The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

268 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
Glendochart, and the north half of Rannoch. The descent of
Malcohn from the earls of Lennox is probable, for we find John
Glendochar witnessing a charter of Malduin, third earl of
Lennox, in 1238. Duncan appears to have attained to very
considerable power at that time, and to have been in possession
of extensive territories in the wilder and more mountainous
parts of the district of Atholl. From him the clan took their
name of clan Donnachie, and he is still the hero of many
traditions in that country. Of Robert de Atholia, his son and
successor, we know little. By marriage
with one of the
daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John Sterling, of Glenesk, he
obtained part of that property which his daughter Jean, however,
carried into the family of Menzies of Fothergill, and by his
second marriage with one of the co-heiresses of Fordell, he
appears to have had four sons, Thomas, Duncan, Patrick,
ancestor of the family of Lude, and Gibbon. During the life
of Thomas we find the first appearance of the clan Donnachie,
as a clan, when the)' played a distinguished part in the raid
which the Highlanders made into Angus in 1392, in which
Sir Walter Ogilvie, sheriff of Angus, and many other Lowland
barons were slain. According to Winton—
•'
Thre chiftanys gret ware of thaim then
Thomas, Patrik, and Gibbone,
Duncansonys wes thare surnowne.''
Thomas had an onh- daughter, Matilda, who carried part of
the property, by marriage, to the family of Robertson of Straloch.
The barony of Strowan came to Duncan, Thomas's
brother, who is mentioned in 1432, under the designation of
" Duncanus de Atholia dominus de Ranagh," and who was
succeeded by his son Robert.
Robert was a person of considerable power, and was held in
great dread by the neighbouring Lowlanders, whom he was in
the habit of continually harassing b}- his predatory incursions
upon their possessions. Upon the murder of king James I. b\the
earl of Atholl and his accomplice, Graham, Robert was
fortunate enough to arrest Graham, together with the master of
Atholl, after the commission of the bloody deed ; but an}'
advantage which might have been gained by this act was