Chapter VIII (2)

William Gunn, the eighth MacKeamish, an officer in the army, was killed in battle in India, without leaving issue, when the chiefship devolved on Hector, great-grandson of George, second son of Alexander, the fifth MacKeamish, to whom he was served nearest male heir, on the 31st May 1803, and George Gunn, Esq. of Rhives, county of Sutherland, his only son, became, on his death, chief of the clan Gunn, and the tenth MacKeamish.

MACLAURIN.

MACLAURIN, more commonly spelled Maclaren, is the name of a small clan belonging to Perthshire, and called in Gaelic the _clann_ Labhrin. The name is said to have been derived from the district of Lorn, in Argyleshire, the Gaelic orthography of which is Lubhrin. The Maclaurins bear the word _Dalriada_, as a motto above their coat of arms.

MACLAURIN OR MACLAREN.

From Argyleshire the tribe of Laurin moved into Perthshire, having, it is said, acquired from Kenneth Macalpin, after his conquest of the Picts in the 9th century, the districts of Balquhidder and Strathearn, and three brothers are mentioned as having got assigned to them in that territory the lands of Bruach, Auchleskin, and Stank. In the churchyard of Balquhidder, celebrated as containing the grave of Rob Roy, the burial places of their different families are marked off separately, so as to correspond with the situation which these estates bear to each other, a circumstance which so far favours the tradition regarding them.

When the earldom of Strathearn became vested in the crown in 1370, the Maclaurins were reduced from the condition of proprietors to that of “kyndly” or perpetual tenants, which they continued to be till 1508, when it was deemed expedient that this Celtic holding should be changed, and the lands set in feu, “for increase of policie and augmentation of the king’s rental.”

About 1497, some of the clan Laurin having carried off the cattle from the Braes of Lochaber, the Macdonalds followed the spoilers, and, overtaking them in Glenurchy, after a sharp fight, recovered the “lifting.” The Maclaurins straightway sought the assistance of their kinsman, Dugal Stewart of Appin, who at once joined them with his followers, and a conflict took place, when both Dugal and Macdonald of Keppoch, the chiefs of their respective clans, were among the slain. This Dugal was the first of the Stewarts of Appin. He was an illegitimate son of John Stewart, third Lord of Lorn, by a lady of the clan Laurin, and in 1469 when he attempted, by force of arms, to obtain possession of his father’s lands, he was assisted by the Maclaurins, 130 of whom fell in a battle that took place at the foot of Bendoran, a mountain in Glenurchy.

The clan Laurin were the strongest sept in Balquhidder, which was called “the country of the Maclaurins.” Although there are few families of the name there now, so numerous were they at one period that none dared enter the church until the Maclaurins had taken their seats. This invidious right claimed by them often led to unseemly brawls and fights at the church door, and lives were sometimes lost in consequence. In 1532, Sir John Maclaurin, vicar of Balquhidder, was killed in one of these quarrels, and several of his kinsmen, implicated in the deed, were outlawed.

A deadly feud existed between the Maclaurins and their neighbours, the Macgregors of Rob Roy’s tribe. In the 16th century, the latter slaughtered no fewer than eighteen householders of the Maclaurin name, with the whole of their families, and took possession of the farms which had belonged to them. The deed was not investigated till 1604, forty-six years afterwards, when it was thus described in their trial for the slaughter of the Colquhouns: “And siclyk, John M’Coull cheire, ffor airt and pairt of the crewall murthour and burning of auchtene houshalders of the clan Lawren, thair wyves and bairns, committit fourtie sax zeir syne, or thairby.” The verdict was that he was “clene, innocent, and acquit of the said crymes.”[236] The hill farm of Invernenty, on “The Braes of Balquhidder,” was one of the farms thus forcibly occupied by the Macgregors, although the property of a Maclaurin family, and in the days of Rob Roy, two centuries afterwards, the aid of Stewart of Appin was called in to replace the Maclaurins in their own, which he did at the head of 200 of his men. All these farms, however, are now the property of the chief of clan Gregor, having been purchased about 1798 from the commissioners of the forfeited estates.

The Maclaurins were out in the rebellion of 1745. According to President Forbes, they were followers of the Murrays of Athole, but although some of them might have been so, the majority of the clan fought for the Pretender with the Stewarts of Appin under Stewart of Ardsheil.

The chiefship was claimed by the family to which belonged Colin Maclaurin, the eminent mathematician and philosopher, and his son, John Maclaurin, Lord Dreghorn. In the application given in for the latter to the Lyon Court, he proved his descent from a family which had long been in possession of the island of Tiree, one of the Argyleshire Hebrides.

MACRAE.

MACRAE (MACRA or MACRATH)[237] is the name of a Ross-shire clan at one time very numerous on the shores of Kintail, but now widely scattered through Scotland and the colonies, more especially Canada. The oldest form of the name “M’Rath” signifies “son-of-good-luck.” The clan is generally considered to be of pure Gaelic stock, although its earliest traditions point to an Irish origin. They are said to have come over with Colin Fitzgerald, the founder of the clan Mackenzie, of whose family they continued through their whole history the warm friends and adherents, so much so that they were jocularly called “Seaforth’s shirt,” and under his leadership they fought at the battle of Largs, in 1263. They settled first in the Aird of Lovat, but subsequently emigrated into Glenshiel, in the district of Kintail. At the battle of Auldearn, in May 1645, the Macraes fought under the “Caber-Fey,” on the side of Montrose, where they lost a great number of men. The chief of the Macraes is Macrae of Inverinate, in Kintail, whose family since about the year 1520 held the honourable post of constables of Islandonan. A MS. genealogical account of the clans, written by the Rev. John Macrae, minister of Dingwall, who died in 1704, was formerly in possession of Lieut.-Col. Sir John Macrae of Ardintoul, and is now possessed by the present head of the Inverinate family, Colin Macrae, Esq., W.S., who has also a copy of a treaty of friendship between the Campbells of Craignish and the Macraes of Kintail, dated 1702. This history contains many interesting stories, descriptive of the great size, strength, and courage for which the clan was remarkable. One Duncan Mòr, a man of immense strength, contributed largely to the defeat of the Macdonalds at the battle of Park, in 1464, and it was said of him that, though engaged in many conflicts and always victorious, he never came off without a wound; and another Duncan, who lived in the beginning of the 18th century, was possessed of so great strength that he is said to have carried for some distance a stone of huge size, and laid it down on the farm of Auchnangart, where it is still to be seen. He was the author of several poetical pieces, and was killed with many of his clan at Sheriffmuir, in 1715, his two brothers falling at his side. His sword, long preserved in the Tower of London, was shown as “the great Highlander’s sword.”

