed descendants of Colla Uais, son
of Eochaidh Doimlein, king of Ireland, and comprised the clans descended
from Somerled, the petty king of the great district of Argyll in the
reign of Malcolm the Fourth. These genealogies, as far back as their
great ancestor Somerled, are undoubtedly authentic. His father
_Gillabride_, and his grandfather _Gillaadomnan_, both purely Gaelic
forms, rest on the authority of the Irish Annals, and _Imergi_, the
grandfather of the latter, is probably the Jehmarc, who appears as a
Celtic petty king in the year 1031. Beyond this we have no fixed date,
but between him and Colla Uais, whose death is placed at 323, we have
only seven names given for a period of 700 years, or one hundred years
to a generation, which is impossible, and betrays the artificial
character of this part of the pedigree.
The third group consists of clans supposed to be descended from the Hy
Neill or race of _Neill naoi giallach_, king of Ireland, which brings us
nearer historical times. They consist of the Lamonds, the Clan Lachlan,
the MacEwens of Otter, and a Clan _Somairle_ which has not been
identified. These clans are all taken back to a certain Aoda Alain,
termed _Buirche_, son of Anrotan, son of _Aodha Atlamuin_, ancestors of
the O’Neills. From Aoda’s son Gillacrist the Clan Lachlan came, and from
another son Duinsleibe the Lamonds, MacEwens, and Clan Somairle. The
genealogy of the Lamonds is authentic as far back as Fearchar, the son
of Duinsleibe, but Ferchar’s son and grandson are mentioned in a charter
in 1246,[470] while the death of Aodha Alain is recorded in 1047, and
thus only three generations are placed in two centuries. This derivation
too involves the difficulty of supposing that Cowall was peopled from
Ireland in the eleventh century, a colony of which there is not a trace
in history; but as these clans are locally grouped together we may
accept the genealogies as indicating that they had a common origin.
The fourth group consists of the old earls of Lennox and Mar, said to be
descended from _Maine Leamna_ and _Cairbre Cruithneach_, sons of Corc,
son of Lughaigh, king of Munster; but the artificial character of this
descent is here very apparent, for Ailin, the first earl of Lennox, who
lived in the beginning of the thirteenth century, is made the
great-grandson of _Maine Leamna_, whose father was a contemporary of
Saint Patrick in the fifth century.
The rest of the Highland clans, whose genealogies are to be found in the
Irish MSS., are all brought from the Dalriadic Scots. These clans are
mainly connected with the province of Moray and Ross, and thus we have
the great anomaly presented to us that the clans forming the great bulk
of the inhabitants of Argyll and the Isles—such as the Campbells and
Macleods, the great race of the Macdougalls of Lorn, and the Macdonalds
of the Isles and Kintyre, and the MacLachlans and Lamonds of Cowall—are
not connected by their genealogies with the Dalriadic colony, but this
origin is reserved for the more eastern clans of the central Highlands.
There is too the further anomaly that these clans are not deduced from
the tribe of _Gabhran_, which furnished kings to Dalriada, and from
which the Scottish dynasty founded by Kenneth MacAlpin probably sprang,
but from the tribe of _Lorn_, which furnished two kings only to
Dalriada, and only came to the front to be immediately annihilated by
the Pictish monarch in 736, and then disappear entirely from history.
The links in the chain of ancestry which connect these clans with the
tribe of Lorn, however, present the same features of artificial
construction which characterise the other. In examining these we must
group them in four classes. First, those brought from _Fearchar Fada_,
king of Dalriada, of the tribe of Lorn, who died in 697. These are first
the _Mormaers_ of Moray. This genealogy is probably correct enough up to
Ruadhri, who is made son of Airceallach, son of Ferchar; but allowing
the usual average of thirty years to a generation, Ruadhri flourished
about the year 840, that is, was contemporary with Kenneth MacAlpin,
while the death of his supposed father Airceallach, by whom Ainbhcellach
is probably meant, is recorded in 719. Then follows the genealogy of the
MacNaughtons, whose eponymus _Neachtain Mor_ is made the son of Domnall
Duinn, son of Fearchar Fada; but Neachtain Mor cannot be placed earlier
than the beginning of the ninth century, and he too must have been
contemporary with Kenneth MacAlpin, while his supposed grandfather died
in 697. This is followed by the genealogy of the Clan Chattan, and here
the anomaly is still greater, for _Gillachattan_, the eponymus of the
race, must have flourished in the eleventh century, but between him and
Fearchar Fada are only four links during three centuries and a half. Of
these links the father Gallbrait and the grandfather Diarmada, called
the _Fearleighinn_ or Lector, are probably historical. Along with these
the Clan Cameron are placed, though their genealogy does not show the
connection with the Dalriads. They were undoubtedly a kindred tribe with
the Clan Chattan.
The next group is connected with a _Fearchar Abraruadh_ son of _Feradach
Finn_, and therefore a brother of Fearchar Fada, but unknown to history,
and the only genealogy preserved is that of the _Clan Gillaeoin_ or
Macleans. This genealogy is given with so much minuteness up to a
certain _Sean Dubhgal Sgoinne_, or Old Dugald of Scone, and the
ecclesiastical character of the upper links are so obvious, that it is
difficult to avoid regarding it as so far trustworthy. This Dubhgal has
a son Raingce; and he has three sons—_Cuduilig_, abbot of Leasamor, that
is, lay abbot of the monastery of Lismore in Argyllshire, from whom
descended _Gillaeoin_, the eponymus of the clan; _Cuchatha_, from whom
sprang the _Clan Chonchatha_, in the district of Lennox, by whom
possibly the Colquhouns are meant; and _Cusithe_, from whom came the
_Clan Consithe_ of Fife, which has not been identified. According to the
usual calculation, old Dugald of Scone must have flourished about 1100,
and in a perambulation of the lands of Kyrknesse and Lochow, in the
district of Fortrenn, not long after that date, we find the arbiters
were Constantine earl of Fife, Magnus Judex or _Mormaer_ in Scotland,
Dufgal, son of Mocche, who was aged, just, and venerable (_senex,
justus, et venerabilis_), and Meldoinneth son of Machedath, a good and
discreet judge (_judex bonus et discretus_).[471] It can hardly be
doubted that this Dufgal senex is the _Sean Dubhgal_ of Scone of the
pedigree, but in that genealogy he is made the son not of Mocche but of
Fearchar Abraruadh, who must be placed four centuries earlier.
