CHAPTER VIII.

THE FINÉ OR CLAN IN SCOTLAND.

[Sidenote: Clanship in the Highlands.]

Those influences which led to the _Tuath_ with its _Toisech_ passing over into the Thanage and the Thane in the eastern districts were less felt in the more mountainous regions of the north and west, where the power of the Crown was comparatively weak, and more nominal than real, and here the tribe went through a different process. While the large districts continued to be ruled by their _Mormaers_ and the _Mortuath_, and the Province existed intact, there was little of external influence to affect the social organisation of their Celtic population; but the same internal modification which led to the development of the sept or clan from the tribe was no doubt silently at work, and when the break-up of the great provinces and the alienation of the lands of the tribe to feudal lords removed the veil, the clan appears exhibiting in the main the characteristics of the Irish sept. The clan organisation was in the main limited to that part of modern Scotland known as the Highlands and Islands, where the mountainous and rugged character of the former and the comparative inaccessibility of the latter led to the preservation of a population of pure Gaelic lineage, speaking a Gaelic dialect. Here the introduction, by marriage or royal grant, of feudal overlords with apparently feudal holdings was purely nominal. It led to nothing like the Teutonic colonisation which characterised the Lowlands, and neither affected the Gaelic population nor the institution of clanship among them.

[Sidenote: The Highland line.]

The boundary line which separated the Highlands from the Lowlands, and known as the Highland Line, was in the main an imaginary line separating the Gaelic-speaking people from those using the Teutonic dialect, but it likewise coincides in part with the natural boundaries formed by those physical features of the country which have influenced the relative position of the Gaelic and Teutonic-speaking portion of the population respectively. The southern part of this boundary coincides with the great barrier formed by the mountain range of the Grampians, and where this range is intersected by rivers which take their rise in the interior of the highland region, and flow through this range to the eastern sea, in deep ravines or narrow glens, with high mountains on each side, were narrow passes which formed the entrances into the Highlands, and were easily defended, rendering the country almost inaccessible, while similar passes characterise the northern portion of the line where it crosses the great rivers.

The Highland Line may be said at its southern end to commence at Loch Lomond, in the earldom of Lennox, where the Pass of Balmaha between the lake and the commencement of the mountain region leads into the district of which this lake is the centre. The line then enters the earldom of Menteith, and crosses the Forth, here called the _Avon dubh_, at Aberfoil, and proceeds from thence to Callander, where the pass on the north side of Loch Vennachar leads into the district formerly called Strathgartney, and the Pass of Leny forms the entrance to Strathire and to the district of Balquhidder. From Callander the line follows the range of the Grampians, through the earldom of Stratherne, and crosses the river Earn at Crieff, and the Almond at Findoch, where passes lead to the upper part of the Vale of the Earn and to Glenalmond respectively. From thence it follows the line of the Grampians to Dunkeld, where the King’s Pass forms the entrance to Strathtay, and through the district of Stormont in Gowry to Blairgowrie, where the passes lead into the district of Strathardell. From thence it follows the line of the Grampians till it crosses the Isla north-west of Alyth, and enters the earldom of Angus, where the minor range of hills forming the east side of Glenisla coincides with the line till it reaches the great chain of the Mounth, or backbone of the Grampians, at Cairn Bannoch. There it enters the earldom of Mar, and proceeds along the west side of Glenmuich to the Dee at Ballater, where the Pass of Ballater leads into the districts of Strathdee and the Forest of Braemar. North of these districts it includes likewise the district of Strathdon, crossing the river Don at Boat of Forbes, whence it proceeds to the river Spey at Craigellachie, including the district of Strathavon, and here a pass leads into the district of Strathspey, and separating the mountain region of the earldom of Moray from the level plains forming the southern seaboard of the Moray Firth, it terminates at the mouth of the river Nairn, which flows through the town of Nairn, and formerly separated the Gaelic-speaking people on its left bank from the lowland population on the right. The Highland Line thus intersects the old earldoms of Lennox, Menteith, Stratherne, Gowry, Angus, Mar, Buchan, and Moray, which represented the older great Celtic tribes or _Mortuath_, governed by their _Ri Mortuath_ or _Mormaers_, and the portion of each earldom included in the Highland Line consisted of that part which retained its Gaelic population intact, while the rest of it became more or less colonised by foreign settlers.

[Sidenote: Break-up of the Celtic earldoms.]

The earldoms of Atholl, Ross, and Sutherland were entirely comprehended within the Highland Line, as well as the great district of _Arregaithel_, or Argyll, in its most extended sense, reaching from the Clyde to Lochbroom, and a similar line drawn from the Ord of Caithness to Brinsness on the west side of Thurso Bay separated the Gaelic population in the more mountainous part of the ancient province of Cathanesia, which from an early period had passed into the possession of the Norwegian earls of Orkney, from the Teutonic settlers in the eastern and more level plains. As long as the native race of the _Mormaers_ remained, though assuming the new character of earls, the connection between them and the Gaelic population of the earldom remained unimpaired; but when, by marriage or otherwise, the earldom passed into foreign hands, the Gaelic population became the subjects of a foreign overlord, the greater tribe became broken up, and they emerged from it in the form of clans or broken tribes.

[Sidenote: Moray.]

The first of these great Celtic tribes to break up was that which formed the great earldom, or rather petty kingdom, of Moray. Here we find a family making their appearance in the eleventh century in the Irish Annals as _Mormaers_ of Moray, and occasionally bearing the title of _Ri_ or king. This line of Celtic kings or _Mormaers_ terminated with Maelsnechtan, son of that Lulach mac Gillcomgan who succeeded Macbeth as king of Scotland for three months. He appears as _Ri_ or king of Moray in 1086, and after him Angus, the grandson of Lulach by his daughter, bears the title of earl of Moray, and by his defeat and death in the beginning of the reign of David the First the line of the ancient kings or _Mormaers_ of Moray comes to an end, but the tribe appears to have been still held so far together by their support of the claims of the family of MacHeth to the earldom of Moray, whose founder Wymund asserted himself to be the son of Angus, and of that of MacWilliam who claimed to be the nearer line of the royal family to the throne of Scotland; and it was not till the year 1222 that the pretensions of these two families were finally extinguished by Alexander the Second.

[Sidenote: Buchan.]

About the same period the line of the Celtic Mormaers or earls of Buchan had come to an end. The Book of Deer furnishes us with a tolerably complete list of these Mormaers, from Bede the Pict in the sixth century to Colban, earl of Buchan, in the reign of David the First; and we can see from the history of the last four that they followed in the main the Pictish law of succession, which preferred daughters to sons after brothers. Donald, son of Ruadri, appears as _Mormaer_ of Buchan in the reign of Malcolm the Second. He is followed by Donald, son of MacDubhacain, who is succeeded by his brother Cainneach. The next _Mormaer_ mentioned was his son Gartnait, but he appears to have derived his right through his wife Ete, daughter of Gillamithil. He appears with the title of earl in the reign of Alexander the First, and his daughter Eva carries the earldom to her husband Colban. He is followed by his son Roger, and he by his son Fergus, whose only daughter Margaret carried the earldom to William Cumyn, who became in his right earl of Buchan, and by Alexander the Second was made guardian of the earldom of Moray in 1222. Six years after, the districts of Badenoch and Lochaber were conferred upon his son Walter Cumyn, on the rebellion, defeat, and death of a certain Gillespic, by whom they had apparently been forfeited.

[Sidenote: Atholl.]

The same reign of Alexander the Second witnessed the termination of the line of the Celtic earls of Atholl and Angus. The former earldom appears to have been an appanage of the family from whom sprang the kings of the race of Duncan, the son of Crinan, and its earls were descended from his younger son, a younger brother of Malcolm Ceannmor.[406] The last of this line was Henry, earl of Atholl, who died before 1215, and the earldom passed to the eldest of two sisters, Isabella and Forflissa, who married Thomas, earl of Galloway. On the death of his son Patrick in 1242 he was succeeded by his aunt Forflissa, the other sister, who married David de Hastings, and by his daughter it was carried to the Strathbolgie family, a branch of the earls of Fife.[407] But while the earldom passed into the hands of a succession of foreign earls, a family bearing the title of De Atholia continued to possess a great part of the earldom, and were probably the descendants of the older Celtic earls. The Gaelic population of the whole of the north-western portion of Atholl, bounded on the east by the river Garry, and on the south by the Tummel, remained intact under them, but the possession of the great western territory of the _abthanrie_ of Dull by the Crown led to the introduction of a foreign element among the landholders of the rest of the earldom, and much of the land passed permanently into the possession of the families of Menzies and Stewart, while the Celtic character of the whole earldom was notwithstanding preserved.

