The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. V] OF SCOTLAND 275
by Duncan, earl of Lennox, confirming a different charter
granted by Duncan, laird of Macfarlane, in favour of Christian
Campbell, daughter to Sir Colin Campbell, of Lochow, his wife,
of the lands of Ceanlochlong, Inverioch, Glenluin, Portcable,
&c. This charter is dated also in the year 1395. It was not-
ions: after the death of Duncan that the ancient line of the
earls of Lennox became extinct, and there is strong reason
for thinking that the Macfarlanes claimed the earldom as heirs
male, and offered a strong resistance to the actual occupation
of the earldom of Lennox by the feudal heirs. This resistance,
however, suffered the usual fate of the assertion of their rights
by the Celts ; and the final establishment of the Stewarts as
earls of Lennox appears to have been preceded by the disper-
sion and almost entire destruction of this clan. The family
of the chief fell in the defence of what they conceived to be
their rights, and a great part of the clan took refuge in distant
parts of the kingdom. The ruin of the clan, however, was
prevented by the opportune support given by one of its houses
to the Darnley famih^ ; and its head, Andrew Macfarlane,
having married the daughter of John Stewart, lord of Darnley
and earl of Lennox, saved the rest of the clan from destruction,
and was put in possession of the greater part of their former
possessions. Andrew Macfarlane does not appear, however, to
have had a natural title to the chiefship, other than that of
being the only person in a condition to afford them protection,
for the clan refused him the title of chief; and his son. Sir
John Macfarlane, in a charter to a William Macfarlane, designates
himself honorabilis vir Johnnes Macfarlane, dominus
ejusdem, miles Capitaneiis de clan Pharlane, filius Andreaf.
After this, the Macfarlanes appear to have supported th^
Lowland earls of Lennox on all occasions, and to have followed
their standard to the field. Little is consequently known of
their history for some generations, and they appear to have
continued to enjoy undisturbed possession of their ancient
property under the powerful protection of these great barons.
In the sixteenth century we find Duncan Macfarlane of that
ilk frequently mentioned as a steady adherent of Mathew, earl
of Lennox. He joined the earls of Lennox and Glencairn in
the year 1 544, with three hundred men of his own surname, and