The next group is brought from _Domnaill Duinn_, son of _Fearadhach
Finn_, and consists of the _Clan Labhran_, or Maclarens, and the Clan
Aidh. The _Clan Labhran_ are deduced from an abbot of Achtus, by which
no doubt Achtow in Balquhidder, where this clan had its seat, is meant,
and his pedigree is deduced from Domnall Og, son of Domnall Duinn.
According to the usual computation, Domnall Oig must be placed in the
ninth century, thus contemporary with Kenneth MacAlpin, while his father
is made brother of Fearchar Fada, who died in 697. The same remark
applies to the genealogy of the clan Aidh. They cannot be identified
with any modern clan, but a Gillamithil, son of Aidh, the eponymus of
the clan, falls about the same time with Gillemychel M‘Ath, father of
Duncan, who, in 1232, excambs a davach of land in Strathardel, called
Petcarene, with the bishop of Moray for the lands of Dolays Michel in
Strathspey.[472]
The remaining genealogies in these MSS. have one common feature, that
the genealogy of each of the clans contains in it the name of Cormac,
son of Airbertach, but he is differently connected with the line of
Lorn, and is placed in many of the genealogies at a different period.
They may be thus grouped. The first consists of the _Clan Andres_ or
Rosses, the _Clan Cainig_ or Mackenzies, and the _Clan Matgamma_ or
Mathesons. These are all brought from a common ancestor, _Gilleoin na
hairde_ or Gilleon of the Aird, by which, no doubt, the mountainous
region in the centre of Ross-shire, the old name of which was Airdross,
or the Aird of Ross, is meant. The Rosses and Mathesons are brought from
his son Cristin, and the Mackenzies from another son, Gilleon Og, father
of _Cainig_ or Kenneth, the eponymus of the clan. _Gilleon na hAirde_ is
made grandson of Loarn, son of Fearchar, son of Cormac mac Airbertach,
and the usual calculation would place Cormac in the tenth century; but
his father Airbertach is made son of Feradach, and brother of Fearchar
Fada, who died in 697. To this group may be added the _Clan Duibsithe_
or Macduffys of Lochaber and Colonsay, who are brought from Fearchar,
son of Cormac; but the connecting links are shorter and bring him down
to two centuries later. The Macnabs are likewise brought from Loarn, son
of Fearchar, son of Cormac, which would relegate him also to the tenth
century; but in this genealogy, instead of placing Cormac in immediate
connection with Fearadach, he is made son of Erc, son of Domnaill Duinn,
son of Fearchar Abraruadh, thus corresponding more with the early part
of the genealogy of the Clan Labhran and Clan Aidh. The Clan Gregor is
likewise brought from Cormac by a son Ainnrias or Andrew, and by this
genealogy he is placed in the twelfth century, and is made son of
Fearchar Oig, son of Fearchar Fada, who died in 697. The last group
consists of the _Clan Guaire_ or Macquarrys, the _Clan Fingaine_ or
Mackinnons, the _Clan Gillamhaol_ or Macmillans, and the _Clan
Gillaagamnan_ or Maclennans, descended respectively from four sons of
Cormac—Guaire, Fingaine, Gillcrist called _Gillamhaol_, and
Gillaagamnan. By these genealogies Cormac is brought down a century
later, and this is probably his true date, and as an ancestor of these
clans he is also probably an historical personage, for in the genealogy
of the _Clan Gillamhaol_ it is added that his father Airbertach
possessed twelve tribes or septs (_Treabh_) among the Norwegians—viz.,
in _Greagraidhe_ of the warriors, commonly called Mull, and in Tiree,
and in _Craobhinis_, by which Iona is meant, while it is in Mull and the
neighbouring islands that the Maclennans and Macquarrys had their
possessions; but in these genealogies Airbertach is made son of
Murcertach, son of Fearchar Og, and between the latter and Fearchar
Fada, the names of Macbeth and his father Finnlaoch, which really belong
to the genealogy of the Mormaers of Moray, are introduced.
[Sidenote: Artificial character of these pedigrees.]
It is thus obvious how artificial the earlier links of these genealogies
are, and that none of them can in fact be pushed further back than the
reign of Kenneth MacAlpin, the oldest link in many of them being
contemporary with him, while others fall short of that period. Between
the oldest link of those which reach that date and the Dalriadic king of
the race of Lorn with which they are connected there is a complete
blank, and it is thus plain that the same process of manipulation and
artificial construction had taken place with these pedigrees, which had
perverted the genealogy of the kings of the line of Kenneth MacAlpin. In
the latter case an entire century, with all its events, from 740 to 840,
had been suppressed, and Kenneth, the founder of the new dynasty in the
ninth century, directly connected with the last of the old kings of
Dalriada, of the race of Gabhran, who lived a century earlier. In like
manner the genealogies of the clans which reach only to the ninth
century, were directly connected with the last of the Dalriadic kings of
the line of Lorn, who died in 697. It is not without some significance
too that we find such Pictish forms as _Neachtain_, _Fingaine_,
_Morgainn_, etc., occurring in the early part of these pedigrees. They
may then be regarded as trustworthy only in so far as they show the
links of the descent of each clan from its _eponymus_ as believed in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the grouping of certain clans
together where a common ancestor within the historic period is assigned
to them.