Both males and females of the Macraes are said to have evinced a strong taste, not only for severe literary studies, but for the gentler arts of poetry and music. From the beginning of the 15th century, one of the Inverinate family always held the office of vicar of Kintail; and John, the first vicar, was much revered for his learning, which he acquired with the monks of Beauly. Farquhar Macrae, born 1580, who entered the church, is said to have been a great Latin scholar. It is told of this Farquhar, that on his first visit to the island of Lewes, he had to baptize the whole population under forty years of age, no minister being resident on the island.

* * * * *

We shall here give a short account of the Buchanans and Colquhouns, because, as Smibert says of the latter, they have ever been placed among the clans practically, although the neighbouring Lowlanders gave to them early Saxon names. It is probable that primitively they were both of Gaelic origin.

BUCHANAN.

The BUCHANANS belong to a numerous clan in Stirlingshire, and the country on the north side of Loch Lomond. The reputed founder of the clan was Anselan, son of O’Kyan, king of Ulster, in Ireland, who is said to have been compelled to leave his native country by the incursions of the Danes, and take refuge in Scotland. He landed, with some attendants, on the northern coast of Argyleshire, near the Lennox, about the year 1016, and having, according to the family tradition, in all such cases made and provided, lent his assistance to King Malcolm the Second in repelling his old enemies the Danes, on two different occasions of their arrival in Scotland, he received from that king for his services a grant of land in the north of Scotland. The improbable character of this genealogy is manifested by its farther stating that the aforesaid Anselan married the heiress of the lands of Buchanan, a lady named Dennistoun; for the Dennistouns deriving their name from lands given to a family of the name of Danziel, who came into Scotland with Alan, the father of the founder of the Abbey of Paisley, and the first _dapifer_, seneschal, or steward of Scotland, no heiress of that name could have been in Scotland until long after the period here referred to. It is more probable that a portion of what afterwards became the estate of Buchanan formed a part of some royal grant as being connected with the estates of the Earls of Lennox, whom Skene and Napier have established to have been remotely connected with the royal family of the Canmore line, and to have been in the first instance administrators, on the part of the crown, of the lands which were afterwards bestowed upon them.

The name of Buchanan is territorial, and is now that of a parish in Stirlingshire, which was anciently called Inchcaileoch (“old woman’s island”), from an island of that name in Loch Lomond, on which in earlier ages there was a nunnery, and latterly the parish church for a century after the Reformation. In 1621 a detached part of the parish of Luss, which comprehends the lands of the family of Buchanan, was included in this parish, when the chapel of Buchanan was used for the only place of worship, and gave the name to the whole parish.

Anselan (in the family genealogies styled the third of that name) the seventh laird of Buchanan, and the sixth in descent from the above-named Irish prince, but not unlikely to be the first of the name, which is Norman French, is dignified in the same records with the magniloquent appellation of seneschal or chamberlain to Malcolm the first Earl of Levenax (as Lennox was then called). In 1225, this Anselan obtained from the same earl a charter of a small island in Loch Lomond called Clareinch--witnesses Dougal, Gilchrist, and Amalyn, the earl’s three brothers--the name of which island afterwards became the rallying cry of the Buchanans. He had three sons, viz., Methlen, said by Buchanan of Auchmar to have been ancestor of the MacMillans; Colman, ancestor of the MacColmans; and his successor Gilbert.

His eldest son, Gilbert, or Gillebrid, appears to have borne the surname of Buchanan.

Sir Maurice Buchanan, grandson of Gilbert, and son of a chief of the same name, received from Donald, Earl of Lennox, a charter of the lands of Sallochy, with confirmation of the upper part of the carrucate of Buchanan. Sir Maurice also obtained a charter of confirmation of the lands of Buchanan from King David II. in the beginning of his reign.

Sir Maurice de Buchanan the second, above mentioned, married a daughter of Menteith of Rusky, and had a son, Walter de Buchanan, who had a charter of confirmation of some of his lands of Buchanan from Robert the Second, in which he is designed the king’s “consanguineus,” or cousin. His eldest son, John, married Janet, daughter and sole heiress of John Buchanan of Leny, fourth in descent from Allan already noticed. John, who died before his father, had three sons, viz., Sir Alexander, Walter, and John, who inherited the lands of Leny, and carried on that family.

Sir Alexander died unmarried, and the second son, Sir Walter, succeeded to the estate of Buchanan.

This Sir Walter de Buchanan married Isabel, daughter of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, governor of Scotland, by Isabel, countess of Lennox, in her own right. With a daughter, married to Gray of Foulis, ancestor of Lord Gray, he had three sons, viz., Patrick, his successor; Maurice, treasurer to the Princess Margaret, the daughter of King James I., and Dauphiness of France, with whom he left Scotland; and Thomas, founder of the Buchanans of Carbeth.

