In 1292, Gilleskel Maclachlan got a charter of his lands in Ergadia from Baliol.
In a document preserved in the treasury of Her Majesty’s Exchequer, entitled “Les petitions de terre demandees en Escoce,” there is the following entry,—“Item Gillescop Macloghlan ad demandi la Baronie de Molbryde juvene, apelle Strath, que fu pris contre le foi de Roi.” From this it appears that Gillespie Maclachlan was in possession of the lands still retained by the family, during the occupation of Scotland by Edward I. in 1296.[167]
In 1314, Archibald Maclachlan in Ergadia, granted to the Preaching Friars of Glasgow forty shillings to be paid yearly out of his lands of Kilbride, “juxta castrum meum quod dicitur Castellachlan.” He died before 1322, and was succeeded by his brother Patrick. The latter married a daughter of James, Steward of Scotland, and had a son, Lachlan, who succeeded him. Lachlan’s son, Donald, confirmed in 1456, the grant by his predecessor Archibald, to the Preaching Friars of Glasgow of forty shillings yearly out of the lands of Kilbride, with an additional annuity of six shillings and eightpence “from his lands of Kilbryde near Castellachlan.”[168]
Lachlan, the 15th chief, dating from the time that written evidence can be adduced, was served heir to his father, 23d September 1719. He married a daughter of Stewart of Appin, and was killed at Culloden, fighting on the side of Prince Charles. The 18th chief, his great-grandson, Robert Maclachlan of Maclachlan, convener and one of the deputy-lieutenants of Argyleshire, married in 1823, Helen, daughter of William A. Carruthers of Dormont, Dumfries-shire, without issue. His brother, the next heir, George Maclachlan, Esq., has three sons and a daughter. The family seat, Castle Lachlan, built about 1790, near the old and ruinous tower, formerly the residence of the chiefs, is situated in the centre of the family estate, which is eleven miles in length, and, on an average, a mile and a half in breadth, and stretches in one continued line along the eastern side of Loch Fyne. The effective force of the clan previous to the rebellion of 1745, was estimated at 300 men. Their original seat, according to Mr Skene, appears to have been in Lochaber, where a very old branch of the family has from the earliest period been settled as native men of the Camerons.
In Argyleshire also are the families of Maclachlan of Craiginterve, Inchconnell, &c., and in Stirlingshire, of Auchintroig. The Maclachlans of Drumblane in Monteith were of the Lochaber branch.
MacEwens.
Upon a rocky promontory situated on the coast of Lochfyne, may still be discerned the vestige of a building, called in Gaelic Chaistel Mhic Eobhuin, or the castle of MacEwen. In the Old Statistical Account of the parish of Kilfinnan, quoted by Skene, this MacEwen is described as the chief of a clan, and proprietor of the northern division of the parish called Otter; and in the manuscript of 1450, which contains the genealogy of the Clan Eoghan na Hoitreic, or Clan Ewen of Otter, they are derived from Anradan, the common ancestor of the Maclauchlans and the Macneills. This family soon became extinct, and their property gave title to a branch of the Campbells, by whom it appears to have been subsequently acquired, though in what manner we have no means of ascertaining.
Siol Eachern.
Under the name of Siol Eachern are included by Mr Skene the Macdougall Campbells of Craignish, and the Lamonds of Lamond, both very old clans in Argyleshire, and supposed to have been originally of the same race.