Boston Public Library - Electric Scotland

18 ORIGINAL HOME OF THE ALISONS.
from Kilmarnock, and seven from Ayr, His two sous and ^
few of tlieir followers escaped to Sir Winter de Hamelton,
the ancestor of the dukes of this name, who also at first took
the side of Baliol. To preserve them from the wrath of the
followers of Bruce, Sir Winter de Hamelton placed them in
a moorish district in the parish of Avondale, in Lanarkshire,
with Cairnduff as their central home, and changed their name
from the Highland Alister to the Lowland Alison. This was
in 1310, or the Allisons were in Cairnduff in that year. The
estate of Cairnduff was then the property of John Hamilton,
a relative of the Hamilton family ; so that the MacAlesters, or
Alisons, were placed on that portion of the estate that
required to be reclaimed from the moors and waste lands
around. There they have continued for 588 years, and at
the present day a great many of the farms or small estates in
that neighborhood are owned by Alisons, and the wilderness
has now become to a great extent a fruitful field.
The original estate of Loupe, near Oban, was confiscated and
given to the crown, but was later conferred upon Alexander
MacAlls ter's younger brother, Angus Oig, who remained
faithful to Bruce. There the clan has retained the ancient
name of McAlester to the present day, and the chief of the
clan is now Lieutenant-colonel Charles Somerville McAlister,
of Kennox, in Ayrshire. Some of the descendants of Alexander
McAlister, of Loupe, who died in Dundonald Castle in
1309, are still to be found in Ayrshire.
When King Robert the Bruce landed in Ayrshire he drank
of a well in Prestwick, which is called "-Prince's Well"
at the present day, and was greatly recovered of a cutaneous
disease like to leprosy, of which, however, he ultimately died.
The very ruins of the Prestwick hospital for lepers are still
to be seen. In consequence of his betterness, he conferred
freedoms on all the families that were in Prestwick. Freedoms
which originally consisted of sixteen acres of land.
Hence, in the old charter conferred by King Robert the
Bruce, various of the thirty-six freemen were of the name of
Alison, doubtless followers of their master, who died in Dundonald
Castle, which is nigh at hand.
It is even maintained that a large portion of the lands in
the south of Aj^r was given to this clan ; but in consequence
of the commotions of those eventful times, those lands have
long since passed into the possession of the well-known family
of Kennedy, of whom the Marquis of Ailsa is chief.
It was John MacAlister, the second son of Alexander
MacAlister, of Loupe, that was placed with a few of his fol-