The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

340 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
Upon this point all agreed, and also that the common surname
should be Macgregor, if the reversal of the attainder of that
name could be got from government. If that could not be
obtained it was agreed that either Mac Alpine or Grant should
be substituted. This assembl}' of the clan Alpine lasted for
fourteen days, and was onl\- rendered abortive b)- disputes as
to the chieftainship of the combined clan. Here, then,
is as
strong an attestation of a tradition as it is possible to conceive,
and when to this is added the utter absence of the name in the
old Norman rolls, the onh- trustworth\' mark of a Norman
descent, we are warranted in placing the Grants among the
Siol Alpine.
The first of this family who appear on record are Domini
Laurentius et Robertus dicti Grant, who are witnesses to an
agreement between Archibald, Bishop of Moray, and John Bisset,
dated in September, 1258, and they are said to have been the sons
of Gregor}' de Grant, who acquired the lands of Stratherrick by
marriage with a Bisset. This is so far borne out, that there
is reason to think that Stratherrick was the earliest possession
which the Grants had, and remained for some time in the
family, while we find in Alexander the Third's reign a charter
to Walter Bisset of Stratherrick. By this marriage the Grants
at once took their place as barons of considerable power, and
accordingly we find Laurence Grant bearing the high office of
sheriff of Inverness in the reign of Alexander HI., and taking
a leading part in the transactions of that period. Laurence
still further increased the possessions of the family by marrying
the daughter and heiress of the baron of Glencharn}', in Strath-
spey, and obtained, in consequence, an extensive tract of country
on the north side of the Spe\'. From this period the family
took the name of Glencharn\- ; and
it seemed as if the famil\-
were to owe their whole advancement to their fortunate
marriages, for Laurence's son and successor, Gilbert de Glencharny,
added to his other possessions a considerable extent
of propert}- in the counties of I^lgin and Banff, b\- marriage
with Margaret Wiseman, heiress of the Wisemans of Molben.
Gilbert had but one son, of the same name. b\- whose death
without issue these properties came to his sister Christina, with
the e.xception of Stratherrick, which descended to the male