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MacCallum
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- A Castle with the Latin Motto "In ArduaTendit" = "He has attempted difficult things".
- The name means "a devotee of St Columba", the Irish Saint who came to Scotland to convert the Picts to Christianity.
- They held lands at Ariskeodnish, Argyll and, in the 15th Century, estates at Craignish and Lochavich.
- They were supporters of the Marquess of Argyll during the 17th Century wars and were famous for their effectiveness in battle.
- In the late 18th Century, they adopted the surname of Malcolm.
Famous Clansmen: John MacCallum and David MacCallum, both actors.
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Kerr
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- A radiate sun with the motto "Late but serious".
- Believed to be of Viking descent, their ancestors were two anglo-norman brothers who came from France to settle in Roxburghshire in the 12th Century where they became wardens of the marches and hereditary sheriffs.
- By the 14th Century, they branch out to Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire.
- By the 17th Century, they become the Lords, Earls and Dukes of Roxburghe.
- Traditionally, the name is pronounced "Car".
Famous Clansmen: Deborah Kerr, actress.
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Carmichael |
- A hand grasping a broken lance and the motto "Always ready" written in French.
- This is a memento to an incident which happened at the battle of Beauge in 1421 during the French Hundred Years War. Sir John Carmichael, who had joined the French battle against the English, broke his lance while unseating the Duke of Clarence.
- Prominent family of the Upper Ward of Larnarkshire, a barony granted to Sir John Carmichael circa 1380 and from which the name is derived.
- Mary Carmichael was one of Mary Queen of Scotts ladies-in-waiting.
- John, first Earl of Hyndford (1701) was Scotland's last Lord Chancellor before the 1707 Union.
Famous Clansmen: Hoagy Carmichael, jazz pianist and composer and Stokely Carmichael, a civil rights activist.
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MacLachlan |
- A castle with three towers and the latin moto "Brave and trusty".
- Strachlachlan is the initial site of this clan but it has branches in Lochaber, Perthshire and Stirlingshire.
- They claim to be descended from the ancient kings or Ireland.
- With a long succession of chiefs, they fought under Argyll and later under Bonnie Dundee at Killiecrankie.
- They temporarily lost their estates after their clan chief, aide to Bonnie Prince Charlie, was killed at Culloden. It was regained by his son Robert.
Famous Clansmen: Kyle MacLachlan, actor and Angus MacLachlan, screenwriter.
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MacArthur |
- A laurel wreath and the latin motto "by faith and works".
- This is a very old clan and the senior branch of the clan Campbells.
- Their support during the War of Independence led Robert Bruce to grant them clan estates in Argyll and the clan chief was appointed captain of Dunstaffnage Castle, near Oban.
- However, the clan's power declined when John MacArthur was executed in 1427.
- MacArthurs in Skye were hereditary pipers to the MacDonald.
Famous Clansmen: John MacArthur, who introduced the merino sheep to Australia and General Douglas MacArthur.
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MacThomas |
- Their crest is a wild cat wrestling with a snake and the latin motto "With God's help I will rise above envy".
- The ancestry of this clan goes back to Angus, the sixth chief of Clan MacKintosh and his illegitimate son "big Tommy".
- Big Tommy moved from Badenoch, near Inverness to Glen Shee in northern Perthshire during the mid 14th Century.
- MacThomas, MacComish, McCombie and MacComie are all variations of the same source.
- In 1676, the family lost their estates. They moved to Fife and Angus and changed their names to Thom, Thomas and Thomson to make them sound more English.
Find out more on www.clanmacthomas.org
Current Chief: Andrew MacThomas of Finegand, 19th Chief of Clan MacThomas.
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MacMillan
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- Their crest shows hands brandishing a two-handed sword and the Latin motto "I learn to succor the unfortunate".
- The translation of the name indicated the monastic origins as it refers to the son of the servant of the tonsured one.
- In the 12th Century, the clan lived around Loch Arkaig, on the West coast.
- Later, they moved to Tayside but were expelled and formed two branches as they moved to Knapdale and Galloway.
- The Galloway branch became Covenanters.
Famous Clansmen: Daniel MacMillan was an Arran crofter who founded the great London publishing house. His grandson Harold became Prime Minister from 1957 to 1963.
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MacEwen
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- Their crest shows the stump of an oak tree sprouting young branches with the latin motto "I grow green".
- This clan was in existance long before 1450.
- They lived on lands at Otter on the shores of Loch Fyne, where the ruins of the MacEwen Castle lie.
- After a flourishing period, Swene MacEwen, who was the ninth and last chief, surrendered his lands to Duncan Campbel. The year was 1432.
- The landless clan is now scattered all over the Highlands and the southwest of Scotland.
Famous Clansmen: Neil MacEwan, poet and bard in 1630, Elspeth MacEwan was the last witch to be executed in Scotland in Kirkcudbright in 1698.
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MacInroy
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- This is a Perthshire clan, descendant of Red John of Straloch.
- The clan is connected to the Reids and the Robertsons of Atholl.
- The earliest record of the name MacInroy is found in a charter of Straloch, dated 1539.
- Most references for MacInroys are found in and around Pitlochry.
- James MacInroy of Lude (1759-1825) made a fortune as a privateer in the West Indies at the times of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars; as a result, he was knicknamed "the pirate".
Famous Clansmen: Madeline MacInroy (1862-1925), a celebrated poet and great-grandaughter of "the pirate" and John McEnroe, a variant of the name, famous tennis player.
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MacInnes
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- For a century and a half, the official crest has been a bee sucking a thistle with the latin motto "pleasure comes from work". However, in more recent times, the crest was discovered to be unmatriculated and changed to an arm and bow. Find out more...
- They claim to have a connection with Cineal Angus, a 5th Centrury tribe of Dalradia.
- This claim is contested due to the lack of land in that area.
- First record of them is in the 12th Century, as constables of Kinlochaline Castle near Morven, role which lasted until 1645.
- The clan was the hereditary archers of clan MacKinnon and a branch settled on the isle of Skye.
Famous Clansmen: Angus MacInnes, actor and Hamish MacInnes, Scottish mountaineer and writer.
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MacGregor
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- The crest is a crowned lion's head with the motto "Royal is my race".
- The clan claims to descend from Greg MacGraith who was a Picts king in the 8th Century, which would place its origin in Ecclesgreig and St Cyrus in Kincardineshire.
- However, existing references to the clan places it in Glenorchy during the 12th Century.
- They were warlike and unruly.
- They were harassed and persecuted by their neighbours, proscribed in 1603 and amnestied in 1775.
Famous Clansmen: Rob Roy MacGregor (1671-1743) and Edvard Grieg (1843-1907), composer and pianist, grandson of the MacGregor who settled in bergen in 1770.
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MacNeill
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- The crest is a rock with the motto "Conquer or die".
- The two main branches associated with Barra and Gigha originated from Kintyre where lands were received from Robert Bruce.
- Islanders, the MacNeills were noted seafarers.
- It is a MacNeill who designed the ships "Queen Mary" and "Queen Elizabeth".
- Barra was unwillingly sold in 1863 by General Roderick MacNeill, but Kisimul Castle was re-bought and restored in the mid 20th Century by Robert Lister MacNeill, an American architect whose son, a professor of law at Cornell University, is the current chief.
Famous Clansmen: Sir John Benjamin MacNeill (1792-1880), engineer who worked with the famous engineer Thomas Telford on roads and bridges of Scotland and England and Robert MacNeill, born in 1931 and journalist in Canada.
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