[Sidenote: Third change. Influence of Act of 1597.]
During the sixteenth century the clans were brought into direct contact
with the Crown, and in the latter part of it serious efforts were made
by the Legislature to establish an efficient control over them. These
gave rise to the Acts of 1587 and 1594, already referred to; but they
were followed in a few years by an important Statute, which had a
powerful effect upon the position of the clans, and led to another great
change in the theory of their descent. In the Parliament held at
Edinburgh in December 1597, an Act was passed bearing the short but most
pregnant title ‘That the inhabitants of the Ilis and Hielandis shaw
their haldings.’ This Act proceeds on the narrative ‘that the
inhabitants of the Highlands and Isles of this realm, which are for the
most part of his Highness’s annexed property has not only frustrated his
Majesty of the yearly payment of his proper rents and due service
addebted by them to his Majesty furth of the said lands, but that they
have likewise through their barbarous inhumanity made and presently
makes the said Highlands and Isles, which are most commodious in
themselves as well by the fertility of the ground as by rich fishings,
be so altogether unprofitable both to themselves and to all others his
Highness’s lieges within this realm, they neither interfering any civil
or honest society amongst themselves neither yet admitted others his
Highness’s lieges to traffic within their bounds with safety of their
lives and goods;’ and in order that they ‘may the better be reduced to
ane godly honest and civil manner of living It is statute and ordained
that all landlords chieftains and leaders of clans, principal
householders, heritors and others possessors or pretending right to any
lands within the Highlands and Isles shall betwixt this and the
fifteenth day of May next to come compear before the Lords of his
Highness’s Exchequer at Edinburgh or where it shall happen to sit for
the time and there bring and produce with them all their infeftments
rights and titles whatsomever whereby they claim right and title to any
part of the lands and fishings within the bounds foresaid, and then find
sufficient caution acted in the books of Exchequer for yearly and
thankful payment to his Majesty of his rents yearly duties and service
addedit by them furth of the lands possessed and occupied by them or any
in their names and that they themselves their men, tenants, servants,
and dependants shall be answerable to his Highness’s laws and Justices.’
The penalty imposed upon them in case of their failure to appear and
find caution was, that they were ‘to forfeit amit and tyne (lose) all
pretended infeftments and other right and title they have or may pretend
to have to any lands whatever they have holden or pretend to hold of his
Majesty either in property or superiority which their pretended
infeftments and titles thereof in case of failure are now as then and
then as now declared by this present Parliament to be null and of no
avail force or effect in themselves.’[473] It has been necessary to
quote this Act at some length, in order to show what a powerful weapon
it placed in the hands of the Crown, and the embarrassing and precarious
position in which it placed the greater proportion of the clans. Many of
them had received charters of their lands which had perished during the
troubles and conflicts which had followed the forfeiture of the Lords of
the Isles. Others had no other right to their lands than what was
derived from the forfeited lords. In other cases, where the right to the
clan demesne was the subject of dispute between different septs, both
parties had received at different times a quasi-title to them. In many
cases the nominal superiority was feudally vested in an alien family,
while the land was actually possessed by one of the clans; and in many
others they had no title but immemorial possession, which they
maintained by the sword; while, on the other hand, those who already
possessed a nominal right to the lands under feudal titles which they
had been unable to enforce, or who saw a great prospect, through the
threatened forfeitures, of acquiring possessions in the Highlands and
Isles, would eagerly avail themselves of the opportunity afforded them
by this Statute. The chiefs of the clans thus found themselves compelled
to defend their rights upon grounds which could compete with the claims
of their eager opponents, and to maintain an equality of rank and
prestige with them in the Heralds’ Office, which must drive them to
every device necessary to effect their purpose; and they would not
hesitate to manufacture titles to the land when they did not exist, and
to put forward spurious pedigrees better calculated to maintain their
position when a native descent had lost its value and was too weak to
serve their purpose.
[Sidenote: Spurious Pedigrees.]
From this period manuscript histories of the leading Highland families
began to be compiled, in which these pretensions were advanced and
spurious charters inserted, and from these manuscript histories were
compiled the later account of the clans contained in the Peerage and
Baronage, as well as in the ‘Inquiry and the Genealogy and Present State
of the Ancient Scottish Surnames, with the Origin and Descent of the
Highland Clans and Family of Buchanan, by William Buchanan of Auchmar,’
published in the year 1723. The form which these pretentious genealogies
took was that of making the _eponymus_ or male ancestor of the clan a
Norwegian, Dane, or Norman, or a cadet of some distinguished family, who
succeeded to the chiefship and to the territory of the clan by marriage
with the daughter and heiress of the last of the old Celtic line, thus
combining the advantage of a descent which could compete with that of
the great Norman families with a feudal succession to their lands; and
the new form of the clan genealogy would have the greater tendency to
assume this form where the clan name was derived not from a personal
name or patronymic but from a personal epithet of its founder. Thus
Hacken, a Norwegian, was said from his prowess to have been termed
_Grandt_, or great, and his grandson _Aulan_, or Allan Grandt, marries
Mora, daughter and heiress of Neil Macgregor, a descendant of Gregory
the Great, king of Scotland, with whom he obtains the barony of
Bellachastell and Freuchie in Strathspey, the patrimony of the Grants;
_Cambro_, a Dane,[474] in the beginning of the reign of Alexander the
Second, marries the daughter and heiress of MacMartin, proprietor of
that part of Lochaber now possessed by Lochiel, chief of the
Camerons;[475] Colin Fitzgerald, son to the earl of Kildare in Ireland,
marries the daughter and heiress of Kenneth Matheson, from whom his son
Kenneth was called _Mackenneth_ or Mackenzie, and obtained with her the
lands of Kintail;[476] Angus MacIntosh, descended from Shaw Macduff, a
second son of the earl of Fife, marries Eva, daughter and heiress of
Gilpatrick, son of Dougal Dall, chief of the Clan Chattan, and obtained
with her the lands of Glenluy and Locharkaig;[477] and even the powerful
family of the Campbells, who had always supported the Crown, and whose
chief had been created earl of Argyll, caught the infection, and now
asserted that Malcolm, son of Duibhne, the _eponymus_ of the clan, had
gone to Normandy, and there married the daughter and heiress of the
Norman family of De Campobello, and took the name, which was corrupted
into Campbell, and his son marries the inevitable Eva, daughter of Paul
MacDuibhne, the last of the old line.[478]
The foundation of the Grant story seems merely to be that the earliest
Grant known was Gregory le Grant, whose sons Laurence and Robert called
Grant (_dicti Grant_) witness an agreement between the bishop of Moray
and John Bisset in 1258. The name Grant is obviously a personal epithet,
and may as well be derived from the Gaelic _Grannda_, ill-favoured, as
from the Latin _Grandis_, or any other foreign word which resembles it.
