History of the Clan Macfarlane

HISTORY OF THE CLAN MACFARLAN Mrs. C. M. Little [gc M. L 929.2 M164t GENEALOGY COLLECTION I I 1149534 \ ALLEN CCnjmVPUBUCUBBABY, 334Z 3 1833 00859 Hf/^. I /^^^^^^ IIISTOKV OF TH1-: CLAN MACFARLANE, (.Macfai'lane) MACFARLAN. MACFARLAND, MACFARLIN. BY MRS. C. M. TJTTLE. TOTTENVILLE, N. Y. MRS. C. M. LITTLK. 1893. Copyrighted. Mrs. C. M. LITTLK 1893. For Private Circucation. 1149534 TO MY DEAR AND AGED MOTHER, WHO, IN HER NINETIETH YEAR, THE LAST OF HER GENERA- TION, WITH INTELLECT UNIMPAIRED, STANDS AS A WORTHY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE INDOM- ITABLE RACE OF MACFARLANE, THIS BOOK IS REVERENTLY deDicatgD, BY HER AFFECTIONATE DAUGHTER, THE AUTHOR. — INTRODUCTION. " Why dost thou build the hall? Son of the winged days! Thou lookest from thy tower to-day; yet a few years and the blast of the desert comes: it howls in thy empty court." Ossian. Being, myself, a direct descendant of the Clan MacFarlane, the old "Coat of Arms" hanging upon the wall one of my earliest recollections, the oft-repeated story of the great bravery at Lang- side that gave them the crest, the many traditions told by those who have long since passed away, left npon my mind an impression so indeli- ble, that, as years rolled on, and I had become an ardent student of Scottish history, I determined to know more of my ancestors than could be gathered from oral traditions. At length, in the summer of 1891, traveling for the second time in Europe, I was enabled to exe- cute a long-cherished plan of spending some time at Arrochar, at the head of Loch Long, in the Highlandsof Scotland, the hereditary possessions for six hundred years of the chiefs of the Clan MacFarlane. I trod the same paths that my forefathers had trodden, I stood beneath the broad oaks they had planted, I walked the highway that was once the noble avenue of their ancient park, I stood with emotion in the few rooms left of their old castle, I gazed long at the ruing of their strong- holds, on the Islands of Loch Lomond, I looked vi INTRODUCTION. with awe upon the majestic mountains which their eyes had beholden for centuries, I spent long summer days in their old grave-yards, I scraped the mossy coverings from the armorial bearings upon their tombstones, I gathered the blue forget-me-nots that sprang from their sacred dust, I heard their dark legends, and, as the bagpipes sounded forth some wild martial strain, it aroused in me the feeling that the genius of my clan had laid her hand upon my head, and said—Daughter, write! Tell to those scattered over the whole habitable globe, who have one drop of the MacFarlane blood in their veins, of their noble ancestry, I have obeyed the call. C. M. L. TOTTENVILLE, StaTEN IsLAND, JuLY 4, I 892. PREF^ACE. The difticiilties to be surmounted in the prep- aration of a ^genealogical work can only be appreciated by those who have engaged in a like undertaking, and while it may have been a labor of love, the task has been somewhat appalling. The heads of many families, widely separated, their addresses, and often names, quite un- known, were to be consulted, frequently caus- ing trom fifteen to twenty letters to be written, to secure dates for one family alone. In one case, to tind the name of a remote ancestor, one hitndred and thirty letters were written, fourteen town and county records "searched," ])iil)lic libi^aries examined, the treasures of antiquarian and historical socie- ties, as well as the State archives of New Hamp- shire and .Massachusetts, looked througli, and when it was found, " we tossed \i]) our bonny blue bonnets!" The subdividing: and renaming of (owns in New Ilani])sliiro and .Massachusetts as well as the burninL^ ot" clui roll records in Londonderry, N. II.. prior to 1820, have ma<le tin.- task still more difficult. I can only say that, hereafter, tlu- Book of (yenesis will have a new meaning for me. With(uit an exception, the family liave most viii PREFACE. cheerfully aided nie. Indeed, it has seemed as though they had seen the "fiery cross" and heard the cry of "L,och Sloy, '" and, like the brave MacFarlanes of old Arrochar, had sprung" to the rescue. In the compilation of this work, I am espe- cially indebted to the Rev. James Dewar, M. A., for twenty-three years the loved and revered minister of the Established Church at Arrochar, Scotland, who had collected the oral traditions of the Clan MacFarlane from its aged survivors, and very courteously gave them for insertion, in this volume. I also wish to express my grate- ful appreciation of the help I have received from Mrs. Louisa R Irving and Mrs. Annette lyittle- field of Haverhill, Mass., Mrs. John Holmes of Burlington, Vt. , Mr. Henry MacFarland of