ferred, notwithstanding that Douglas says he was "a faithful and loyal subject," Macleod was opposed to Bruce in his successful efforts against the attempts of the English, under Edward the First, to subdue Scotland at that time, and whose prowess culminated so brilliantly for the Scottish nation on the glorious field of Bannockburn, on the 24th of June, 1314, and it is instructive to find in this connection that the Macleods are not mentioned by the earlier historians among those clans said to have been present at the Battle of Bannockburn. We are told in the "Anecdotes of Olave the Black, King of Man," that Olave went to Norway to complain to Haco, the King, of the great hostilities carried on at the time by the Scotch in the Western Isles, and that he was supplied with a fleet of twenty ships. "When Ottar Snackoll, Paul Bolka, and Ungi, Paul's son, heard this, then sailed they southward before Skye, and found in Westerford (said to be Loch Bracadale), Thorkel Thormodson. And they fought with him,

But his son, Tormod,

and Thorkel fell there, and two of his sons. came off in this manner; he leapt into a boat, which floated there by its ship, and it with him was wrecked on Skotland." Tormod Macleod was succeeded by his son.

#

III. MALCOLM MACLEOD, of Glenelg and Harris. We have already seen that about 1343 King David Bruce granted him a charter of the greater portion of the lands of Glenelg lands which he and his successors always held of the Crown This charter, from King David II., Dilecto et fidelo nostro Malcolmo filio Tormodi Macleod, pro homagio et servitio suo, duas partes tenementi de Glenelg, viz., octo davatas, et quinque denariatas terræ, Faciendo cum pertinentiis, infra vicecomitatum de Inverness. nobis et hæredibus nostris prædictus Malcolmus, et haeredes sui, servitium unius navis triginta et sex remorum, quoties super hoc per nos fuerint requisiti, prout facere tenebantur tempore patris nostri, etc. This charter is not dated, but all the authorities agree that it was granted in or about the year 1343.

Malcolm had three sons

1. John, his heir and successor.

2. Tormod, progenitor of several families in Harris, one of

Robertson's Index, and Origines Parochiales Scotia.

Gregory's Western Isles, p. 37.

heir.

whom possessed the Island of Bernera, in the Sound, "before Sir Norman got it from the family as his patrimony.'

3. Murdo, ancestor of the Macleods of Gesto, of whom in their proper place, when we come to treat of the branch families of the Clan.

Malcolm, on his death, was succeeded by his eldest son and

IV. JOHN MACLEOD, who was designed both of Glenelg and Harris. He was head of the Clan in the reign of Robert II.— 1370-1390-and died shortly after the accession of Robert III., who ascended the throne in the latter year.

John married and had issue, two sons and one daughter

1. Malcolm, who died before his father, unmarried, and
2. William, who, on the death of his brother, Malcolm,
became his father's heir.

3. A daughter, who married Lachlan Maclean of Duart. He was succeeded at his death by his only surviving son, V. WILLIAM MACLEOD, who, having been educated for the Church, was known as Uilleam Cleireach, or William the Clerk. While a youth, he appears to have received some lasting insult in the Fraser country, and, soon after he succeeded to the Macleod estates, he made a raid into the Aird, and carried away a great number of cattle, with which he proceeded to Skye, where he had them all slaughtered in Harlosh, at a place to this day called "Bun a Sgeamhaidh," or the place of the offals. On another occasion his lands were invaded by the Macdonalds, Lords of the Isles, who carried away a great spoil, but Macleod came upon them unawares, by a clever stratagem, close to Loch Sligachan, where he completely routed them, and got possession of the stolen cattle, which were divided among his followers at a rock still called Craggan an Fheannaidh, or the Rock of the Skinning, to indicate where the cattle were slaughtered.

Tormod married a daughter of John Maclean of Lochbuy, Mull, and by her had,

I. John, his heir and successor.

* Douglas's Baronage, p. 375.

2. Tormod, from whom a sept called Clann Mac-Mhic Uilleam, the Macleods of Borline, and Clann MacMhic-Alastair Ruaidh, of whom the Macleods of Balliemore, St. Kilda, and several other minor families were descended.

3. George, who went to France, and settled in the Province of Lorraine, where many of his descendants acquired property, and where, we are informed, not a few of his posterity are living at the present day.

William did not inherit the property long, he having died a few years after his father, when he was succeeded by his eldest

son.

VI. JOHN MACLEOD, whose name is mentioned in a charter granted to his grandson, William Macleod, by James IV. in 1498, where the grantee is described as Alexander Macleod, "the son and heir of William John Maklodesoun of Dunbeggane,' that is, the son and heir of William, John Macleod's son of Dunvegan. John was a man of great stature and strength, undaunted courage and resolution. He was among the Western chiefs who accompanied Donald of the Isles, and fought with him at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411, in the main body of the Highland army. Hugh Macdonald, the Sleat "Seannachaidh," informs us that "Macdonald set his men in order as follows:-He commanded himself the main battle, where he kept most of the Islanders, and with the Macleods, John of Harris and John of the Isles."* John married a daughter of Douglas, by whom he had issue1. William, his heir and successor.