The eldest son, Patrick, acquired a part of Strathyre in 1455, and had a charter under the great seal of his estate of Buchanan, dated in 1460. He had two sons and a daughter, Anabella, married to her cousin, James Stewart of Baldorrans, grandson of Murdoch, Duke of Albany. Their younger son, Thomas Buchanan, was, in 1482, founder of the house of Drumakill, whence, in the third generation, came the celebrated George Buchanan. Patrick’s elder son, Walter Buchanan of that ilk, married a daughter of Lord Graham, and by her had two sons, Patrick and John, and two daughters, one of them married to the laird of Lamond, and the other to the laird of Ardkinglass.

John Buchanan, the younger son, succeeded by testament to Menzies of Arnprior, and was the facetious “King of Kippen,” and faithful ally of James V. The way in which the laird of Arnprior got the name of “King of Kippen” is thus related by a tradition which Sir Walter Scott has introduced into his _Tales of a Grandfather_:--“When James the Fifth travelled in disguise, he used a name which was known only to some of his principal nobility and attendants. He was called the Goodman (the tenant, that is) of Ballengeich. Ballengeich is a steep pass which leads down behind the castle of Stirling. Once upon a time when the court was feasting in Stirling, the king sent for some venison from the neighbouring hills. The deer was killed and put on horses’ backs to be transported to Stirling. Unluckily they had to pass the castle gates of Arnprior, belonging to a chief of the Buchanans, who chanced to have a considerable number of guests with him. It was late, and the company were rather short of victuals, though they had more than enough of liquor. The chief, seeing so much fat venison passing his very door, seized on it, and to the expostulations of the keepers, who told him it belonged to King James, he answered insolently, that if James was king in Scotland, he (Buchanan) was king in Kippen; being the name of the district in which Arnprior lay. On hearing what had happened, the king got on horseback, and rode instantly from Stirling to Buchanan’s house, where he found a strong fierce-looking Highlander, with an axe on his shoulder, standing sentinel at the door. This grim warder refused the king admittance, saying that the laird of Arnprior was at dinner, and would not be disturbed. ‘Yet go up to the company, my good friend,’ said the king, ‘and tell him that the Goodman of Ballengeich is come to feast with the King of Kippen.’ The porter went grumbling into the house, and told his master that there was a fellow with a red beard at the gate, who called himself the Goodman of Ballengeich, who said he was come to dine with the King of Kippen. As soon as Buchanan heard these words, he knew that the king was come in person, and hastened down to kneel at James’s feet, and to ask forgiveness for his insolent behaviour. But the king, who only meant to give him a fright, forgave him freely, and, going into the castle, feasted on his own venison which Buchanan had intercepted. Buchanan of Arnprior was ever afterwards called the King of Kippen.”[238] He was killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547.

The elder son, Patrick, who fell on Flodden field, during his father’s lifetime, had married a daughter of the Earl of Argyll. She bore to him two sons and two daughters. The younger son, Walter, in 1519, conveyed to his son Walter the lands of Spittal, and was thus the founder of that house. On the 14th December of that year, he had a charter from his father of the temple-lands of Easter-Catter.

The elder son, George Buchanan of that ilk, succeeded his grandfather, and was sheriff of Dumbartonshire at the critical epoch of 1561. By Margaret, daughter of Edmonstone of Duntreath, he had a son, John, who died before his father, leaving a son. By a second lady, Janet, daughter of Cunninghame of Craigans, he had William, founder of the now extinct house of Auchmar.

John Buchanan, above mentioned as dying before his father, George Buchanan of that ilk, was twice married, first to the Lord Livingston’s daughter, by whom he had one son, George, who succeeded his grandfather. The son, Sir George Buchanan, married Mary Graham, daughter of the Earl of Monteith, and had, with two daughters, a son, Sir John Buchanan of that ilk. Sir John married Anabella Erskine, daughter of Adam, commendator of Cambuskenneth, a son of the Master of Mar. He had a son, George, his successor, and a daughter married to Campbell of Rahein.

Sir George Buchanan the son married Elizabeth Preston, daughter of the laird of Craigmillar. Sir George was taken prisoner at Inverkeithing, in which state he died in the end of 1651, leaving, with three daughters, one son, John, the last laird of Buchanan, who was twice married, but had no male issue. By his second wife, Jean Pringle, daughter of Mr Andrew Pringle, a minister, he had a daughter Janet, married to Henry Buchanan of Leny. John, the last laird, died in December 1682. His estate was sold by his creditors, and purchased by the ancestor of the Duke of Montrose.

The barons or lairds of Buchanan built a castle in Stirlingshire, where the present Buchanan house stands, formerly called the Peel of Buchanan. Part of it exists, forming the charter-room. A more modern house was built by these chiefs, adjoining the east side. This mansion came into the possession of the first Duke of Montrose, who made several additions to it, as did also subsequent dukes, and it is now the chief seat of that ducal family in Scotland.

The principal line of the Buchanans becoming, as above shown, extinct in 1682, the representation of the family devolved on Buchanan of AUCHMAR. This line became, in its turn, extinct in 1816, and, in the absence of other competitors, the late Dr Francis Hamilton-Buchanan of Bardowie, Spittal, and Leny, as heir-male of Walter, first of the family of Spittal, established in 1826 his claims as chief of the clan.

The last lineal male descendant of the Buchanans of Leny was Henry Buchanan, about 1723, whose daughter and heiress, Catherine, married Thomas Buchanan of Spittal, an officer in the Dutch service, who took for his second wife, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of John Hamilton of Bardowie, the sole survivor of her family, and by her he had four sons and two daughters. Their eldest son John, born in 1758, succeeded to the estate of Bardowie, and assumed the additional name of Hamilton, but dying without male issue, was succeeded by his brother, the above named Dr Francis Hamilton-Buchanan.