Con- cord, N. H., and Major Alexander T. Tvaidley, of Charleston. W. Va. rHE CLAN MACFARLANE. Th?: descent (jfthe Clan Mac Farlane, from the ancient earls of the district in which their }jos- sessions were situated, is the only one, with the excej^tion of the Clan Donnachic. which is fortified by a cliarter still extant. * All historians agree that the ancestoj- ol' the Mac Farlanes was Gilchrist, bi'other to Maldiiin, third Earl of Lenox : the proof of which is the above-mentioned charter, by which he gives to his brother Gilchrist a grant " de terris su- ])eriori, Ari'ochar de Luss, " which lands con- tinued in the possession of the Clan for six liiindred years, tmtil the sale of the estate in 1784, and have at all times constituted their principal inheritance, f The descent ol' the Clan iVoni the Earls of Lenox being thvis clearly established, we ])ro- ceed to a more ditticiilt task—the origin of the Lenox. Some histoi-jans. withovit giving sufficient ])roof, have assigned to them a loreign oi-igin. Others have believed the founder of this noble family to have been a certain Northumbrian, Archillus, who fied into Scotland after the Rattle Browne's "History of the Higk lands." tibid. — lo THE CLAN MACFARLANE. of Hastings. Mr. Skene has shown this to be groundless, stating that several generations have intervened between ArchilKis the Northum- brian and Arkil the father of Aluin, who, from charters still extant, is believed to have been the first Earl of Eenox, having been raised to that dignity by William the Eion. Btichanan says : "Ottr own antiqtiarians, with far greater probability, which is also confirmed by a constant and inviolable tradition, derive the origin of this ancient family from Aluin, a younger son of Kenneth HI, King of Scotland, who died in 994. From this Aluin descended in. a direct male line Arkil, who was contemporary with King Edgar and King Alexander I, and seems to have been a person of considerable note, in both these reigns. _ "His son Akiin Mac Arkil, /. e., the son of Arkil, as he is designated in old charters, was a great favorite at Court in the reigns of King David and Malcolm IV, as is evident from his being so frequently a witness to the grants and donations of both these princes to churches and abbacies, particularly to the Church of Glasgow, * ' and the Abbey of Dtimfermline. f This Aluin is the first Earl of Lenox of which history gives an account; he died in 1160, and appears to have left a family of young children for until the eldest came of ao-e, the Reg:ister of Extract from the Register of Glasgow. j-Chartulary of Duinfermline —See also Sir James Dalrym- ple's Historical Collections. THE CLAN MACFARLANE. ir Paisley tells us their possessions were in the hands of David, Earl of Huntington. "His son and successor, also called Aluin, second Earl of Eenox, was, according to the de- votion of those times, a liberal benefactor to the Church. X He mortified the lands of Cochnach, Edinbarnet, Dalmcnach, with many other lands, to the old Church of Kilpatrick. § This mortifi- cation is svipposed to have been made before the foundation of the Abbey of Paisley. "This Earl Aluin left issue (beside others whose posterity is long since extinct), two sons, Malduin, his successor, third Earl of Lenox, and " Gilchrist, ancestor to the Laird of Mac Farlane. Stodart's " vScottish Heraldry, " in the library of the British Musetim, says: "Aluin, Earl of Len- ox, had, in 1225, a son who left descendants. Next to Dumbarton Castle, the chief residence of the Lenox was Balloch. In the year 1238, we find King Alexander H, confirming to this Malduin, third Earl of Lenox, all the estates of his father, AUiin, except the Castle of Dumbarton, which the King claimed the right to garrison himself, considering it very dangerous to leave such a strongholtl in the possession of a subject, who might at any time rebel against liis sovereign. This Earl died about the year 1270. "His brother Gilchrist, having received from his father a grant of lands in the northern part ^Register of Dum1)arton. §Buchanan. 12 THE CLAN xMACKARLANE. of Lenox, became the progenitor of the Mac- Farlanes. Auly, another brother, founded the family of Faslane. " Fifteen years after the death of Malduin, third Earl of Lenox, came the death of Alexander III, when several claimants to the throne appearing, the usual strife and bloodshed of that period followed. Twenty-seven years after the death of the third Earl of Lenox, history* tells of an Earl of Lenox, who, in 1297, attended an "As- sembly of the vStates," held at the Forest Church of Selkirkshire, where William Wallace was chosen " Giiardian of the Kingdom of Scotland.

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