The Clan Chameron, as we have seen, formed originally one tribe with the
Clan Chattan, and their true ancestor in the early part of the reign of
Alexander the Second can be ascertained, for the Irish MSS. deduce their
descent from a certain Gillroid, son of Gillamartan, to whom a line of
Celtic progenitors is given, and he seems to be the same person with the
Gillroth who, according to Fordun, was the chief supporter of Gillespic
Macohegan, of the line of MacWilliam, who raised an insurrection in
1222, as a charter of lands in Galloway, about the same period, is
witnessed by Gillespic Macohegan and Gilleroth son of Gillemartan.[479]
But the most remarkable of these spurious origins is that claimed by the
Mackenzies. It appears to have been first put forward by Sir George
Mackenzie, first Earl of Cromarty, who wrote an account of the family in
the form of a letter, and afterwards a shorter account under the title
of ‘The Genealogie of the Mackenzies preceding the year 1661, written in
the year 1669 by a persone of qualitie,’[480] of which there is no doubt
he was the author. The story, as told by him in the first account, is
this:—‘Tradition informs us that our first was a sone of the earl of
Kildare’s, who came to Scotland in King Alexander the Third’s time,
called Coline Gerald, fought on the side of the Scots at the battle of
Largs;’ but finding that there was no earl of Kildare till 1290, he
corrects it by making him son of John Fitz-Thomas, chief of the
Geraldines in Ireland, and father of John, first earl of Kildare, who
was slain in 1261. But in the second account, two sons of John
Fitz-Thomas, Colin and Galen, fled to Scotland, were graciously received
by Alexander the Third, and the next year fought at the battle of Largs.
After the battle Walter Stewart was sent with forces to reduce the
Isles, and builds a fort in Kintail, called the Danting Isle, in which
Colin Fitzgerald is placed with a garrison. He then marries the daughter
of Kenneth _MacMahon_ or Matheson, with whom he gets one-half of
Kintail, the other half belonging to the earl of Ross, and has a son
Kenneth, from whom his descendants were called _M‘Channiches_, taking
their patronymic from the M‘Mahon rather than from Colin, whom they
esteemed a stranger. In support of this story two documents are quoted.
First, a fragment of the records of Icolmkill, which he says were
preserved by him, and mention the principal actors in the battle of
Largs, among whom is ‘a stranger and Irishman of the family of the
Geraldines, who, driven from Ireland, was in the following year
graciously received by the king, remained at his court, and valiantly
fought in the foresaid battle, and afterwards fought against the
Islesmen, and was left among them in garrison.’[481] The other is a
charter by King Alexander, granting, for faithful service rendered by
Colin the Irishman (_per Colinum Hybernum_) to the said Colin the whole
lands of Kintail as a barony. This charter bears to be granted in the
sixteenth year of his reign, before the following witnesses—Archibald,
bishop of Moray; Walter Stewart; Henry de Balioth, chamberlain; Arnold
de Campan; and Thomas Hostiarius, sheriff of Inverness.[482] The same
mistake is here committed, as is usual in manufacturing these pedigree
charters, by making it a crown charter erecting the lands into a barony.
Kintail could not have been a barony at that time, and the earl of Ross
and not the king was superior, for in 1342 the earl of Ross grants the
ten davachs of the lands of Kintail to Reginald, son of Roderick of the
Isles;[483] and we find that the Mackenzies held their lands of the earl
of Ross, and afterwards of the duke of Ross till 1508,[484] when they
were all erected into a barony by King James the Fourth, who gave them a
crown charter. An examination of the witnesses, too, usually detects
these spurious charters, and in this case it is conclusive against the
charter. Andrew was bishop of Moray from 1223 to 1242, and there was no
bishop of that name in the reign of Alexander the Third. Henry de Baliol
was chamberlain in the reign of Alexander the Second, and not of
Alexander the Third. Thomas Hostiarius belongs to the same reign, and
had been succeeded by his son Alan long before the date of this charter.