[Sidenote: Angus.]

The same reign saw also the extinction of the old Celtic earls of Angus. The Pictish Chronicle furnishes us with the names of three of its Mormaers—Dubucan, son of Indrechtaig, who died about 935, and Maelbrigdi, son of Dubucan, and this name again occurs in the ‘Dufugan Comes’ who appears among the seven earls in the reign of Alexander the First, and was no doubt earl of Angus. After him we have a succession of four earls from father to son, viz., Gillebride, Gilchrist, Duncan, and Malcolm; and Matilda, the daughter and heiress of the last earl, carried the earldom by marriage first to John Comyn, who died in 1242, and then to the Norman family of De Umphraville. The family of Ogilvie, who retained possession of a considerable portion of the earldom, appear to have been the male descendants of these old Celtic earls, and they likewise gave a line of earls to Caithness, who possessed, with the title of earl, one half of the land of the earldom. Of the land of the earldom of Angus the district of Glenisla was alone included within the Highland Line and preserved its Gaelic population.

[Sidenote: Menteith and Stratherne.]

The beginning of the reign of Alexander the Third saw the termination too of the line of the old Celtic earls of Menteith. No mention of the _Mormaers_ of this _Mortuath_ has been preserved, and the first earl, Gilchrist, appears in the reign of Malcolm the Fourth. He was succeeded by Murethac, who was followed by two brothers, both bearing the name of Maurice, between whom there was a contention for the earldom in 1213, which ended in the elder Maurice resigning the earldom to his brother and retaining some of the lands for his life;[408] but Earl Maurice left two daughters only, the eldest of whom married Walter Cumyn, and the younger Walter Stewart, and carried the earldom to these families. The western and more mountainous part of this earldom, consisting mainly of the districts of Strathgartney and Strathire, retained its Gaelic population. Of the early _Mormaers_ of the _Mortuath_ of Stratherne we have no mention, but the line of its Celtic earls continued unbroken till the reign of David the Second, when the forfeiture of one interposed for a time a Norman baron, and the succession terminated in co-heiresses, when the earldom came into the Crown, and was re-granted to one of the Royal Stewarts; the western districts within the Highland Line retained their Gaelic inhabitants.

[Sidenote: Mar.]

The only other of the frontier earldoms intersected by the Highland Line was that of Mar, and here, like Buchan, we are on historic ground, for a _Mormaer_ of Mar—Donald mac Emin mac Cainech—is recorded in a nearly contemporary document as having been present at the battle of Clontarff in Ireland, fought in the year 1014;[409] and Ruadri, _Mormaer_ of Mar, who is mentioned in the Book of Deer, appears among the seven earls in the reign of Alexander the First as ‘Rothri Comes.’ The line of the Celtic earls of Mar continued till the reign of Robert the Second, when it was carried by an heiress into the Douglas family, and afterwards to one of the Stewarts, by whom it was resigned to the Crown. A great part of the territory of the Celtic earls was at an early period carried off from them by the family of De Lundin or Durward, who claimed the earldom as representing the earls through a female, and were thus compensated, but this part consisted of Lowland districts, and the Highland districts of Strathdee, Braemar, and Strathdon constituted the ‘comitatus’ or demesne of the Celtic earls, and preserved their Gaelic population.

[Sidenote: Ross.]

The history of the _Mortuath_ or earldom of Ross is peculiar, and became eventually connected with that of the Lords of the Isles. Of the early Celtic _Mormaers_ we have no record, and the supposed connection of Macbeth with Ross as its _Mormaer_, which originated with George Chalmers, has no historic foundation. He was, as we have seen, _Mormaer_ of Moray. The name of Gillandres appears in Wyntoun as one of the earls who besieged Malcolm the Fourth in Perth in the year 1160; and the Gaelic name of the old Rosses as _Clanghillandres_ seems to connect him with this earldom, but it must have been immediately after in the Crown, for the same Malcolm undoubtedly gave it to Malcolm MacHeth, who appears as its earl, but was soon after expelled. It was afterwards bestowed by William the Lion upon a foreigner, the Count of Holland; but his successor, Alexander the Second, created Ferchard Macintaggart, the heir of a line of lay abbots of Applecross, earl of Ross, who thus united the extensive possessions of that monastery in North Argyll to the earldom, and from him the later earls are descended. It became for a time broken up, when an heiress carried the earldom to Walter de Lesly, and afterwards to Alexander Stewart, earl of Buchan, but it reverted through her daughter and heiress to the line of the Celtic Lords of the Isles.

[Sidenote: The _Gallgaidheal_ and their lords.]

But while the eastern and central tribes became broken up by the termination of the line of the Celtic earls of the respective great districts or _Mortuaths_, and thus either reverting to the Crown or passing by marriage to Norman barons, those of the western seaboard and of the Isles were held together for a longer period, and remained intact till towards the end of the fifteenth century. These Gaelic inhabitants of the Western Isles had been, as early as the ninth century, brought under the rule of the Danes and Norwegians, and the latter had in the eleventh century extended their sway over the western districts of the highlands and over Galloway. These Gael were termed _Gallgaidheal_, the word _Gall_ or foreigner being applied to both Danes and Norwegians, both from being under their rule and from their having been in some degree assimilated to their manners and become connected with them by intermarriage; but the word _Gallgaidheal_ as a geographical term became limited to the district of Galloway, which derived its name from them. The Islands became known as _Innsigall_, or the islands of the strangers, and western districts of the Highlands as _Airer_ or _Oirir Gaidheal_, the coast land of the Gael, from whence the name of Argyll is derived. Two Celtic chiefs, as we have seen, succeeded at the same time in driving the Norwegians out from the mainland of Scotland, and Somerled, establishing himself as king over the whole of the extensive district known by the name of Ergadia or _Oirirgaidheal_, extending from the Clyde to Lochbroom, and had likewise wrested from the Norwegian kings of the Isles the southern half of them lying to the south of the promontory of Ardnamurchan, over which his descendants ruled with almost regal sway, while Fergus founded a line of Celtic lords of Galloway. Somerled left three sons—Dubhgal or Dugald, Reginald, and Angus, among whom his dominions were divided. Dubhgal received the district of Lorn, extending from Lochleven to the Point of Ashnish, and also that of Morvern; Reginald obtained the districts of Kintyre and Cowall, and the islands which Somerled had possessed were divided between them, Dubhgal having Mull and the small islands adjacent to it, and Reginald the important island of Isla, with those in the Firth of Clyde. Angus’s possessions appear to have lain north of the others, but a struggle seems to have taken place between him and Reginald, which resulted in Angus being slain with his three sons in 1210 by the sons of Reginald. Soon after, the conquest of the great district of Argyll by Alexander the Second took place, and the descendants of Somerled appear to have been among the lords who were confirmed in their possessions by that monarch, but their possessions in the Isles were still held of the Norwegians till the cession of the Isles in the reign of Alexander the Third. Reginald had left two sons, Donald and Ruaidri or Roderick, the former succeeding his father in Kintyre and Isla, and the latter obtaining Bute and Arran, and likewise the possessions which had been wrested from Angus, and consisted mainly of the district extending from Ardnamurchan to Glenelg, and known by the name of Garmoran; while the district of Lochaber, which had been forfeited, passed into the possession of the Cumyns. The descendants of Dugald and Reginald thus shared the possessions of Somerled between them, and we find the heads of the respective families—Alexander, son of Eogan, son of Duncan, son of Dubhgal, Angus Mor son of Donald, and Allan son of Roderic—appearing at the Scottish parliament in 1284, when the crown was settled on the Maiden of Norway; but the families having taken opposite sides in the war of succession—the head of the line of Dubhgal, John of Lorn, supporting the cause of Baliol, and the head of the line of Reginald that of Bruce—the latter became the predominant family. Angus Og, son of Angus Mor, the head of the family who had supported Bruce, received from him when established on the throne the lands of Morvern, Ardnamurchan, and Lochaber, with the islands which had belonged to the Lords of Lorn. These lands and islands, with Kintyre and Isla, were confirmed to his son John by David the Second, who likewise confirmed to Reginald son of Roderic, the lands of Garmoran, with the small islands north of Ardnamurchan and the southern half of the Long Island; but Reginald having been slain in a quarrel with the earl of Ross at Perth in 1346, his possessions passed with his sister Amie by marriage to John the son of Angus,[410] and thus this latter family became known as the powerful Lords of the Isles, ruling over the territories of the Macdonalds of Isla and Kintyre, the MacRuaries of Garmoran and the North Isles, and a great part of those which had belonged to the Lords of Lorn. Their position was still further strengthened by the marriage of John, Lord of the Isles, with the daughter of Robert, High Steward of Scotland, for which connection he had apparently repudiated his first wife Amie; and when the line of the Lords of Lorn of the race of Dubhgal came to an end, and the lordship of Lorn passed to the Stewarts of Innermeath by marriage with the daughter and heiress of John, Lord of Lorn, before 1388, the Lords of the Isles were left without a rival in their rule of the Gaelic population of Argyll and the Isles. John, Lord of the Isles, had by his first marriage with Amie MacRuarie, three sons, John, Godfrey, and Ranald; and by his second marriage with the Lady Margaret Stewart likewise three sons, Donald, John, and Alexander; and when Robert the High Steward succeeded to the throne in 1370, his influence led to an arrangement by which the children of the Lord of the Isles by his second marriage, who were the king’s grandsons, were to be preferred to the children of the first marriage in the succession to the Isles, while the possessions of the MacRuarie family, which he had inherited through his first wife, were to be secured to the first family as the price of their acquiescence. Accordingly, in the first year of his reign, King Robert confirms to John, Lord of the Isles, the territory on the mainland and the Isles which had belonged to Alan, son of Roderic, and in the following year confirms a grant by the Lord of the Isles of these possessions to his son Reginald, the youngest of the three brothers, who appears to have agreed to the arrangement, the eldest son, John, having predeceased his father, and the second, Godfrey, having apparently refused to surrender his rights; and a few years later charters are granted to the Lord of the Isles and to the heirs of his marriage with Margaret, the king’s daughter, of the island of Colonsay with its pertinents, and the lands of Lochaber, Kintyre, and one half of Knapdale. On the death of the Lord of the Isles in 1380, Reginald fulfilled his engagement by causing Donald to be recognised as Lord of the Isles, and having him inaugurated by the usual Celtic solemnities as such; while Godfrey appears to have for a time maintained his right to his mother’s inheritance, which, however, was soon extinguished by the failure of heirs-male.

