Badge—Heath.
Another clan, supposed by Mr Skene to have originally belonged to Moray, is the clan Nachtan or Macnaughton.
The MS. of 1450 deduces the descent of the heads of this clan from Nachtan Mor, who is supposed to have lived in the 10th century. The Gaelic name Neachtain is the same as the Pictish Nectan, celebrated in the Pictish Chronicle as one of the great Celtic divisions in Scotland, and the appellation is among the most ancient in the north of Ireland, the original seat of the Cruithen Picts. According to Buchanan of Auchmar,[210] the heads of this clan were for ages thanes of Loch Tay, and possessed all the country between the south side of Loch-Fyne and Lochawe, parts of which were Glenira, Glenshira, Glenfine, and other places, while their principal seat was Dunderraw on Loch-Fyne.
MACNAUGHTON.
In the reign of Robert III., Maurice or Morice Macnaughton had a charter from Colin Campbell of Lochow of sundry lands in Over Lochow, but their first settlement in Argyleshire, in the central parts of which their lands latterly wholly lay, took place long before this. When Malcolm the Maiden attempted to civilise the ancient province of Moray, by introducing Norman and Saxon families, such as the Bissets, the Comyns, &c., in the place of the rude Celtic natives whom he had expatriated to the south, he gave lands in or near Strathtay or Strathspey, to Nachtan of Moray, for those he had held in that province. He had there a residence called Dunnachtan castle. Nesbit[211] describes this Nachtan as “an eminent man in the time of Malcolm IV.,” and says that he “was in great esteem with the family of Lochawe, to whom he was very assistant in them wars with the Macdougals, for which he was rewarded with sundry lands.” The family of Lochawe here mentioned were the Campbells.
The Macnaughtons appear to have been fairly and finally settled in Argyleshire previous to the reign of Alexander III., as Gilchrist Macnaughton, styled of that ilk, was by that monarch appointed, in 1287, heritable keeper of his castle and island of Frechelan (Fraoch Ellan) on Lochawe, on condition that he should be properly entertained when he should pass that way; whence a castle embattled was assumed as the crest of the family.
This Gilchrist was father or grandfather of Donald Macnaughton of that ilk, who, being nearly connected with the Macdougals of Lorn, joined that powerful chief with his clan against Robert the Bruce, and fought against the latter at the battle of Dalree in 1306, in consequence of which he lost a great part of his estates. In Abercromby’s Martial Achievements,[212] it is related that the extraordinary courage shown by the king in having, in a narrow pass, slain with his own hand several of his pursuers, and amongst the rest three brothers, so greatly excited the admiration of the chief of the Macnaughtons that he became thenceforth one of his firmest adherents.[213]