The names of the witnesses seem to have been taken from some charter of
Alexander the Second, which may have been granted in the sixteenth year
of his reign. It may be said that this was a genuine charter of
Alexander the Second, and that Colin Fitzgerald may have come over in
his reign; but then what becomes of the fragment of the Chronicle of
Icolmkill, which clearly connects him with the battle of Largs? The two
must stand or fall together, and the evidence of the construction of a
false legend is too palpable to be disputed.[485] The earl of Cromarty
refers to tradition; but if not the actual inventor of the story, it
must have taken its rise not very long before, for no trace of it is to
be found in the Irish MSS., the history of the Geraldine family knows
nothing of it,[486] and MacVureach, who must have been acquainted with
the popular history of the western clans, was equally unacquainted with
it. We have seen that in the second edition of the story the earl gives
Colin a brother Galen, and he is claimed by the Macleans as their
ancestor, who likewise superseded their older traditionary history by a
Fitzgerald origin; but we can trace how this arose, and it will
illustrate how these later forms of the clan origins were constructed.
In the Irish MSS. the Mackenzies and Macleans have quite a different
origin assigned to them, and there is no apparent connection between
them. The Mackenzies are brought from a certain Gilleon Og, son of
Gilleon na hairde, but in the genealogies of the Macleans there occurs
at a later period a Gilleon, whose pedigree is quite different. In a
later form of the genealogy, however, preserved by MacVureach, the two
Gilleons have been identified, and a new genealogy manufactured from
those of the two clans. The pedigrees of the Mackenzies and Mathesons
are combined till they reach Gilleon na hairde, and they then merge into
that of the Macleans. The Mackenzies and Macleans are thus brought from
two brothers, and when the Mackenzies adopted the Fitzgerald origin the
Macleans naturally followed suit.
The earl, not content with putting forward this spurious pedigree of his
own clan, showed his talent for constructing new pedigrees in the case
of the Macleods, whom he took under his protection in consequence of the
acquisition by the Mackenzies of the island of Lewis, the patrimony of
one of the two great branches of that powerful clan. Their pedigree, as
shown in the Irish MSS., had already been tampered with, for in a MS.
history of the Rosses of Balnagown, written prior to the Cromarty MS.,
it is stated that three sons of the king of Denmark, called _Gwine_,
_Loid_, and _Leandres_, came out of Denmark and landed in the north of
Scotland. ‘_Gwine_, conquest the Hieland brayes of Cathness; _Loid_
conquest the Lewis, of whom M‘Loid is descended; _Leandres_ conquest
Braychat be the sworde.’ By the _Gwine_ here mentioned the ancestor of
the Clan Gunn seems to be meant, and _Leandres_ is obviously the
Gilleandres from whom the Clan Andres, or old Rosses, took their name.
This derivation of the Macleods did not satisfy the ingenious earl, and
after narrating the history of the Norwegian kings of Mann and the
Isles, taken entirely from the Chronicle of Mann, he adds that Harald,
the son of Godred Don, who usurped the kingdom in 1249, and was arrested
by the king of Norway when attending his court and detained there, was
succeeded by Leodus, his only son, who married Adama, daughter to
Ferquhar, earl of Ross, and by her had Torkell and Tormoth, who founded
the families of Lewis and Harris.[487] Of this there is, however, not
one word in the Chronicle, which knows nothing of Harald after his
imprisonment in Norway. This is the first appearance of the supposed
descent of the Macleods from the Norwegian kings of Mann, of which the
ingenious earl was no doubt the author, if he was not also the inventor
of the Fitzgerald story; but it is again improved upon by the account
furnished to Douglas for his Baronage, where Harald is given up, and
Olave the Black, king of Mann, who died in 1237, and whose second wife
was Christina, daughter of Ferquhard, earl of Ross, is substituted, and
said to have had by her three sons—‘_Leod_, the undoubted progenitor of
the Clan Macleod; _Guin_, of whom the Clan Gunn in Sutherland are
descended; and _Leandres_, of whom the Clan Leandres in Ross-shire;’ but
the Chronicle which mentions his marriage knows nothing of these sons,
and this filiation must be regarded as equally spurious with the
other.[488] It is probable, however, that we have a fragment of the true
pedigree of the Macleods in one of the Irish MSS., which places Leod in
the thirteenth century, and makes him son of _Gillemuire_, son of
_Raice_, son of _Olbair Snoice_, son of _Gillemuire_, whose mother is
said to have been _Ealga_ of the Fair Locks, daughter of Harold, king of
_Lochlan_ or Norway.[489] They were Celtic in the male line, Norwegian
in the female.