Donald thus appears to have entered peaceably into possession of the lordship of the Isles, and his marriage with Margaret, daughter of Walter Lesly, earl of Ross, added a claim to that earldom on the death of her brother Alexander, earl of Ross, who left an only daughter who became a nun. This claim being contested by the Regent Duke of Albany, who had obtained a renunciation from the nun, led to the great battle of Harlaw, where the whole force of the Western Highlands and Isles, as well as those of the earldom, was pitted against the Government; and though the issue of the battle was doubtful, the Lord of the Isles maintained his possession of the earldom, and his title as Earl of Ross was eventually admitted, and he was succeeded in 1420 by his son Alexander, as Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles. The position of the Lords of the Isles, as virtually independent rulers of nearly the whole of the Highlands with the Isles, was now so powerful, that their authority and that of the Crown came into constant collision, and it is necessary, for our purpose, that the leading incidents should be shortly stated. On the accession of James the First in 1424, he appears to have strengthened his party against the family of the Regent Albany by confirming the widow of the Lord of the Isles, and her son Alexander, in the earldom of Ross; and the latter, as Lord of the Isles and Master of the earldom of Ross, sat upon the jury which condemned Murdoch, Duke of Albany, and his father-in-law, the Earl of Lennox, to death; but after his object was attained, this vigorous monarch seemed to feel the necessity of bringing the Highlands more under his control. The mode by which he endeavoured to accomplish this was characteristic. He summoned, in 1427, a Parliament to meet at Inverness, at which the Highland chiefs were invited to attend, and as soon as they obeyed his summons, arrested them to the number of fifty and committed them to prison. The chroniclers enumerate among them—Alexander, Lord of the Isles, and his mother the Countess of Ross; Angus Duff with his four sons, leader of four thousand men of Strathnaver; Kenneth More with his son-in-law, leader of two thousand men; John Ross, William Lesly, Angus of Moray, and Mackmahon, leaders of two thousand men each; and he put to death Alexander Makreury of Garmoran, leader of a thousand men, and John Makarthur, a great chief among them, and likewise leader of a thousand men, who were beheaded. The rest were sent to various prisons, where, after a time, some were put to death and others liberated.[411] Among those who were liberated were the Lord of the Isles and his mother, and he seems to have lost no time in endeavouring to revenge himself, for in 1429 he summoned all his vassals in Ross and the Isles, and advanced against the town of Inverness, which he burnt to the ground after he had wasted the crown lands; but on the appearance of the royal army, with King James at its head, he retreated to Lochaber, where the king followed him, and the Lord of the Isles having been deserted by part of his troops, he was attacked and defeated, and eventually surrendered himself unconditionally to the king, when he was imprisoned in Tantallon Castle, and his mother was also arrested and confined at Inchcolm, in the Firth of Forth. Along with the earl of Ross, we find in prison Lachlane M‘Gillane, Torkill M‘Nell, Tarlan MacArchir, and Duncan Persoun.[412]

The imprisonment of the earl of Ross and his mother led to an insurrection in the west, when the Highlanders under Donald Balloch, a cousin of the earl, defeated the royal troops, under the earls of Mar and Caithness, at Inverlochy in Lochaber in 1431, when the former was killed; but on the appearance of the king himself with additional forces, Donald Balloch fled to Ireland, and the other chiefs made their submission. In consequence of this insurrection, the king appears to have seen the policy of setting the earl of Ross at liberty and attaching him to his service by conferring upon him the important office of Justiciar of Scotland north of the Forth, an office which he held during the minority of James the Second. He appears, however, to have entered into a league with the earls of Douglas and Crawford, in 1455, for the dethronement of that monarch, but died in 1449 before any overt attempt had been made to carry it into effect. Alexander, earl of Ross, like his grandfather, seems to have formed one potent alliance with the Lowland nobility by his marriage with Elizabeth Seton, daughter of Alexander, Lord of Gordon and Huntly, while he had—either before or after—added to his possessions by marriage with daughters of Highland chiefs. By his countess Elizabeth he had John, who succeeded him as Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles. By the daughter of Giollapadraig, the last of the lay abbots of Applecross, and known to tradition as the Red Priest, with whom he obtained the lands of Lochalsh, Lochcarron, and others, he had a son Hugh, to whom he gave the lands of Sleat in Skye; and by a daughter of _Mac Dubhshithe_ or Macphee, of Lochaber, he had Celestine or Gilleaspic, to whom he gave the lands of Lochalsh. During the reign of James the Second, John, earl of Ross, was occasionally at variance with the Crown, and at other times on good terms with the king, and under his influence was married to the daughter of Sir James Livingston; but soon after that king’s death, he entered into a league with the earl of Douglas and King Edward the Fourth of England for the conquest and partition of Scotland, in 1462, and immediately raised the standard of revolt. Having assembled a large force, he made himself master of the castle of Inverness, and proclaimed himself supreme over the sheriffdoms of Inverness and Nairn, which then embraced the whole of the north of Scotland over which he placed his natural son Angus as lieutenant. In consequence of this act, and of the treaty with England coming to light, he was summoned at his castle of Dingwall to appear before a Parliament in Edinburgh to answer to various charges of treason, and failing to attend, sentence of forfeiture was pronounced against him in 1475. In order to carry this sentence into effect, an expedition consisting both of a fleet and land force was sent against him under the command of the earls of Crawford and Atholl, and this led to his suing for pardon through the medium of the earl of Huntly, and he eventually surrendered himself to the royal mercy. He was restored to his forfeited estates, which he immediately resigned to the Crown. The earldom of Ross was annexed to the Crown, and the rest of his estates, with the exception of Kintyre and Knapdale, were regranted to him by royal charter, and he was created a baron banrent and peer of Parliament by the title of Lord of the Isles, with remainder to his two natural sons, Angus and John. The old Celtic lordship of the Isles was thus converted into a feudal barony in 1476.