There were at one time so many heritors of the name of Buchanan, that it is said the laird of Buchanan could, in a summer’s day, call fifty heritors of his own surname to his house, upon any occasion, and all of them might with convenience return to their respective residences before night, the most distant of their homes not being above ten miles from Buchanan Castle.

COLQUHOUN.

The territory of the COLQUHOUNS is in Dumbartonshire, and the principal families of the name are Colquhoun of Colquhoun and Luss, the chief of the clan, a baronet of Scotland and Nova Scotia, created in 1704, and of Great Britain in 1786; Colquhoun of Killermont and Garscadden; Colquhoun of Ardenconnel; and Colquhoun of Glenmillan. There was likewise Colquhoun of Tilliquhoun, a baronet of Scotland and Nova Scotia (1625), but this family is extinct.

The origin of the name is territorial. One tradition deduces the descent of the first possessor from a younger son of the old Earls of Lennox, because of the similarity of their armorial bearings. It is certain that they were anciently vassals of that potent house.

The immediate ancestor of the family of Luss was Humphry de Kilpatrick, who, in the reign of Alexander II., not later than 1246, obtained from Malcolm, Earl of Lennox, a grant of the lands and barony of Colquhoun, in the parish of Old or West Kilpatrick, _pro servitio unius militis_, &c., and in consequence assumed the name of Colquhoun, instead of his own.

His grandson, Ingelram, third Colquhoun, lived in the reign of Alexander III.

His son, Humphry de Colquhoun, is witness in a charter of Malcolm, fifth Earl of Lennox, in favour of Sir John de Luss,[239] between the years 1292-1333. The following remarkable reference to the construction of a house _ad opus Culquhanorum_, by order of King Robert Bruce, is extracted from the _Compotum Constabularii de Cardross_, vol. i., in the accounts of the Great Chamberlains of Scotland, under date 30th July 1329, as quoted by Mr Tytler in the appendix to the second volume of his History of Scotland: “Item, in construccione cujusdam domus ad opus _Culquhanorum_ Domini Regis ibidem, 10 solidi.” Mr Tytler in a note says that _Culquhanorum_ is “an obscure word, which occurs nowhere else--conjectured by a learned friend to be ‘keepers of the dogs,’ from the Gaelic root _Gillen-au-con_--abbreviated, _Gillecon_, Culquhoun.”

Sir Robert de Colquhoun, supposed by Mr Fraser, the family historian, to be fifth in descent from the first Humphry, and son of a Humphry, the fourth of Colquhoun, in the reign of David Bruce, married in or previous to the year 1368 the daughter and sole heiress (known in the family tradition as “The Fair Maid of Luss,”) of Godfrey de Luss, lord of Luss, head or chief of an ancient family of that name, and the sixth in a direct male line from Malduin, dean of Lennox, who, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, received from Alwyn, second Earl of Lennox, a charter of the lands of Luss. The Luss territories lie in the mountainous but beautiful and picturesque district on the margin of Loch Lomond. Sir Robert was designed “dominus de Colquhoun and de Luss,” in a charter dated in 1368; since which time the family have borne the designation of Colquhoun of Colquhoun and Luss. He is also witness in a charter of the lands of Auchmar by Walter of Faslane, Lord of Lennox, to Walter de Buchanan in 1373. He had four sons, namely--Sir Humphry, his heir; Robert, first of the family of Camstraddan, from whom several other families of the name of Colquhoun in Dumbartonshire are descended; Robert mentioned in the Camstraddan charter as “frater junior;” and Patrick, who is mentioned in a charter from his brother Sir Humphry to his other brother Robert.

The eldest son, Sir Humphry, sixth of Colquhoun, and eighth of Luss, is a witness in three charters by Duncan, Earl of Lennox, in the years 1393, 1394, and 1395. He died in 1406, and left three sons and two daughters. Patrick, his youngest son, was ancestor of the Colquhouns of Glennis, from whom the Colquhouns of Barrowfield, Piemont, and others were descended. The second son, John, succeeded his eldest brother. The eldest son, Sir Robert, died in 1408, and was succeeded by his brother. Sir John Colquhoun was appointed governor of the castle of Dumbarton, by King James I., for his fidelity to that king during his imprisonment in England. From his activity in punishing the depredations of the Highlanders, who often committed great outrages in the low country of Dumbartonshire, he rendered himself obnoxious to them, and a plot was formed for his destruction. He received a civil message from some of their chiefs, desiring a friendly conference, in order to accommodate all their differences. Suspecting no treachery, he went out to meet them but slightly attended, and was immediately attacked by a numerous body of Islanders, under two noted robber-chiefs, Lachlan Maclean and Murdoch Gibson, and slain in Inchmurren, on Loch Lomond, in 1439. By his wife, Jean, daughter of Robert, Lord Erskine, he had a son, Malcolm, a youth of great promise. He died before his father, leaving a son, John, who succeeded his grandfather in 1439. This Sir John Colquhoun was one of the most distinguished men of his age in Scotland, and highly esteemed by King James III., from whom he got a charter in 1457 of the lands of Luss, Colquhoun, and Garscube, in Dumbartonshire, and of the lands of Glyn and Sauchie, in Stirlingshire, incorporating the whole into a free barony, to be called the Barony of Luss; and in the following year he obtained from the king a charter erecting into a free forest the lands of Rossdhu and Glenmachome. From 1465 to 1469 he held the high office of comptroller of the Exchequer, and was subsequently appointed sheriff principal of Dumbartonshire. In 1645 he got a grant of the lands of Kilmardinny, and in 1473 and in 1474, of Roseneath, Strone, &c. In 1474 he was appointed lord high chamberlain of Scotland, and immediately thereafter was nominated one of the ambassadors extraordinary to the Court of England, to negotiate a marriage between the Prince Royal of Scotland and the Princess Cicily, daughter of King Edward IV. By a royal charter dated 17th September 1477, he was constituted governor of the castle of Dumbarton for life. He was killed by a cannon-ball at the siege of Dumbarton Castle, probably in 1478. By his wife, daughter of Thomas, Lord Boyd, he had two sons and one daughter. His second son, Robert, was bred to the church, and was first rector of Kippen and Luss, and afterwards bishop of Argyle from 1473 to 1499. The daughter, Margaret, married Sir William Murray, seventh baron of Tullibardine (ancestor of the Dukes of Athole), and bore to him seventeen sons.