2. Tormod, from whom the Macleods of Meidle, long extinct in the male line. From this Tormod were also descended the Macleods of Drynoch, Balmeanach ; a sept known as "Sliochd Ian Mhic Leoid," and several others.

3. Margaret, who married Roderick Macleod of the Lewis, with issue.

John Macleod died in the Island of Pabba, in Harris, early in the reign of James II., when he was succeeded by his eldest son, * Quoted in Mackenzie's History of the Macdonalds and Lords of the Isles, p. 68, from the Collectanea de Rebus Albanicis.

VII. William Macleod, who is named, with Roderick of the Lewis, as witness to a charter granted by John, Earl of Ross, to his brother Hugh, and dated the 28th of June, 1449. The two Chiefs are described as Willielmus Macleod de Glenelg, et Rodericus Macleod de Lewes. He fought, at the head of his clan, with this John, Earl of Ross, against his bastard son, Angus Og, and was killed in a naval engagement which took place between them at the Bloody Bay, in the Sound of Mull, near Tobermory, where Angus defeated his father, and got himself fully established in possession of the leadership and territories of the Clan. The heir of Torquil Macleod of the Lewis was also mortally wounded at this battle, and he afterwards died of his wounds, on his way north, at Dunvegan,* without issue.

In a charter under the great seal, by John of Isla, Lord of the Isles, dated the 22nd of December, 1478, in favour of Alexander Leslie de Wardes, we find, among the witnesses, along with Colin Earl of Argyle, Lachlan Maclean of Duart, and Hector Maclean of Lochbuy, the names of William Macleod of Glenelg and Harris, and Torquil Macleod of Lewis; and in both the charters William's name is placed first in order. He was a renowned and brave warrior, and when slain at the engagement of the Bloody Bay, in 1480, he was very advanced in years.

In 1460, William Macleod of Harris accompanied Hugh of Sleat and "the young gentlemen of the Isles" in a raid to Orkney, fully described in Mackenzie's History of the Macdonalds and Lords of the Isles, pp. 151-152. Trouterness was at this time held of the Lords of the Isles by the Macleods of Harris, and in 1498 "King James IV. granted in heritage to Alexander M'Cloide, the son and heir of the deceased William John Maklodesone of Dunbeggane, two unciates of the lands of Trouternes, together with the bailiary of the whole lands of Trouternes, lying in Skye in the Lordship of the Isles, which had been forfeited by Lord John of the Isles, for service of ward, relief, and marriage, with the maintenance of a ship of 26 oars, and two ships of 16 oars, both in peace and in war, for the use of the King or

*

Hugh Macdonald's Manuscript History of the Macdonalds. See also Gregory's Western Isles, p. 73.

his lieutenants, reserving to the King the nests of falcons within the lands, and all the other usual services."*

William married a daughter of John Maclean of Lochbuy, with issue

1. Alexander, his heir and successor, and

2. A daughter, who married Lachlan Maclean of Duart. He was succeeded by his only son.

VIII. ALEXANDER MACLEOD, known among the Highlanders as "Alastair Crottach," or the Humpbacked. In 1498, he, with Torquil Macleod of the Lewis, paid homage to James IV. at the Royal Castle of Campbellton, in Kintyre, when the King granted him a charter as "Alexander Makloid, the son and heir of William John Maklodesoun of Dunbegane," of six unciates of Duirinish and other lands, forfeited by John, Lord of the Isles, of whom they were held by his father, William Macleod, for the same service as the lands of Troternish.† Another charter is quoted in Douglas's Baronage, dated the 15th of June in the same year, in the following terms:-Dilecto et fidelo nostro Alexandro Macleod, filio et haeredi quondam Willielmi, Johannis Macleod soun de Dunvegan, terrarum de Ardmannach in Herage de Lewes‡ et cum omnibus minutis insulis ad dictum Ardmannach pertinen. terrarum de Dunynys, terrarum de Meginish, terrarum de Bracadale, terræ de Lindale, terrarum de Trotterness, cum officio balivatus totarum et integrarum prædict. terrarum de Trotterness in Skye, que fuerent quond. Willielmi Macleod hæreditarie, etc., etc., "which lands," Douglas says, "were held of the Earls of Ross and Lords of the Isles before their forfeiture, but afterwards of the Crownward, for holding in readiness one ship of 26 oars, and two of 16, for the King's service, when required, reserving also to the King and his successors the airies or nests of falcons within the same bounds." The same writer says that "he afterwards got a charter from James V., Alexandro Macleod de Dunvegane terrarum baronia de Glenelg cum molendinis, etc., in Inverness-shire, dated the 13th of February, 1539." The year at that date ended in

*Origines Parochiales Scotia, p. 351., Vol. II., Part I.

Register of the Great Seal, Book xiii., No. 305.

Ardmanach of Lewis is the older name for what we now call Harris, The date of this charter is also given in the Origines Purochiales Scotia.