Angus was soon after married to a daughter of the earl of Argyll, by whom he had a son Donald Dubh, but was treacherously slain in 1490 at Inverness by an Irish harper. The repeated attempts which had been made to recover the earldom of Ross, and other acts committed in name of the aged Lord of the Isles, led to his being again forfeited and deprived of his titles and estates in a Parliament held at Edinburgh in May 1493, on which he retired to the monastery of Paisley, and died there in 1498, and was interred in the tomb of his royal ancestor King Robert the Second. Although several attempts were made after his death by the western chiefs to raise up his grandson Donald Dubh and his nephew Donald Gallda, the son of Celestine, as Lords of the Isles, this was the final termination of the dynasty of the Celtic Lords of the Isles, which practically ceased to exist in 1476 at his first forfeiture, and the Gaelic population, which had been kept together by the power and authority of their great chiefs, became now broken up.[413]

[Sidenote: Lennox.]

The line of the Celtic earls of Lennox had come to an end during the life of Alexander, earl of Ross, when Duncan, earl of Lennox, was executed in 1425, and the earldom passed into the hands of the Stewarts.

[Sidenote: The _Toshachdoracht_.]

The fifteenth century thus saw the last of the great Celtic tribes broken up; but while this process of disintegration from external influence had thus overtaken the greater tribes or _Mortuath_ one after another, their extinction as leading features in the Celtic tribal organisation did not disclose the lesser tribes or _Tuaths_ in their entirety. They, too, had been undergoing a process of internal change similar to that which had affected the Irish tribes and led to the development of the septs or clans, gradually severed more and more from the parent tribe, till the bond of union between them became impaired, and all tradition of their earlier existence as members of a larger organisation became lost. But while the original tribe had ceased thus to exist in that part of the country which retained its Gaelic population, as an actual element in its social organisation, it left an evidence of its previous existence in the lesser districts into which the larger territories were divided, and which still remained as a geographical feature; where an officer bearing the name and some of the functions of the ancient _Toisech_ of the _Tuath_ is still found in connection with some of them. This was the _Toshachdoracht_ or office of _Toschachdoir_, which was considered equivalent to Coroner. It was rendered in Latin by _capitalis legis_, and signified in English, principal of law. Thus, in that part of the great district of Argyll which formed the original kingdom of Dalriada, we find the districts of Cowall, Kintyre in its largest sense, and Lorn, obviously representing the ancient _Tuaths_ into which the population of the kingdom had been divided, and we likewise find Archibald, Master of Argyll, granting in 1550 to Campbell of Ardkinlas the office of Coroner, _alias Thoshisdoir_, viz., _Tosheochdorachtie_ of the lands of Cowall, from Claychin Toskycht to the Points of Toward and Ardlawmonth.[414] In 1539 Alane M‘Lane was appointed by King James V. _Toschachdoir_ of all Kintyre, from the Mull to Altasynach;[415] and the same king appointed, in 1542, Neill mac Neill to the same office.[416] In 1455, John, Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles, confirms to Neill mac Neill a grant made by his father, Alexander, Earl of Ross and Lord of the Isles, to Torquel M‘Neill, constable of the castle of Swyffin, the father of Neill, of the office called _Toshachdeora_ of the lands of Knapdale.[417] In 1447 we find Sir Duncan Campbell as king’s lieutenant within the parts of Argyll, granting to Reginald Malcolmson, of Craignish, the offices of Steward, _Tosachdoir_, and Mair of the whole land of Craignish, and the office of _Tosachdoir_, _ex parte regis_, within the same bounds; when the heir was under age, to be held by his tutor, with consent of his clan, viz., the Clandowil Cragniche.[418] In 1572, Archibald, Earl of Argyll, grants to Colin Campbell of Barbrek certain lands with the coronership of the lands and baronies of Glenurquhay, the two Lochaws, Glenaray, Glenshyro, Ardskeodnich, Melfort, and Barbrek, that is, of the district forming the central part of Argyll between Lorn and Lochfyne.[419] In another grant, it is termed the office of _Tosheadorach_ of the lands lying west of Lochfyne.[420] That part of the great district of Argyll which pertained to the earldom of Moray contained the lesser districts of Lochaber, Morvaren, Ardnamurchan, and Garmoran, and here too we find the Lord of the Isles granting, in 1456, to his esquire Somerled, son of John, son of Somerled, for life, and to his eldest son for five years after his death, a _davach_ of his lands of Gleneves, with the office commonly called _Tocheachdeora_ of all his lands of Lochaber, and he seems to have derived from it the name of _Toche_ or _Toshach_, as in 1553 or 1554 the same lands of Gleneves are granted to his grandson, here called Donald Macallaster Mic Toche.[421]

There is no trace of the office of _Toschachdor_, under this name, in connection with the more eastern districts of Moray, but there is no reason to doubt that such districts as Badenoch, Strathspey, Strathdearn, Strathnairn, Stratherrich, and the Aird, represented what had formerly been tribe territories or _Tuaths_, and the same may be predicated of similar districts in the northern earldoms. In Atholl, as we have seen, the thanages appear even though within the Highland Line, but here we find the office of _Toschachdor_ in connection with one district in Breadalbane which was adjacent to one of these thanages, for among the lands of the earldom of Breadalbane we find the thanage of Cranach, with the office of _Toshachdoiraship_ of Ardtholony,[422] and the office likewise appears in Lennox, where Malcolm, earl of Lennox, grants to Patrick de Lindsay the office of _Tosheagor_ of Lennox.[423] We find a trace of it, too, in Galloway, where the office of coroner between the rivers Dee and Nith and the _Toshachdoracht_ of Nithsdale appear to be the same.[424]

[Sidenote: First appearance of clans.]

But while the more ancient tribal forms had thus undergone a process of change and modification similar to that which characterised the Irish tribe, and left merely its shadow behind it in the geographical district and the function of the _Toshachdoracht_, it is in the reign of David the First that the sept or clan first appears as a distinct and prominent feature in the social organisation of the Gaelic population, and owing to the light thrown upon the ancient state of the earldom of Buchan as a Celtic _Mortuath_ by the Book of Deer only. During the period of the _Mormaers_ of Buchan prior to Garnait and Colban, who were _Mormaers_ or earls in the reign of David, we find the _Toisechs_ mentioned generally as concurring in grants of land; but in the time of these two _Mormaers_ a grant of land is made by Comgill mac Caennaig, _Tosech_ of Clan Canan; and Colban, _Mormaer_ of Buchan, and Eva, daughter of Garnait his wife, and Donnachach mac Sithig, _Toisech_ of Clan Morgan, mortmained all the previous offerings to God, Drostan, Columcille, and Peter, that is, to the monastery of Deer, and this grant is witnessed, among others, by the two sons of the _Toisech_. The _Toisech_ of the _Tuath_ had thus by this time acquired a sufficient _Deis_ to form a sept of his kin and dependants, of which he now appears as the head, but the clans in this district only show themselves to disappear at once before the advancing colonisation of the eastern districts by a Teutonic population.

[Sidenote: Clan Macduff and its privileges.]

In the same reign we find a Gaelic sept or clan appearing where we might least expect to find it, viz., in the province of Fife and Fothriff, where the Clan Macduff figures from an early period in both the mythic and the real history of Scotland, and has acquired a fictitious importance from the supposed connection of its founders with the usurper Macbeth, from which the privileges known as the law of the Clan Macduff were supposed to be derived. The well-known tale of how Macduff was Thane of Fife in the reign of Macbeth, how he incurred the resentment of the usurper and fled to England from his wrath, how his wife and children were slaughtered, and how he brought back Malcolm, the son of King Duncan whom Macbeth had slain, and how he killed Macbeth in the battle which placed Malcolm on the throne, first appears in the Chronicle of John of Fordun,[425] but he does not notice the privileges supposed to be conferred upon him and his descendants. These first appear in an addition made to the Chronicle by his interpolator Bower, the abbot of Inchcolm. According to him, after Malcolm was crowned, Macduff, thane of Fife, came to him, and requested and obtained three privileges, in reward for his faithful service, for himself and his successors, lords or thanes of Fife:—First, that they should place the king in his royal seat or chair on his coronation day; second, that they should lead the vanguard in every battle in which the royal standard was unfurled; third, that they, and every one of their kin, on the occasion of any sudden and unpremeditated homicide, should enjoy the privilege of the law of Macduff, the gentry on paying twenty-four marks as kinbot, and the commonalty on paying twelve marks receiving a plenary remission.[426] Wyntoun gives the same account of the three privileges, but adds—