His eldest son, Sir Humphry Colquhoun, died in 1493, and was succeeded by his son, Sir John Colquhoun, who received the honour of knighthood from King James IV., and obtained a charter under the great seal of sundry lands and baronies in Dumbartonshire, dated 4th December 1506. On 11th July 1526 he and Patrick Colquhoun his son received a respite for assisting John, Earl of Lennox, in treasonably besieging, taking, and holding the castle of Dumbarton. He died before 16th August 1536. By his first wife, Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of John, Earl of Lennox, Sir John Colquhoun had four sons and four daughters; and by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of William Cunningham of Craigends, he had two sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Sir Humphry Colquhoun, married Lady Catherine Graham, daughter of William, first Earl of Montrose, and died in 1537. By her he had three sons and two daughters. His son James, designated of Garscube, ancestor of the Colquhouns of Garscube, Adam, and Patrick.[240] His eldest son, Sir John Colquhoun, married, first, Christian Erskine, daughter of Robert, Lord Erskine; and secondly, Agnes, daughter of the fourth Lord Boyd, ancestor of the Earls of Kilmarnock. He died in 1575.

His eldest son, Humphry, acquired the heritable coronership of the county of Dumbarton, from Robert Graham of Knockdollian, which was ratified and confirmed by a charter under the great seal in 1583.

In July 1592, some of the Macgregors and Macfarlanes came down upon the low country of Dumbartonshire, and committed vast ravages, especially upon the territory of the Colquhouns. At the head of his vassals, and accompanied by several of the gentlemen of the neighbourhood, Sir Humphry Colquhoun attacked the invaders, and after a bloody conflict, which was only put an end to at nightfall, he was overpowered by his assailants, and forced to retreat. To quote from Mr Fraser’s _Chiefs of the Colquhouns_--“He betook himself to the castle of Bannachra, a stronghold which had been erected by the Colquhouns at the foot of the north side of the hill of Bennibuie, in the parish of Luss. A party of the Macfarlanes and Macgregors pursued him, and laid siege to his castle. One of the servants who attended the knight was of the same surname as himself. He had been tampered with by the assailants of his master, and treacherously made him their victim. The servant, while conducting his master to his room up a winding stair of the castle, made him by preconcert a mark for the arrows of the clan who pursued him by throwing the glare of a paper torch upon his person when opposite a loophole. A winged arrow, darted from its string with a steady aim, pierced the unhappy knight to the heart, and he fell dead on the spot. The fatal loophole is still pointed out, but the stair, like its unfortunate lord, has crumbled into dust.” Sir Humphry married, first, Lady Jean Cunningham, daughter of Alexander, fifth Earl of Glencairn, widow of the Earl of Argyll, by whom he had no children, and secondly, Jean, daughter of John, Lord Hamilton, by whom he had a daughter. Having no male issue, he was succeeded by his younger brother, Alexander.

In Sir Alexander’s time occurred the raid of Glenfinlas, and the bloody clan conflict of Glenfruin, between the Colquhouns and Macgregors, in December 1602 and February 1603, regarding which the popular accounts are much at variance with the historical facts. The Colquhouns had taken part in the execution of the letters of fire and sword issued by the crown against the Macgregors some years before, and the feud between them had been greatly aggravated by various acts of violence and aggression on both sides.

In 1602, the Macgregors made a regular raid on the laird of Luss’s lands in Glenfinlas, and carried off a number of sheep and cattle, as well as slew several of the tenants. Alexander Colquhoun, who had before complained to the privy council against the Earl of Argyll for not repressing the clan Gregor, but who had failed in obtaining any redress, now adopted a tragic method in order to excite the sympathy of the king. He appeared before his majesty at Stirling, accompanied by a number of females, the relatives of those who had been killed or wounded at Glenfinlas, each carrying the bloody shirt of her killed or wounded relative, to implore his majesty to avenge the wrongs done them. The ruse had the desired effect upon the king, who, from a sensitiveness of constitutional temperament, which made him shudder even at the sight of blood, was extremely susceptible to impressions from scenes of this description, and he immediately granted a commission of lieutenancy to the laird of Luss, investing him with power to repress similar crimes, and to apprehend the perpetrators.

“This commission granted to their enemy appears to have roused the lawless rage of the Macgregors, who rose in strong force to defy the laird of Luss; and Glenfruin, with its disasters and sanguinary defeat of the Colquhouns, and its ultimate terrible consequences to the victorious clan themselves, was the result.”

In the beginning of the year 1603, Allaster Macgregor of Glenstrae, followed by four hundred men chiefly of his own clan, but including also some of the clans Cameron and Anverich, armed with “halberschois, powaixes, twa-handit swordis, bowis and arrowis, and with hagbutis and pistoletis,” advanced into the territory of Luss. Colquhoun, acting under his royal commission, had raised a force which has been stated by some writers as having amounted to 300 horse and 500 foot. This is probably an exaggeration, but even if it is not, the disasters which befell them may be explained from the trap into which they fell, and from the nature of the ground on which they encountered the enemy. This divested them of all the advantages which they might have derived from superiority of numbers and from their horse.