The supposed descent of the Macintoshes from the MacDuffs, earls of
Fife, was, no doubt, based on the interpretation of the name, which
means literally ‘the son of the thane;’ but this theory of their descent
could only have arisen after the legend of Macduff, thane of Fife,
assumed a prominent place in the fabulous history of Scotland. He was
the thane _par excellence_, and the MacIntoshes were naturally connected
with him as such; but, as there were in reality no thanes of Fife, and
the old earls never bore that title, this descent cannot be supported,
and must fall along with the supposed marriage with the heiress of Clan
Chattan, and the charter said to have been granted in 1338 by David II.,
which is no doubt a spurious pedigree charter, and commits the usual
blunder of making it a crown charter, while the superiority of Lochaber
was in the Lords of the Isles. In the MS. histories of the MacIntoshes,
the whole race, including the old MacIntoshes, is brought from the thane
of Fife, but there is another form of it which attaches the legend to
the later family, the descendant of Malcolm MacIntosh, who, by the
influence of the Lords of the Isles, after the secession of the old Clan
Chattan in 1429, acquired the position of Captain of the Clan; for we
are told in the Knock MS. that Angus of the Isles had, by the daughter
of John Gruamach Mackay, ‘the mother of the first Laird of MacIntosh,
for a son of MacDuff, thane of Fife, coming after manslaughter to
shelter himself in Macdonald’s house, got her daughter with child, went
to Ireland with Edward Bruce, where he was killed; by which means
MacIntosh is of natural (illegitimate) descent, his progenitor being got
in that manner. MacIntosh in the ancient language signifies a Thane’s
son. The boy was brought up by Macdonald, who in process of time
procured a competent estate for him in the Braes of Lochaber and Braes
of Murray.’[490] This was _Callum beg_ or Malcolm MacIntosh, whose son
Duncan was the first Captain of Clan Chattan. The name MacIntosh,
however, clearly implies that they were the descendants of a thane. In
the family histories the MacIntoshes of Monzievaird in Stratherne and of
Tiryny in Athole are made cadets of the Macintosh, but we know that they
were in reality derived from the thanes of Struan and of Glentilt
respectively, and we must likewise look elsewhere for the thane from
whom the old Macintoshes of Badenoch descended. Now we find that in 1170
King William the Lion grants the lands of Brass, now Birse, in Deeside,
to the bishops of Aberdeen, ‘his thaynes being however excepted,’ that
is, retaining their lands as thanes. In 1226 King Alexander the Second
grants to the bishop of Moray the lands of Rathmorcus or Rothymurchus to
be held in free forest; and in 1241 to the bishop of Aberdeen the right
to hold his lands of Brass or Birse in free forest.[491] These grants in
free forest would exclude the thanes of their lands, but we find in 1382
a precept by King Robert the Second directed to his son Alexander
Stewart, Lord of Badenoch, requiring him to restrain Farchard MacToschy
and his adherents from disturbing the bishop of Aberdeen and his tenants
in the lands of Brass, and to oblige him to prosecute his claim by form
of law.[492] This Farchard appears in the genealogy of the old
MacIntoshes at the time, and the Lord of Badenoch must have been
regarded as his overlord. The tradition of the MacIntoshes is that
Rothiemurchus was their earliest possession, and when Alexander
MacIntosh obtains a feudal right to the lands in 1464 he is termed thane
of Rothymurchus.[493] It seems probable that the name was derived from
the thanes of Brass, who may also have been thanes of Rothiemurchus, and
from whom the old MacIntoshes were descended. In their genealogy the
name of _Gillemichael_, or the servant of St. Michael, appears in place
of the spurious Angus, the supposititious husband of Eva, and St.
Michael was the patron saint of the parish of Birse.[494] As possessors
of Rothiemurchus they are brought into immediate contact with that
branch of the old Clan Chattan whose principal seat was Dalnavert, and
no doubt were, as indicated in the older genealogies, a branch of that
clan. The representatives of these older MacIntoshes were, beyond doubt,
the Shaws of Rothiemurchus and the Farquharsons of Strathdee, who
extended from Badenoch as far as Birse, and whose head in 1464 was
Alexander Keir MacIntosh.
The resemblance of the name of Campbell in its more modern form to De
Campobello no doubt led to the supposed descent of the Campbells from a
Norman family of that name, but in order to produce a close resemblance
the Norman name has been inverted. Its real form was not De Campobello,
but De Bello Campo, and in Norman French Beauchamp. The resemblance is
still further lost in the older form of the name of the clan, which was
Cambell. The first of the race who appears on record with that
designation is Gillespie Cambell, who is mentioned in 1263 as having
received a grant of the lands of Mestreth and Salewhop, that is, Menstry
and Sawchop, from King Alexander the Third.[495] In one of the Irish
genealogies his father Dubhgal, son of Duncan, who is termed M‘Duine in
the charter of David II., appears as ‘Dubhgal Cambel _a quo_’, that is,
from whom the clan is named, and there seems little doubt that it was a
personal epithet analogous to that of Cameron, and that from him the
family formerly called MacDuibhne took his later name. His son was
Cailin Mor, and from him the head of the family bears the name of
MacCailin Mor, commonly corrupted to MacCallum Mor.
A foreign descent has likewise been attributed to the old earls of
Lennox, from whom the Clanpharlan and other Highland families were
undoubtedly descended, and it has been supposed that Alwyn MacArchill,
an Angle of Northumbria, was father of the first earl of Lennox. The
first known earl of Lennox undoubtedly bore the name of Alwyn, who had a
son Alwyn, second earl, father of Maelduin, and it is equally certain
that an Alwyn MacArchill repeatedly appears as witnessing charters of
David the First. This latter Alwyn first appears in the Lennox pedigree
in Crawford’s Peerage, published in 1716, where he is identified with
the first Alwyn. The next step in the process was to connect Arkill, the
father of Alwyn, with a certain Archillus, son of Aykfrith, a Saxon, who
had large estates in Northumbria, and fled to Scotland in 1070 to evade
the vengeance of William the Conqueror, and thus a Saxon origin is
assigned to the earls of Lennox. There is nothing, however, to support
this theory except the resemblance of names. Alwyn MacArchill never
appears bearing the title of Comes or Earl, and while he flourished
during the reign of David the First, and never appears after the year
1155, the first mention of Alwyn, earl of Lennox, cannot be placed
earlier than the year 1193, and between these dates we find David, earl
of Huntingdon, the brother of Malcolm the Fourth and William the Lion,
in possession of the earldom. There is therefore absolutely no authority
for this descent, and it was certainly unknown prior to the eighteenth
century.[496] On the other hand, Muredach Albanach, who was contemporary
with Alwyn, earl of Lennox, gives him a Celtic father Muredach, and thus
supports the old Irish pedigree, which makes him son of Muredach, son of
Maeldobhen, a descent antecedently probable, as this name of Maldoven or
Maeldouen occurs among the later earls, while the Annals of Ulster
record that in 1216 ‘Trad O’Mailfabhail, chief of Cinel Fergusa, with
his brothers and many others, was slain by Muireadhach, son of the
_Mormaer_ of Lennox,’ and the Celtic title of _Mormaer_ could hardly be
borne by a Saxon earl. This Maeldouen, the grandfather of Alwyn, first
earl, and the true ancestor of the race, must have lived in the early
part of the twelfth century, and is thus contemporary with Meldoinneth,
the son of Machedach, the ‘judex bonus and discretus,’ who, with
Constantine earl of Fife, and Dufgal son of Mocche, _qui fuit senex_,
joined in perambulating the lands of Kyrknesse; and as the latter
appears in the old Irish genealogy of the Macleans as the grandfather of
a lay abbot of Lismore and the ancestor of a Celtic clan, so in
Meldoinneth, son of Machedach, we may possibly recognise the
Maldobhnaigh, the grandfather of Alwyn, and the ancestor of the Gaelic
Lords of the Lennox.