‘Off this lawch are thre capytale; That is the Blak Prest off Weddale, The Thayne off Fyffe, and the thryd syne Quha ewyre be Lord of Abbyrnethyne.’[427]

Sir John Skene, however, attaches the third privilege to the Croce of the Clan Macduff which divides Stratherne from Fife, as a privilege and liberty of girth in such sort that when any manslayer, being within the ninth degree of kin and blood to Macduff, sometime earl of Fife, came to that cross and gave nine cows and a colpindach, or year-old cow, he was free of the slaughter committed by him, and quotes a charter by David the Second to William Ramsay of the earldom of Fife, with the law called Clan Macduff.[428] The existence of this privilege is so far confirmed that in a Parliament of King Robert the Second, held in 1384, in which certain laws were enacted regarding _Katheranes_, the earl of Fife agreed that as ‘principal of law of Clan Macduff’ (_capitalis legis de Clen m’Duffe_), he would cause them to be observed within his bounds;[429] and in the fragmentary code of laws it is enacted that the _duellum_, or wager of battle, may be remitted in three instances, the second being ‘by the law of the Clan Macduff for the slaughter of one of the kin, if the kin of the other party can come in the place of combat when the appealer is proven, and his lance.’[430] We thus see that when the line of the Celtic Earls of Fife, the hereditary _Toshachs_ of the tribe, failed, they were replaced by the _Capitalis legis_, ‘Capytale of lawch,’ or _Toshachdor_, the principal being the alien Earl, to whom Wyntoun joins the priest of Wedale, a parsonage belonging to St. Andrews, and the Lord of Abernethy, the descendant of the old abbots of the monastery of that name. Hector Boece pushes the origin of the clan as far back as the reign of Kenneth MacAlpin, the founder of the Scottish dynasty, who, according to that veracious chronicler, appointed governors of the different provinces, that of Fife being a certain Fifus Duffus.

There were of course no thanes of Fife at any time. The first appearance of the name on record is in the reign of David the First, when Gillemichel Macduff witnesses an early charter of that monarch to the monks of Dunfermline, along with five earls, one of whom is Constantine, earl of Fife, and he certainly is the same person who witnesses the foundation charter of Holyrood shortly after as ‘Gillemichel Comes,’ and had thus become earl of Fife.

The demesne of the earls of Fife of this race appears to have consisted of the parishes of Cupar, Kilmany, Reres, and Cameron in Fife, and those of Strathmiglo and Auchtermuchty in Fothriff,[431] near which Macduff’s Cross was situated, but whether this sept were the remains of the old Celtic inhabitants of the province, or a Gaelic clan introduced into it when its chief was made earl, it is difficult to say, but it is not impossible that it may have been a northern clan who followed Macbeth when the southern districts were subjected to his rule, and that there may be some foundation for the legend that the founder of the clan had rebelled against him, and adopted the cause of Malcolm Ceannmor, and so maintained his position. The fact that the race from whom the _Mormaers_ of Moray derived their origin is termed in one of the Irish Genealogical MSS. Clan Duff, and the earls of Fife undoubtedly possessed from an early period large possessions in the north, including the district of Strathavon,[432] lends some probability to this supposition. The privileges of the clan, however, stand on a different footing. From the earliest period the territory of Fife comes prominently forward as the leading province of Scotland, and its earls occupied the first place among the seven earls of Scotland. The first two privileges of placing the king on the Coronation Stone, and of heading the van in the army, were probably attached to the province of Fife, and not to any particular tribe from which its earls might have been derived, while on the other hand the third seems derived from the institution connected with the ancient _Finé_, by which the kin formed a class of seventeen persons, consisting of the _Geilfiné_, _Deirbhfiné_, _Indfiné_, and _Iarfiné_, and the nine degrees of kindred of the Clan Macduff correspond to the first two, which consisted of nine persons, traces of which can also be found in the Welsh Laws.

Whilst the sept or clan thus makes its appearance in these few instances beyond the Highland Line, it no doubt had already assumed an equally distinct form within that boundary; but whatever may have been the condition of the clans in the more inaccessible region of the Highlands, history throws little light upon their existence till they emerge beyond it towards the end of the fourteenth century.

[Sidenote: Description of Highlanders—1363-1383.]

Fordun, who concludes his Chronicle immediately before the first appearance of a Highland clan beyond the Highland Line, gives the following description of the inhabitants of the Highlands:—‘The Highlanders and people of the Islands are,’ he says, ‘a savage and untamed nation, rude and independent, given to rapine, ease-loving, of a docile and warm disposition, comely in person but unsightly in dress, hostile to the Anglic people and language, and, owing to diversity of speech, even to their own nation, and exceedingly cruel. They are, however, faithful and obedient to their king and country, and easily made to submit to law, if properly governed.’[433] This is a picture drawn by one who had no friendly feeling towards them, but the good qualities with which he credits them, of being of a docile and warm disposition, and faithful and obedient to their king and country, read as strangely to us when their subsequent history is taken into account, as Fordun’s opinion that the dress is unsightly hardly corresponds with modern taste. At the time he wrote, however, he was warranted in what he said, for from the time when Alexander the Second finally suppressed the rebellion of the people of Moray, and conquered Argyll in the early part of his reign, to his own day, they had not broken out beyond their mountain barrier, and these early rebellions arose from their adherence to a family which they believed had a rightful claim to the throne, just as those of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the result of their attachment to the cause of the Stewarts.

[Sidenote: Raid into Angus in 1391.]

This state of quiescence was not destined, however, to continue long, and within eight years after the death of the chronicler the irruptions of the Highlanders into the low country were renewed, and they now appear in the form of separate septs or clans. Robert the Second had, in the first year of his reign, granted the lands of Badenoch, which had been forfeited by the Cumyns, to his fourth son, Alexander, who, from his fierce disposition, became known as the Wolf of Badenoch, and some years after he obtained grants of the lands of Strathavon, which had belonged to the earls of Fife, and of Abernethy in Strathtay. Alexander had no family by his wife Eupham, countess of Ross, but a number of illegitimate sons; and Bower tells us that in 1391 the Caterans, as he calls them, invaded the Braes of Angus with Duncan Stewart, one of his sons, at their head, and were encountered by Walter Ogilvy, sheriff of Angus, with such of the barons of Angus and their followers as he could hastily summon, at a place called by him Glenbrereth, where the sheriff was slain with sixty of his followers.[434] Wyntoun gives a very graphic account of this raid, which he places in the subsequent year, when he says, ‘There arose a great discord between Sir David of Lindsay, son of Glenesk, and the Highlandmen, and that in consequence of the former sending a secret spy into the Highlands, a great company of Highlandmen, to the number of three hundred and more, came suddenly into Angus under three chieftains, Thomas, Patrick, and Gibbon, whose surname was Duncanson, and encountered the sheriff at Gasklune, in the Stormont, where the latter was slain.’[435] It is unnecessary to enter into the particulars of the conflict, striking though the details are, but we have more certain information as to the leaders of the Highlanders in a Brief issued by King Robert the Third at a general council held at Perth on the 26th March 1392, and addressed to the sheriff and bailiffs of Aberdeen, directing them to put to the horn as outlaws the following persons, guilty of the slaughter of Walter de Ogilvy, Walter de Lichton, and others of the king’s lieges:—viz., Duncan and Robert Stewarts, Patrick and Thomas Duncansons, Robert de Athale, Andrew Macnayr, Duncan Bryceson, Angus Macnayr, and John Ayson junior, and all others their adherents; and as taking part with them in the slaughter, Slurach and his brothers, with the whole Clanqwhevil, William Mowat, John de Cowts, Donald de Cowts, with their adherents; David de Rose, Alexander M‘Kintalyhur, John M‘Kintalyhur, Adam Rolson, John Rolson, with their adherents; Duncan Neteraulde, John Mathyson, with their adherents; Morgownde Ruryson and Michael Mathowson, with their adherents.[436] They thus formed six groups. The first group who were directly implicated, with the exception of the Stewarts, belong to Athole; the Duncansons, with Robert de Athale, were the heads of the Clan Donnachie, descended from the old earls who possessed the north-western district bordering upon that of Badenoch; the Macnairs possessed Foss in Strathtummel, and the Aysons, Tullimet in Strathtay. The other five were art and part. The first were Slurach and his brothers, who with their followers formed a clan termed the Clanqwhevil. This is the first appearance of a distinct clan in the Highlands. The second group of the Mowats and Cowts belonged to Buchan, of which Alexander Stewart was earl; and the third of David de Rose and his followers, must have come from Strathnairn, where the Roses were situated. These groups were, therefore, probably dependants of the Wolf of Badenoch, and the cause of this raid seems to have arisen from this, that Sir David de Lindsay had inherited Glenesk in Angus and the district of Strathnairn from his mother, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir John Stirling of Glenesk, while another of the daughters had married Robert de Atholia. His possession of Strathnairn would bring him into contact with the Wolf of Badenoch and the northern clans, and a quarrel regarding the succession probably brought the Clan Donnachie into the field.

