The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

350 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
Gilli ; he lived A.D. 990 — 10 14, and was certainly Maormor of
this district.
3. Malpeder Alacleon, forfeited by Alexander I.
The earldom of Garmoran remained in the crown until the
reign of Alexander HI., with the exception of Glenelg, which
had been given to the Bissets, A.D. 1160, and the support of
the great chiefs of the Macdonalds at the convention of 1283
was purchased by the grant of Ardnamurchan to Angus More
of the Isles, and of the remaining part of the earldom to
Allan Mac Rory, lord of the Isles, under the name of the
Lordship of Garmoran.
The ancient inhabitants of the earldom can, however, be
traced b\- the assistance of the old manuscript genealogies
The various clans are, as we have seen by these genealogies
divided into five tribes, of which four can be identified with the
tribes of the Gallgael, Moray, Ross, and Ness. The fifth
consists of the ]\Iacleods and the Campbells, who are, by the
oldest genealogies, deduced from a common ancestor. These
two clans must have taken their descent from some of the
ancient tribes, and we ought to find in their early history traces
of a connexion with the earldom from which the\- proceed.
The earliest charter which the Macleods possess is one from
David II. to Malcolm, the son of Tormad Macleod, of two-
thirds of Glenelg. He could not have acquired this by a
marriage connection, and as these two-thirds came to the
crown b}' forfeiture of the Bissets, it bears a strong resemblance
to a vassal receiving his first right from the crown, and conse-
quently an old possessor. Glenelg, however, was in Garmoran,
and the connection of the Macleods with this earldom is strongly
corroborated by the fact that in their oldest genealogy occur
two Cellachs, grandfather and grandson, exactly contemporary
with the two earls of Garmoran of that name.
The Campbells are not old in Argyll proper, or the sheriff-
dom of Argyll ;
it was, we know, the peculiar property of
Somerled II., and we have distinct authority for its being
ancestor was made sheriff
planted uith strangers. Campbell's
by Alexander II.; his successor adhered to government, and
received many grants of land in the sheriffdom, so that we
should expect to find traces of his original property in the