The group of clans which sprang from the Lords of the Isles had their
origin within the historic period, and their pedigree is too well
authenticated to render a spurious version of it possible; while as the
lands they held of the Lords of the Isles were in the main confirmed
after the forfeiture of the last lord by the Crown, they were left
without any great motive to do so; but two other clans, who were in
reality not connected with them, seem to have thought it for their
interest to claim likewise a descent from the Lords of the Isles, and
both were connected with the earldom of Athole. These were the _Clan
Donnachie_ or Robertsons of Strowan, and the MacNabs of Glendochart. The
former clan simply exchanged Andrew de Atholia, the undoubted father of
Duncan de Atholia, the _eponymus_ of the clan, for Angus of the Isles,
but as Duncan is repeatedly designated in charters and other documents
the son of Andrew de Atholia, the supposed connection with the Lords of
the Isles is untenable. The MacNabs are stated by Buchanan of Auchmar to
be descended of a son of the first abbot of Inchaffray, whose surname
was M‘Donald, in the beginning of the reign of Alexander the Second.
Inchaffray, however, was founded in the reign of William the Lion, and
the first abbot was Malis, a pastor and hermit, and the second was
Innocent, who had been prior, and neither could have been connected with
the Macdonalds. The name MacNab certainly means the son of the abbot,
but we must look elsewhere for the monastery of which he must have been
the lay abbot. In the seventh century St. Fillan founded a monastery in
Glendochart, the upper part of which took its name of Strathfillan from
him, and in the reign of King William we find the abbot of Glendochart
ranking along with the earls of Atholl and of Menteath.[497] As the
property possessed by the MacNabs lay in Glendochart, and we find the
name of _Gillafaelan_, or servant of St. Fillan, occurring in their
oldest genealogy, we may certainly recognise in them the descendants of
the lay abbots of Glendochart. To the same class we may probably add the
Clan Gregor. Besides the genealogy of this clan contained in the Irish
MSS., Dean Macgregor furnishes us with one which may probably be viewed
as the native tradition. In it Gregor, the _eponymus_ of the clan, has a
different ancestry, and his pedigree is taken up to a certain _Aoidh
Urchaidh_, or Hugh of Glenurchay, which, as Glenurchay was an old
possession of the MacGregors, may be viewed as the native tradition and
more probable descent. The usual calculation would place him in the end
of the twelfth century, but the Dean connects him at once with Kenneth
MacAlpin in the ninth century,[498] and thus the supposed royal descent
of the MacGregors must be relegated to the same category with the
descent of the other clans from the kings of Dalriada. The son of this
Aodh bore, however, the name of _Gillafaelan_, or servant of St. Fillan,
and as the MacGregors likewise possessed property in Glendochart, they
were more probably connected with the MacNabs. The MacKinnons too were
closely connected with the abbacy of Iona, and repeatedly furnished
abbots to that monastery. The traditional connection between these three
clans—the MacNabs, the MacGregors, and the MacKinnons—is further
evidenced by two bonds of friendship—one in 1606 between the MacKinnons
and the MacNabs, in which, as being come of one house and being of one
surname, Finlay MacNab of Bowane acknowledges Lauchlan MacKinnon of
Strathardel ‘as ane kynd chieff and of ane house;’ the other somewhat
later between Lachlan MacKinnon of Strathardill and James MacGregor of
MacGregor, in which they are said to be ‘descended lawfully frae twa
brethren of auld descent.’[499] The Clan Lawren we have seen were also
descended from an abbot. The Clan _Mhic Duibhside_ or Macduffys may have
derived their name from _Duibhside_ who appears in the Annals of Ulster
in 1164 as _Ferleighinn_ or lector of Iona, and Diarmada, the
grandfather of Gillachattan, the _eponymus_ of the Clan Chattan, is said
in the old Irish genealogy to have been called the _Ferleighinn_ or
lector. Tradition attaches to Gillachattan the epithet of _Clerech_ or
Cleric, and he and his descendants the Clan Vuireach are said to have
been hereditary lay parsons of Kingussie, one of whom, Duncan the son of
Kenneth, appears in 1438 as Duncan parson. From him the chief of the
Clan Vuireach takes his name of Macpherson. The earls of Ross too
descend from the lay priests of Applecross.
[Sidenote: Result of analysis of pedigrees.]