[Sidenote: Combat of two clans on North Inch of Perth in 1396.]

The Wolf of Badenoch died in 1394, and two years after, the only Highland clan hitherto mentioned with that designation, came more prominently into the foreground in the very remarkable combat which took place on the North Inch of Perth in the year 1396, and from its peculiarity seems to have attracted general notice, as well as given rise to a controversy with regard to the actors in it, for which it is difficult to provide any satisfactory solution.

The account given by the chroniclers of this remarkable combat differs somewhat as to the details. The earliest account of it is probably that given by Wyntoun, who wrote his Chronicle between 1420 and 1424, or only about twenty-five years after the event. He says that the combat took place at Saint Johnstoun or Perth between sixty men, thirty against thirty, who belonged to two clans who had been at variance in old feud in which their fore elders were slain. He names the clans Clahynnhe (or Clan) Qwhewyl, and Clachiny (or Clan) Ha, and that their chieftains were Scha Ferqwhareisone and Christy Johnesone; that they fought within barriers with bow and axe, knife and sword; but that who had the best of it he could not say, and that fifty or more were slain, and but few escaped with life.[437]

Bower, who wrote nearly twenty-five years later, gives further details. He says that a great part of the north beyond the Grampians had been disturbed by two turbulent caterans and their followers:—Scheabeg and his kin, who were called Clan Kay, and Cristi Johnson, and his, called Clanquhele, who could by no treaty or arrangement be brought to peace, nor could they be brought under subjection to the government, upon which David de Lyndesay of Crawford, and Thomas earl of Moray, interposed and treated between them, so that they agreed to settle their quarrel before the king at Perth, by a combat between thirty chosen men of their kin on each side, armed only with their swords, bows and arrows, and without their plaids or other arms. The combat took place on the North Inch of Perth, in presence of the king, the governor, and a great multitude, on the Monday before Saint Michael’s day, when, of the sixty, all were slain except one on the part of the Clan Kay and eleven on the other part. He adds that as they were entering within the barrier, one of the number dashed into the river and escaped by swimming across, on which one of the spectators offered to supply his place for half a mark, on condition that if he survived he was to be maintained during the rest of his life, which was agreed to. The result was that the north was for many years after at peace, and there was no further outbreak of the caterans.[438] The material difference between Bower’s account and Wyntoun’s is, that he reverses the connection of the chiefs with the clans, and adds the detail of the numbers slain on both sides, and the aid of the volunteer.

The next account is given by Maurice Buchanan, in the Book of Pluscarden, who wrote in 1461, and differs very much from that of Bower. He connects this event with the raid into Angus five years previously, and implies that the same parties were concerned in both, but he does not name the clans. This was so far the case, that the Clan Qwhele took part in both. He says that in 1391 so great a contention had arisen among the wild Scots (_silvestres Scottos_), that their whole country was disturbed by it, and, on that account, the king finding himself unable to restore peace, arranged, in a council of the magnates of the kingdom, that their two principal captains, with their best and most valiant friends, amounting on each side to thirty men, should fight in an enclosed field after the manner of judicial combatants (_more duellancium_),[439] with swords only, cross bows having each three arrows only, and this before the king on a certain day on the North Inch of Perth; and this, by the intervention of the earl of Crawford and other nobles, was agreed upon and carried out, when all on both sides were slain except seven, five on the one side and two on the other escaping alive, of which two one escaped by flying to the river and escaping across it, and the other being taken was pardoned with the consent of the other party, though some say that he was hung. In the beginning of the conflict one of the number of one party disappeared and could not be found, on which one of the spectators, who happened to belong to the same clan (_parentela_) and was hostile to the other party, agreed to supply his place for forty shillings, fought most valiantly, and escaped with his life.[440] As the writer of this account was himself a Highlander, this is most probably the account given of the combat on the Highland side, while that of Bower was the account reported in the Lowlands; and the former has more appearance of being the correct account, and agrees better with that of Wyntoun, who could not tell which party gained. It also indicates that the conflict was of the nature of a judicial wager of battle, which is also probably the true view; for if the contention between the clans was a mere ordinary feud, it is difficult to see how this combat should have been the means of restoring peace, but if the dispute related to some difference as to some question of right or privilege which both claimed, it is quite intelligible that it should have been settled by judicial combat before the king.

The only other early notice of this event is in a short chronicle contained in the Chartulary of Moray, which states that the combat took place on the 28th day of September at Perth before the king and the nobles of Scotland, because he found it impossible to establish peace between two clans (_parentelas_) called the Clan Kay and the Clan Qwhwle, whence there were daily slaughtering attacks committed by them. Thirty men on each side without armour, but with bows, swords, and dirks, met in conflict, when all on the side of the Clan Kay were slain except one, and of the other party ten survived.[441]

[Sidenote: The Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron.]

If this event was connected with the raid of Angus which preceded it, the events which followed may likewise tend to throw light upon the actors in this strange combat. When the royal forces attacked Alexander, Lord of the Isles, in 1429, and put him to flight in Lochaber, the chroniclers tell us, that at the sight of the royal standard, he was deserted by two tribes, who submitted to the royal authority. They are termed by Bower the Clan Katan and Clan Cameron, and by Maurice Buchanan, more correctly, the _Clan de Guyllequhatan_ and _Clan Cameron_. This was on the eve of St. John the Baptist’s day, that is, on the 23d of June, and on the following Palm Sunday, which is on the 20th day of the following month of March, we are told by the chroniclers that the Clan Chattan attacked the Clan Cameron when assembled in a certain church, to which they set fire and destroyed nearly the whole clan. Although the Clan Chattan are here said, in general terms, to have deserted the Lord of the Isles, it appears that a part of the clan still adhered to his cause, for after his restoration to liberty, we find him in 1443 granting a charter to Malcolm MacIntosh of the forty merk lands of Keppoch and others in the lordship of Lochaber, and in 1447 he confers upon him the office of bailie or steward of the lordship of Lochaber.[442] This Malcolm, who is called in the second charter his cousin, was related to the Lord of the Isles through his mother, who was a daughter of his grandfather Angus, Lord of the Isles, and was thus probably led to adhere to him. The same lands are confirmed to his son Duncan MacIntosh in 1466, by John, Lord of the Isles,[443] and in this charter he is termed Captain of Clan Chattan, which is the first appearance of this designation.

Neither were the Clan Cameron entirely destroyed, for we find Alan, son of Donald Duff, appearing in 1472 as Captain of the Clan Cameron, and in 1492, Alexander of the Isles, Lord of Lochalsh and Lochiel, grants the lands of Lochiel to Ewen, son of Alan, son of Donald, Captain of Clan Cameron. It would thus appear that a part only of these two clans had deserted the Lord of the Isles in 1429, and a part adhered to him, that the conflict on Palm Sunday was between the former part of these clans, and that the leaders of those who adhered to the Lord of the Isles became afterwards recognised as captains of the respective clans. It further appears that there was, within no distant time after the conflict on the North Inch of Perth, a bitter feud between the two clans who had deserted the Lord of the Isles, and there are indications that this was merely the renewal of an older quarrel, for both clans undoubtedly contested the right to the lands of Glenlui and Locharkaig in Lochaber, to which William MacIntosh received a charter from the Lord of the Isles in 1336, while they unquestionably afterwards formed a part of the territory possessed by the Camerons.

By the later historians one of the clans who fought on the North Inch of Perth, and who were termed by the earlier chroniclers _Clan Qwhele_, are identified with the Clan Chattan,[444] and that this identification is well founded, so far as regards that part of the clan which adhered to the royal cause, while that in the part of the Clan Cameron who followed the same course, and were nearly entirely destroyed on Palm Sunday, we may recognise their opponents the Clan Kay, is not without much probability.