On the 7th February 1603, the Macgregors were in Glenfruin “in two divisions,” writes Mr Fraser--“One of them at the head of the glen, and the other in ambuscade near the farm of Strone, at a hollow or ravine called the Crate. The Colquhouns came into Glenfruin from the Luss side, which is opposite Strone--probably by Glen Luss and Glen Mackurn. Alexander Colquhoun pushed on his forces in order to get through the glen before encountering the Macgregors; but, aware of his approach, Allaster Macgregor also pushed forward one division of his forces and entered at the head of the glen in time to prevent his enemy from emerging from the upper end of the glen, whilst his brother, John Macgregor, with the division of his clan, which lay in ambuscade, by a detour, took the rear of the Colquhouns, which prevented their retreat down the glen without fighting their way through that section of the Macgregors who had got in their rear. The success of the stratagem by which the Colquhouns were thus placed between two fires seems to be the only way of accounting for the terrible slaughter of the Colquhouns and the much less loss of the Macgregors.

“The Colquhouns soon became unable to maintain their ground, and, falling into a moss at the farm of Auchingaich, they were thrown into disorder, and made a hasty and disorderly retreat, which proved even more disastrous than the conflict, for they had to force their way through the men led by John Macgregor, whilst they were pressed behind by Allaster, who, reuniting the two divisions of his army, continued the pursuit.”

All who fell into the hands of the victors were at once put to death, and the chief of the Colquhouns barely escaped with his life after his horse had been killed under him. One hundred and forty of the Colquhouns were slaughtered, and many more were wounded, among whom were several women and children. When the pursuit ended, the work of spoliation and devastation commenced. Large numbers of horses, cattle, sheep, and goats were carried off, and many of the houses and steadings of the tenantry were burned to the ground. Their triumph the Macgregors were not allowed long to enjoy. The government took instant and severe measures against them. A price was put upon the heads of seventy or eighty of them by name, and upon a number of their confederates of other clans:--“Before any judicial inquiry was made,” says Mr Fraser, “on 3d April 1603, only two days before James VI. left Scotland for England to take possession of the English throne, an Act of Privy Council was passed, by which the name of Gregor or Macgregor was for ever abolished. All of this surname were commanded, under the penalty of death, to change it for another; and the same penalty was denounced against those who should give food or shelter to any of the clan. All who had been at the conflict of Glenfruin, and at the spoliation and burning of the lands of the Laird of Luss, were prohibited, under the penalty of death, from carrying any weapon except a pointless knife to eat their meat.” Thirty-five of the clan Gregor were executed after trial between the 20th May 1603 and the 2d March 1604. Amongst these was Allaster Macgregor, who surrendered himself to the Earl of Argyll.

By his wife Helen, daughter of Sir George Buchanan of that ilk, Alexander had one son and five daughters. He died in 1617.

The eldest son, Sir John, in his father’s lifetime, got a charter under the great seal of the ten pound land of Dunnerbuck, dated 20th February 1602, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia by patent dated the last day of August 1625. He married Lady Lillias Graham, daughter of the fourth Earl of Montrose, brother of the great Marquis, by whom he had three sons and three daughters. His two eldest sons succeeded to the baronetcy. From Alexander, the third son, the Colquhouns of Tillyquhoun were descended. He died in 1647.

Sir John, the second baronet of Luss, married Margaret, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Gideon Baillie of Lochend, in the county of Haddington, and had two sons, and seven daughters. He adhered firmly to the royal cause during all the time of the civil wars, on which account he suffered many hardships, and, in 1654, was by Cromwell fined two thousand pounds sterling. He was succeeded in 1676 by his younger son, Sir James--the elder having predeceased him--third baronet of Luss, who held the estates only four years, and being a minor, unmarried, left no issue. He was succeeded in 1680 by his uncle, Sir James, who married Penuel, daughter of William Cunningham of Balleichan, in Ireland. He had, with one daughter, two sons, Sir Humphry, fifth baronet, and James. The former was a member of the last Scottish Parliament, and strenuously opposed and voted against every article of the treaty of union. By his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Patrick Houston of that ilk, baronet, he had an only daughter, Anne Colquhoun, his sole heiress, who, in 1702, married James Grant of Pluscardine, second son of Ludovick Grant of Grant, immediate younger brother of Brigadier Alexander Grant, heir apparent of the said Ludovick.

Having no male issue, Sir Humphry, with the design that his daughter and her husband should succeed him in his whole estate and honours, in 1704 resigned his baronetcy into the hands of her majesty Queen Anne, for a new patent to himself in liferent, and his son-in-law and his heirs therein named in fee, but with this express limitation that he and his heirs so succeeding to that estate and title should be obliged to bear the name and arms of Colquhoun of Luss, &c. It was also specially provided that the estates of Grant and Luss should not be conjoined.

Sir Humphry died in 1718, and was succeeded in his estate and honours by James Grant, his son-in-law, under the name and designation of Sir James Colquhoun of Luss. He enjoyed that estate and title till the death of his elder brother, Brigadier Alexander Grant, in 1719, when, succeeding to the estate of Grant, he relinquished the name and title of Colquhoun of Luss, and resumed his own, retaining the baronetcy, it being by the last patent vested in his person. He died in 1747.

By the said Anne, his wife, he had a numerous family. His eldest son, Humphry Colquhoun, subsequently Humphry Grant of Grant, died unmarried in 1732. The second son, Ludovick, became Sir Ludovick Grant of Grant, baronet, while the fourth son James succeeded as Sir James Colquhoun of Luss, the third son having died in infancy. He is the amiable and very polite gentleman described by Smollett in his novel of Humphry Clinker, under the name of “Sir George Colquhoun, a colonel in the Dutch service.” He married Lady Helen Sutherland, daughter of William Lord Strathnaver, son of the Earl of Sutherland, and by her he had three sons and five daughters. In 1777 he founded the town of Helensburgh on the frith of Clyde, and named it after his wife. To put an end to some disputes which had arisen with regard to the destination of the old patent of the Nova Scotia baronetcy, (John Colquhoun of Tillyquhoun, as the eldest cadet, having, on the death of his cousin-german, Sir Humphry Colquhoun, in 1718, assumed the title as heir male of his grandfather, the patentee), Sir James was, in 1786, created a baronet of Great Britain. His second youngest daughter, Margaret, married William Baillie, a lord of session, under the title of Lord Polkemmet, and was the mother of Sir William Baillie, baronet. Sir James died in November 1786.