The conclusion, then, to which this analysis of the clan pedigrees which
have been popularly accepted at different times has brought us, is, that
so far as they profess to show the origin of the different clans, they
are entirely artificial and untrustworthy, but that the older
genealogies may be accepted as showing the descent of the clan from its
eponymus or founder, and within reasonable limits for some generations
beyond him, while the later spurious pedigrees must be rejected
altogether. It may seem surprising that such spurious pedigrees and
fabulous origins should be so readily credited by the Clan families as
genuine traditions, and receive such prompt acceptance as the true fount
from which they sprung; but we must recollect that the fabulous history
of Hector Boece was as rapidly and universally adopted as the genuine
annals of the national history, and became rooted in those parts of the
country to which its fictitious events related as local traditions. When
Hector Boece invested the obscure usurper Grig with the name and
attributes of a fictitious king, Gregory the Great, and connected him
with the royal line of kings, the Clan Gregor at once recognised him as
their eponymus ancestor, and their descent from him is now implicitly
believed in by all the MacGregors. It is possible, however, from these
genealogies, and from other indications, to distribute the clans in
certain groups, as having apparently a closer connection with each
other, and these groups we hold in the main to represent the great
tribes into which the Gaelic population was divided before they became
broken up into clans. The two great tribes which possessed the greater
part of the Highlands were the _Gallgaidheal_ or Gael in the west, who
had been under the power of the Norwegians, and the great tribe of the
Moravians, or Men of Moray, in the Central and Eastern Highlands. To the
former belong all the clans descended of the Lords of the Isles, the
Campbells and Macleods probably representing the older inhabitants of
their respective districts; to the latter belong in the main the clans
brought in the old Irish genealogies from the kings of Dalriada of the
tribe of Lorn, among whom the old _Mormaers_ of Moray appear. The group
containing the Clan Andres or old Rosses, the Mackenzies and Mathesons,
belong to the tribe of Ross, the Clan Donnachy to Athole, the Clan
Lawren to Stratherne, and the Clan Pharlane to Lennox, while the group
containing the MacNabs, Clan Gregor, and MacKinnons, appear to have
emerged from Glendochart, at least to be connected with the old Columban
monasteries.[500] The Clans, properly so called, were thus of native
origin; the surnames partly of native and partly of foreign descent.
[Sidenote: Termination of Clanship in the Highlands.]
It is not much more than a century and a half since the Highland clans
combined, in the eighteenth century, to alter the dynasty of Great
Britain, and shook the stability of the throne, and since the President
of the Supreme Court laid before Government a memorial giving a detailed
statement of their names, their military strength, and the names of
their chiefs; and not much more than a hundred years later, the same
Court has been called upon to answer the question, What is a clan? and
to determine whether the word has any legal significance whatever in the
social organisation of the Highlands. In 1632, James, earl of Moray, let
the lands of Faillie and others to Donald MacGillephadrich, head of the
sept of Clan Bean, one of the sixteen tribes which made up the Clan
Chattan, for his lifetime and the lifetime of the two next heirs-male,
and for three periods of nineteen years to his heirs-male and assignees
of the Clan Chattan, and this tack was confirmed to his son Donald
MacBean. In 1771 the earl of Moray grants a feu-right of these lands to
Donald MacBean, and his heirs-male and assignees whatsoever of the said
Clan of Clan Chattan, and in the same year Donald MacBean sells the
lands to Captain William Macgillivray, the head of another of the
sixteen clans, and to his heirs and assignees of the Clan Chattan. His
son, the last of the direct line of the Macgillivrays of Dunmaglass,
died in 1852, and the question arose whether his heirs-at-law, who were
not of the clan, could succeed. In order to determine this question, the
collateral heir-male, John Macgillivray of Dunmaglass, raised an action
in the Supreme Court to have it declared that no person was entitled to
succeed to the late John Lachlan Macgillivray of Dunmaglass, who was not
a member of the Clan Chattan, but the Court held that clanship of Clan
Chattan, as a condition of heirship and a limitation of the succession
of heirs, could not be recognised or enforced by law. The Court thus
defined the modern position of a clan:—
‘The lapse of time and the progress of civilisation, with the
attendant influences of settled government, regular authority, and the
supremacy of law, have entirely obliterated the peculiar features, and
destroyed the essential qualities and character of Scottish clanship;
but whether they are viewed as they once were, or as they now are, a
Court of law is equally precluded from recognising clans as existing
institutions or societies with legal status, the membership of which
can be inquired into or acknowledged for ascertaining the character of
heirs called to succession.
‘The inquiry which the pursuer’s averments would here demand must be
attended with extreme practical difficulty; but the recognition of a
clan as an institution or society known to law, so that membership
thereof shall be a quality of heirship and a condition of succession,
is open to serious objection in point of principle.
‘In an earlier age, when feudal authority and irresponsible power were
stronger than the law, and formidable to the Crown, clans and chiefs,
with military character, feudal subordination, and internal arbitrary
dominion, were allowed to sustain a tolerated, but not a legally
recognised or sanctioned existence.
‘In more recent times clans are indeed mentioned, or recognised as
existing, in several Acts of Parliament. But it is thought that they
are not mentioned or recognised as institutions or societies having
legal status, legal rights, or legal vocation or functions, but rather
as associations of a lawless, arbitrary, turbulent, and dangerous
character.
‘But nothing now remains either of the feudal power and independent
dominion which procured sufferance in one age, or of the lawless and
dangerous turbulence which required suppression in another. When all
military character, all feudal subordination, all heritable
jurisdiction, all independent authority of chiefs, are extracted from
what used to be called a clan, nothing remains of its essential and
peculiar features. Clans are no longer what they were. The purposes
for which they once existed, as tolerated but not as sanctioned
societies, are not now lawful. To all practical purposes they cannot
legally act, and they do not legally exist. The law knows them not.
For peaceful pageantry, social enjoyment, and family traditions,
mention may still be made of clans and chiefs of clans; but the
Highlands of Scotland, no longer oppressed by arbitrary sway, or
distracted by feudal contentions, are now inhabited by loyal, orderly,
and peaceful subjects of the Crown of Great Britain; and clans are not
now corporations which law sustains, nor societies which law
recognises or acknowledges.’
Such being the view of the Supreme Court of the country as to the modern
position of the clan, it remains for us to inquire how far any of the
features of the ancient tribal land tenure are still preserved in the
Highlands and Islands of Scotland.