The Clan Chattan in later times consisted of sixteen septs, who followed MacIntosh as captain of the clan, but did not recognise him as one of the race, and regarded MacPherson of Cluny, head of the sept called _Clan Vuireach_, as the male representative of the founder of the clan. The first of the MacIntoshes who appears with the title of Captain of Clan Chattan is Duncan MacIntosh, the son of Malcolm, in 1400 and in 1466, and he was probably placed by the Lord of the Isles over that part of the clan who adhered to him. Eight of the septs forming the later Clan Chattan may be put aside as having been affiliated to the clan subsequently to the year 1429, as well as the family of MacIntosh, descended from Malcolm. The remainder represent the clan as it existed before that date. It consisted of an older sept of MacIntoshes, who possessed lands in Badenoch, the principal of which was Rothiemurchus, and appears to have claimed those of Glenlui and Locharkaig in Lochaber. The eight septs who then formed the Clan Chattan proper were the _Clan Vuirich_ or MacPhersons, and the _Clan Day_ or Davidsons, who were called the old Clan Chattan, and six stranger septs, who took protection from the clan. These were the _Clan Vic Ghillevray_ or MacGillivrays, the _Clan Vean_ or MacBeans, the _Clan Vic Govies_, the _Clan Tarrel_, the _Clan Cheanduy_, and the _Sliochd Gowchruim_ or Smiths. The _Clan Vic Govies_, however, were a branch of the Clan Cameron, and the _Sliochd Gowchruim_ were believed to be descendants of the person who supplied the place of the missing member of the clan at the combat on the North Inch of Perth, and who was said to have been a smith.

The Clan Cameron, on the other hand, consisted of four septs. These were the _Clan Gillanfhaigh_ or Gillonie, or Camerons of Invermalie and Strone, the _Clan Soirlie_, or Camerons of Glenevis, the _Clan Vic Mhartain_, or MacMartins of Letterfinlay, and the Camerons of Lochiel. The latter were the sept whose head became Captain of Clan Cameron and adhered to the Lord of the Isles, while the three former represented the part of the clan who seceded from him in 1429. Besides these there were dependent septs, the chief of which were the _Clan Vic Gilveil_ or M‘Millans, and these were believed to be of the race of Clan Chattan. The connection between the two clans is thus apparent. Now there are preserved genealogies of both clans in their earlier forms, written not long after the year 1429. One is termed the ‘Genealogy of the Clan an Toisig, that is, the Clan Gillachattan,’ and gives it in two separate lines. The first represented the older MacIntoshes. The second is deduced from Gillachattan Mor, the eponymus of the clan. His great-grandson Muireach, from whom the Clan Vuireach takes its name, has a son Domnall or Donald, called _in Caimgilla_, and this word when aspirated would form the name Kevil or _Quhevil_.[445] The chief seat of this branch of the clan can also be ascertained, for Alexander, Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross, confirms a charter granted by William, earl of Ross, in 1338 of the lands of Dalnafert and Kinrorayth or Kinrara, under reservation of one acre of ground near the Stychan of the town of Dalnavert, where was situated the manor of the late Scayth, son of Ferchard,[446] and we find a ‘_Tsead_, son of Ferquhar’ in the Genealogy at the same period. Moreover the grandson of this Scayth was _Disiab_ or Shaw, who thus was contemporary with the Shaw who fought in 1396. The gravestone said to mark the grave of Shaw _Corshiacloch_, or buck-toothed, whom tradition declares to be the Shaw who led the clan at the combat, was, according to Shaw, still to be seen in the adjacent church of Rothiemurchus. He is also said to have married the daughter of Kenneth Macvuireach, ancestor of the Macpherson of Cluny, and in him and his father-in-law we may probably recognise the ‘Kenethus Mor with his son-in-law, leader of two thousand men,’ who were arrested by James the First at his Parliament at Inverness in 1427.[447] With regard to the Clan Cameron, the invariable tradition is that the head of the MacGillonies or _MacGillaanaigh_ led the clan who fought with the Clan Chattan during the long feud between them, and the old Genealogy terms the Cameron’s _Clan Maelanfhaigh_, or the race of the servant of the prophet, and deduces them from a common ancestor the _Clan Maelanfhaigh_ and the _Clan Camshron_, and as the epithet _an Caimgilla_, when aspirated, would become _Kevil_, so the word _Fhaigh_ in its aspirated form would be represented by the _Hay_ of the chroniclers.[448]

John Major probably gives the clew to the whole transaction, when he tells us that ‘these two clans’—the Clan Chattan and Clan Cameron, which we have seen had a certain connection through their dependent septs, ‘were of one blood, having but little in lordships, but following one head of their race as principal with their kinsmen and dependants.’[449] He is apparently describing their position before these dissensions broke out between them, and his description refers us back to the period when the two clans formed one tribe, possessing the district of Lochaber as their _Tuath_ or country, where the lands in dispute—Glenlui and Locharkaig—were probably the official demesne of the old _Toisech_ or head of the tribe.

[Sidenote: The Chief and the Kinsmen.]

The clans are here described as consisting of two divisions: The one of the Kinsmen, or those of the blood of the sept; the other of the dependants or subordinate septs, who might be of different race. The former clan are well defined in the Gartmore MS., written in the year 1747. The writer says that ‘the property of these Highlands belongs to a great many different persons, who are more or less considerable in proportion to the extent of their estates, and to the command of men that live upon them, or follow them, on account of this clanship, out of the estates of others. These lands are set by the landlord during pleasure, or a short tack, to people whom they call goodmen (_Duine Uasail_), and who are of a superior station to the commonalty. These are generally the sons, brothers, cousins, or nearest relations of the landlord (or chief). This, by means of a small portion, and the liberality of their relations, they are able to stock, and which they, their children and grandchildren, possess at an easy rent, till a nearer descendant be again preferred to it. As the propinquity removes, they become less considered, till at last they degenerate to be of the common people, unless some accidental acquisition of wealth supports them above their station. As this hath been an ancient custom, most of the farmers and cottars are of the name and clan of the proprietor.’ This exactly describes the Irish _Finé_ in its restricted sense, where the immediate kin of the _Ceannfiné_ or chief consists of seventeen persons, forming the _Duthach Finé_, from whence they pass by degrees into the _Duthaign Daine_ or commonalty of the _Finé_ or sept.

[Sidenote: The native-men.]

The dependent septs, on the other hand, represent the _Fuidhir_ of the Irish tribal system. Their position will be best understood by the Bonds of Manrent or Manred, which came to be taken by the chiefs from their dependants when the relation constituted by usage and traditional custom was relaxed by time, or when a new relationship was constituted at a later period. Thus in a bond by a sept of M‘Gillikeyr to John Campbell of Glenurchy, in 1547, he declares that they have chosen him of their own free motive to their chief to be their protector in all great actions, as a chief does in the countries of the Highlands, and shall have lands of him in assedation; and when any of them deceases shall leave to him and his heirs ‘ane cawlpe of kenkynie,’ as is used in the countries about. Again, in a bond by Duncan M‘Olcallum and others of the Clan Teir to Colyne Campbell of Glenurchay in 1556, they state that in consequence of the slaughter of Johne M‘Gillenlay, foster-brother of Sir Colyne Campbell of Glenurchay, their predecessor, for sythment and recompence of said slaughter, had delivered to him one of the principal committers of it called John Roy M‘Ynteir, to be punished at his will; and moreover had elected and taken him and his heirs for their chiefs and masters, and given to him their calps, which calps the said Colyne, Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenurchay, his son that deceased at Flodden (1513), and all other lairds of Glenurchay had since taken up; and the said Clan Teir of new ratify the bond in favour of Colyne, now of Glenurchay. Again, we find in 1559 Archibald, earl of Argyll, transferring to his cousin Colyne Campbell of Glenurchay and his heirs-male the manrent, homage, and service which his predecessors and he had and has of the ‘haill kyn and surname of the Clanlaurane and their posteritie,’ together with the uptaking of their calps, providing the said Colyne obtain their consent thereto.[450]