His eldest son, Sir James Colquhoun, second baronet under the new patent, sheriff-depute of Dumbartonshire, was one of the principal clerks of session. By his wife, Mary, daughter and co-heir of James Falconer, Esq. of Monktown, he had seven sons and four daughters. He died in 1805. His eldest son, Sir James, third baronet, was for some time M.P. for Dumbartonshire. He married, on 13th June 1799, his cousin Janet, daughter of Sir John Sinclair, baronet, and had three sons and two daughters. Of this lady, who died October 21, 1846, and who was distinguished for her piety and benevolence, a memoir exists by the late Rev. James Hamilton, D.D., London.

“Some time after Sir James’ succession,” says Mr Fraser, to whose book on the Colquhouns we have been much indebted in this account, “significant testimony was given that the ancient feud between his family and that of the Macgregors, which had frequently led to such disastrous results to both, had given place to feelings of hearty goodwill and friendship. On an invitation from Sir James and Lady Colquhoun, Sir John Murray Macgregor and Lady Macgregor came on a visit to Rossdhu. The two baronets visited Glenfruin. They were accompanied by Lady Colquhoun and Misses Helen and Catherine Colquhoun. After the battlefield had been carefully inspected by the descendants of the combatants, Sir J. M. Macgregor insisted on shaking hands with Sir James Colquhoun and the whole party on the spot where it was supposed that the battle had been hottest. On the occasion of the same visit to Rossdhu, the party ascended Ben Lomond, which dominates so grandly over Loch Lomond. On the summit of this lofty mountain, Sir John M. Macgregor danced a Highland reel with Miss Catherine Colquhoun, afterwards Mrs Millar of Earnoch. Sir John was then fully eighty years of age.”

His eldest son, Sir James Colquhoun, the fourth baronet of the new creation, and the eighth of the old patent, succeeded on his father’s death, 3d Feb. 1836; chief of the Colquhouns of Luss; Lord-lieutenant of Dumbartonshire, and M.P. for that county from 1837 to 1841. He married in June 1843, Jane, daughter of Sir Robert Abercromby of Birkenbog. She died 3d May 1844, leaving one son, James, born in 1844.

The family mansion, Rossdhu, is situated on a beautiful peninsula. To the possessions of the family of Colquhoun was added in 1852 the estate of Ardincaple, purchased from the Duchess Dowager of Argyll. According to Mr Fraser, the three baronets of Luss, before Sir James, purchased up no less than fourteen lairdships.

Robert, a younger son of Sir Robert Colquhoun of that ilk, who married the heiress of Luss, was the first of the Colquhouns of Camstrodden, which estate, with the lands of Achirgahan, he obtained by charter, dated 4th July 1395, from his brother Sir Humphry. Sir James Colquhoun, third baronet, purchased in 1826 that estate from the hereditary proprietor, and re-annexed it to the estate of Luss.

The Killermont line, originally of Garscadden, is a scion of the Camstrodden branch.

FORBES.

Although there is great doubt as to the Celtic or at least Gaelic origin of the FORBES clan, still, as it was one of the most powerful and influential of the northern clans, it may claim a notice here. “The Forbes Family and following,” says Smibert, “ranked early among the strongest on the north-eastern coast of Scotland; and no one can reasonably doubt but that the ancient Pictish Gael of the region in question constituted a large proportion (if not of the Forbeses, at least) of the followers of the house.”

The traditions regarding the origin of the surname of Forbes are various; and some of them very fanciful. The principal of these, referred to by Sir Samuel Forbes in his “View of the diocese of Aberdeen” (MS. quoted by the Statistical Account of Scotland, art. Tullynessle and Forbes), states that this name was first assumed by one Ochonchar, from Ireland, who having slain a ferocious bear in that district, took the name of Forbear, now spelled and pronounced Forbes, in two syllables; although the English, in pronunciation, make it only one. In consequence of this feat the Forbeses carry in their arms three bears’ heads. A variation of this story says that the actor in this daring exploit was desirous of exhibiting his courage to the young and beautiful heiress of the adjacent castle, whose name being Bess, he, on receiving her hand as his reward, assumed it to commemorate his having killed the bear for “Bess.” Another tradition states that the name of the founder of the family was originally Bois, a follower of an early Scottish king, and that on granting him certain lands for some extraordinary service, his majesty observed that they were “for Boice.” The surname, however, is territorial, and said to be Celtic, from the Gaelic word Ferbash or Ferbasach, a bold man.

“On the whole,” says Smibert, “the traditions of the family, as well as other authorities, countenance with unusual strength, the belief, that the heads of the Forbeses belonged really to the Irish branch, and were among those strangers of that race whom the Lowland kings planted in the north and north-east of Scotland to overawe the remaining primary population of Gaelic Picts.”

