The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

ii6 THE HIGHLANDERS [parti
when it did come into use it was principally confined to three of
the Highland clans only. These clans were the clan Chattan^
clan Cameron, and clan Ranald, and if the title of captain was
synonymous with that of chief, it is altogether impossible to
conceive that it should have been confined to these clans alone,
and that it did not prevail more generally over the Highlands.
It is evident that a title, which was not universal among the
Highland clans, must have arisen from peculiar circumstances
connected with these clans in which it is first found ; and when
we examine the history of these clans, there can be little doubt
that it was simply a person who had from various causes become
de facto head of the clan, while the person possessing the
hereditary right to that dignity remained either in a subordinate
situation, or else for the time disunited from the rest of the
clan. To enter minutely into this investigation here would lead
to too great length ; suffice it therefore to mention, that in each
of these clans there is a controversy regarding the chiefship ;
that the family claiming that rank have in each asserted the
family in possession of the captainship to have been merely
the oldest cadet, and to have by usurpation or otherwise
obtained their situation with the title of captain ; and that when
we come to the history of these clans, it will be proved that the
captains of the clans were originally the oldest cadets, whom
various circumstances had placed in that situation. There is
one instance, however, which may be mentioned, as it seems to
place the fact at once beyond all doubt. The title of captain
occurs but once in the family of the Macdonalds of Slate, and
this single occurrence of this peculiar title is just when the clan
Houston was led by the uncle of their chief, then in minorit}'.
In 1545 we find Archibald Maconuill captain of the clan
Houston, and thus on the only occasion when this clan followed
as chief a person who had not the right of blood to that station,
he styles himself captain of the clan.
Next to the Ceanntighes, or heads of houses, followed in rank
the Diiinc Uaisle, or gentry of the clan. These constituted the
only gradation subsisting between the chief and the actual body
of the clan, forming a sort of link by which they were united.
They were all cadets of the house of the chief, and could invari-
ably trace their connexion step by step with his family.