It is unnecessary to quote more of these bonds, which are usually in the same terms; and we may conclude with the following taken from ‘ane list of the native-men of Craignish.’ In 1592 Malcolme Moir Makesaig and his sons appeared at Barrichbyan, and gave to their well-beloved Ronald Campbell McEan VcDonald of Barrichbyan and his heirs their bond of manred and calpis for ever, and shall follow and obey him and his heirs in whatever place he and his foresaids transport themselves in the country or without; and shall obey them as native-men ought and should do to their chief; and Ronald obliges himself and his heirs to be a good chief and master to them as his native-men, and to give to them their duty that they and their succession of men and women ought to have after calpis, conform to the use of the country. In 1595 similar agreements were made by other small septs, and in a bond of manrent granted by Gillicallum McDonchie VcIntyre VcCoshen to Ranald Campbell of Barrechebyan in 1612, in which he states, ‘Forasmuch as I understand of gude memorie that the surname of Clanntyre VcCoshen wer of auld native-men, servandis and dependaris to the house and surename of Clandule Cregnis, _alias_ Campbellis in Cregnis, and willing of my dewtie to renew the band and service of my sadis forbearis war of auld, and dewtie to the sadis house and surename, and acknowledging Rannald Campbell of Barrichbyan to be of the samin house and surname,’ he becomes bound, for himself and all others descended of his body, ‘to be leill, trew, and of auld, native-men in all lawlieness and subjection to the said Rannald and his airis-male for ever, and that according as my predecessors were in use of befoir, and as ony native-men are in use in Argyll, in special sall serve be sea and land the said Rannald, etc.; and in token to uplift from me at my decease the second but aucht that I sall have at the time foresaid in name of calp, to wit, ane hors, meir, or mart;’ and ‘providing alwayis the said Rannald and his airis do the dewtie of ane chief or maister to me and my airis male and female, as use is; attour I grant me, as use is, to haif gotten at the making heirof ane guid and sufficient sword, ressavit and deliverit be the said Rannald to remane as ane memoriall taikin of this my band of manrent.’[451]

[Sidenote: Fosterage.]

Another feature in the relation between the chief and his kinsmen with their dependent septs was the custom of fosterage which prevailed among the Highland clans as it characterised the Irish tribes. The written contracts of fosterage, which, like the bonds of manrent, superseded the unwritten usage during the transition period when the older Celtic law was losing its influence, and when it became necessary for the chiefs to secure their ancient privileges from passing away under the pressure of other influences, will afford us the best means of ascertaining the true nature of this custom. We may refer to the terms of a few of those which have been preserved. In 1510 we have an obligation by Johne M‘Neill Vreik in Stronferna, and Gregoure his brother, to receive Coleyne Campbell, lawful third son to Coleyne Campbell, the eldest son and heir of Sir Duncan Campbell of Glenurquhay, knight, in fostering, and to give him a bairn’s part of gear; and giving to the said Sir Duncan and his heirs their bonds of _Manrent_ and _Calps_, that is, the best aucht in their houses the times of their decease; the said Sir Duncan and Coleyne his son being bound to defend the said John and Gregour in the lands of Stronferna, and the rest of the _rowmis_ they possess, as law will.[452] Again, in 1580, there is a contract between Duncane Campbell, fiar of Glenurquhay, and his native servant Gillecreist Makdonchy Duff V^cNokerd and Katherine Neyn Douill Vekconchy his spouse, in which the latter bind themselves to take in fostering Duncane Campbell, son to the said Duncane, to be sustained by them in meat, drink, and nourishment till he be sent to the schools with the advice of friends, and to sustain him at the schools with reasonable support, the said father and foster-father giving between them of _Makhelve_ goods in donation to the said bairn at Beltane thereafter, the value of two hundred merks of ky and two horses or two mares worth forty merks; these goods, with their increase, to pertain to the said bairn as his own chance bears him to, but their milk to pertain to the said foster-father and mother so long as they sustain the said bairn, and until he be sent to the schools, except so much of the milk as will pay the mails of pasture-lands for the said cattle, which the said foster-father is bound to find for them upon Lochaw, and until such be got he finding for them the half of the lands of Auchakynnay, etc.[453]

The next contract in date, which we shall quote, takes us to the Western Isles. It is a contract in 1612, by which Sir Roderick Macleod of Dunvegan gives his son Norman to John, son of the son of Kenneth, to foster; and it is a very remarkable document, for it is written in Gaelic in the Irish character of the time. The conditions are, that if John dies first the child is to remain with the widow, but the guardianship with John’s brother Angus, who is to have the entire charge of the child if the widow marries again; and Sir Roderick is to have a son’s share of the stock (the bairn’s part of the other contracts) during the life of himself and his heir and the foster-child, along with John’s heirs. The stock (_Sealbh_) which is to be put into possession of the foster-child is four mares given by the foster-father, and other four mares by the father Sir Roderick, along with three which he promised him when he took him to his bosom. The charge and keeping of the seven mares given by the father to be with the foster-father, in order to put them to increase for his foster-son; and the care and keeping of the four mares given by the foster-father to be with the father, to put them to increase for him in like manner. Among the witnesses to this contract are the ministers of Duirinish and Bracadale.[454] The last we shall notice is as late as the year 1665, and is a contract betwixt George Campbell of Airds in Argyllshire and Donald Dow M‘Ewin in Ardmastill and Roiss N’Odochardie his wife, by which George Campbell gives in fostering to Donald Dow and his wife, Isobell Campbell, his lawful daughter, for the space of seven years from next Beltane, and gives to her as M‘Heliff (_Shealbh_) two new-calved kyne with a calf and a year-old stirk, a two-year-old quey at Beltane next, and another two-year-old quey at Beltane 1667; and Donald Dow and his spouse give to their foster-child two farrow kyne, with a stirk and a two-year-old quey at Beltane, and another two-year-old quey at Beltane 1667. The whole of their cattle with their increase to be in the custody of the foster-father and mother during these seven years, the milk to belong to the foster-father and the increase of the cattle to the foster-child; but the father is to grass the yeald kyne yearly, if the foster-father have not sufficient pasturage for them. In addition to this, the foster-father and his spouse give the foster-child a bairn’s part and portion of their whole goods and gear which shall belong to them at their decease, as if she was their own lawful child.[455]

[Sidenote: The Clan and its Members.]

While the clan, viewed as a single community, thus consisted of the chief, with his kinsmen to a certain limited degree of relationship; the commonalty who were of the same blood, who all bore the same name, and his dependants, consisting of subordinate septs of native-men, who did not claim to be of the blood of the chief, but were either probably descended from the more ancient occupiers of the soil, or were broken men from other clans, who had taken protection from him, the influence of the acquisition of the right of property in land, which had originally developed the septs out of the tribe, likewise tended to make smaller septs within the clan. Those kinsmen of the chief who acquired the property of their land founded families, in which the land became hereditary, and which thus became the centres of a new organisation within the clan. The most influential of these was that of the oldest cadet in the family which had been longest separated from the main stem, and usually presented the appearance of a rival house little less powerful than that of the chief. There is perhaps no better description of the form which the clan ultimately assumed, and of the spirit which animated its members, than that given by an acute observer in the early part of last century.[456] ‘The Highlanders,’ he says, ‘are divided into tribes or clans, under chiefs or chieftains, as they are called in the laws of Scotland; and each clan again divided into branches from the main stock, who have chieftains over them. These are subdivided into smaller branches of fifty or sixty men, who deduce their original from their particular chieftains, and rely upon them as their more immediate protectors and defenders. The ordinary Highlanders esteem it the most sublime degree of virtue to love their chief and pay him a blind obedience, although it be in opposition to the government, the laws of the kingdom, or even to the law of God. Next to this love of their chief is that of the particular branch from whence they sprang, and, in a third degree, to those of the whole clan or name, whom they will assist, right or wrong, against those of any other tribe with which they are at variance. They likewise owe goodwill to such clans as they esteem to be their particular well-wishers; and, lastly, they have an adherence one to another as Highlanders in opposition to the people of the Low Country, whom they despise as inferior to them in courage, and believe they have a right to plunder them whenever it is in their power. This last arises from a tradition that the Lowlands, in old times, were the possession of their ancestors. The chief exercises an arbitrary authority over his vassals, determines all differences and disputes that happen among them, and levies taxes upon extraordinary occasions, such as the marriage of a daughter, building a house, or some pretence for his support and the honour of the name. This power of the chiefs is not supported by interest as they are landlords, but as lineally descended from the old patriarchs or fathers of the families.’