According to Skene, in his treatise _De Verborum Significatione_, Duncan Forbois got from King Alexander (but which of the three kings of that name is not mentioned) a charter of the lands and heritage of Forbois in Aberdeenshire, whence the surname. In the reign of King William the Lion, John de Forbes possessed the lands of that name. His son, Fergus de Forbes, had a charter of the same from Alexander, Earl of Buchan, about 1236. Next of this race are Duncan de Forbes, his son, 1262, and Alexander de Forbes, grandson, governor of Urquhart Castle in Moray, which he bravely defended for a long time, in 1304, against Edward I. of England; but on its surrender all within the castle were put to the sword, except the wife of the governor, who escaped to Ireland, and was there delivered of a posthumous son. This son, Sir Alexander de Forbes, the only one of his family remaining, came to Scotland in the reign of Robert the Bruce, and his patrimonial inheritance of Forbes having been bestowed upon others, he obtained a grant of other lands instead. He was killed at the battle of Duplin, in 1332, fighting valiantly on the side of King David, the son of Bruce. From his son, Sir John de Forbes, 1373, all the numerous families in Scotland who bear the name and their offshoots, trace their descent.[241]

Sir John’s son, Sir Alexander de Forbes (curiously said to be posthumous like the above Alexander), acquired from Thomas, Earl of Mar, several lands in Aberdeenshire, the grant of which King Robert II. ratified by charter in the third year of his reign. By King Robert III. he was appointed justiciary of Aberdeen, and coroner of that county. He died in 1405. By his wife, a daughter of Kennedy of Dunure, he had four sons, namely--Sir Alexander, his successor, the first Lord Forbes; Sir William, ancestor of the Lords Pitsligo; Sir John, who obtained the thanedom of Formartine (which now gives the title of viscount to the Earl of Aberdeen) and the lands of Tolquhoun, by his marriage with Marjory, daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Preston of Formartine, knight (of the Dingwall family), and was ancestor of the Forbeses of Tolquhoun, Foveran, Watertoun, Culloden, and others of the name; and Alexander, founder of the family of Brux, and others.

Alexander, the elder son, was created a peer of parliament sometime after 1436. The precise date of creation is not known, but in a precept, directed by James II. to the lords of the exchequer, dated 12th July 1442, he is styled Lord Forbes. He died in 1448. By his wife, Lady Elizabeth (sometimes called Lady Mary) Douglas, only daughter of George, Earl of Angus, and grand-daughter of King Robert II, he had two sons and three daughters.

James, the elder son, second Lord Forbes, was knighted by King James III. He died soon after 1460. By his wife, Lady Egidia Keith, second daughter of the first Earl Marischal, he had three sons and a daughter, namely--William, third Lord Forbes; Duncan, of Corsindae, ancestor (by his second son) of the Forbeses of Monymusk; and Patrick, the first of the family of Corse, progenitor of the Forbeses, baronets, of Craigievar, and of the Irish Earls of Granard. The daughter, Egidia, became the wife of Malcolm Forbes of Tolquhoun.

William, third Lord Forbes, married Lady Christian Gordon, third daughter of Alexander, first Earl of Huntly, and had, with a daughter, three sons, Alexander, fourth lord; Arthur, fifth lord; and John, sixth lord.

Alexander, fourth lord, died, while yet young, before 16th May 1491.

Arthur, fifth Lord Forbes, succeeded his brother, and being under age at the time, he was placed as one of the king’s wards, under the guardianship of John, Lord Glammis, whose daughter he had married, but he died soon after his accession to the title, without children.

His next brother, John, became sixth Lord Forbes, before 30th October 1496, at which date he is witness to a charter. The sixth lord died in 1547. He was thrice married, first, to Lady Catherine Stewart, second daughter of John, Earl of Athole, uterine brother of King James II., and by her he had a son John, who died young, and a daughter, Elizabeth, married to John Grant of Grant; secondly, to Christian, daughter of Sir John Lundin of that ilk, by whom he had two sons and four daughters; and, thirdly, to Elizabeth Barlow or Barclay, relict of the first Lord Elphinstone, killed at Flodden in 1513, by whom he had a son, Arthur Forbes of Putachie, and a daughter, Janet, who was also thrice married.

The elder son of the second marriage, John, the Master of Forbes above mentioned, is stated to have been a young man of great courage and good education, but of a bold and turbulent spirit. He was beheaded for treason, on the 17th of July 1537.

After the execution of the Master, the king (James V.) seems to have been anxious to compensate the family for his severity towards them, by admitting his next brother, William, into his favour. He restored to him his brother’s honours and estates, and in 1539, appointed him one of the gentlemen of his bedchamber. This William succeeded his father in 1547, as seventh Lord Forbes, and died in 1593. He had married Elizabeth Keith, daughter and coheiress, with her sister, Margaret, Countess Marischal, of Sir William Keith of Inverugie, and had by her six sons and eight daughters. The sons were, John, eighth Lord Forbes; William, of Foderhouse; James, of Lethendy: Robert, prior of Monymusk; Arthur of Logie, called from his complexion, “Black Arthur;” and Abraham, of Blacktoun.

John, eighth Lord Forbes, was one of the five noblemen appointed by commission from the king, dated 25th July 1594, lieutenants of the northern counties, for the suppression of the rebellion of the popish Earls of Huntly and Errol. His lordship was served heir to his mother 13th November 1604, and died soon afterwards. He had married, while still Master of Forbes, Lady Margaret Gordon, eldest daughter of George, fourth Earl of Huntly, and had, with a daughter named Jean, a son, John, who, being educated in the faith of his mother, entered a religious order on the continent, and died without succession. This lady Lord Forbes repudiated, and in consequence a sanguinary contest took place in 1572, in the parish of Clatt, Aberdeenshire, between the two rival clans of Forbes and Gordon. The latter, under the command of two of the earl’s brothers, attacked the Forbeses, within a rude intrenchment which they had formed on the white hill of Tillyangus, in the south-western extremity of the parish, and after a severe contest the Gordons prevailed, having carried the intrenchment, and slain the Master’s brother, “Black Arthur.” The pursuit of the Forbeses was continued to the very gates of Druminner, the seat of their chief. A number of cairns are still pointed out where those slain on this occasion are said to have been buried. The eighth Lord Forbes took for his second wife, Janet, daughter of James Seton of Touch, and had, besides Arthur, ninth lord, another son, and a daughter.