THE distinguished family of Macfarlane, one of antiquity and eminence in a part of the empire where ancestry and exploit have ever been held in enthusiastic admiration, was founded by GILCHRIST, fourth son of Alwyn second Earl of Lenox, who obtained from his brother Earl Maldwin, a grant of the lands and barony of Arrochar, in the time of ALEXANDER I. Gilchrist's son, DUNCAN, was compelled, after a gallant defence of the national independence, to submit to EDWARD I. of England, and died soon after, leaving a son, MALDWIN, inheritor of his broad lands and his unflinching patriotism. During the adverse fortunes of Robert Bruce, the laird of Arrochar, with his kinsman the Earl of Lenox*, was the faithful attendant of the *On the banks of Loch Lomond, Bruce met with the Earl of Lenox, who, wandering there for protection, discovered the king was in his neighbourhood, by hearing a bugle sounded with an art which he knew to be peculiar to his master. They met, embraced, and wept. By the guidance and assistance of Lenox, Bruce reached the province of Cantire, then subject to Angus, called Lord of the Isles.-Sir Walter Scott. VOL. X.-NO. 1.-JANUARY 1837. heroic prince, who found a safe retreat in the Lenox, when deserted by almost all his other subjects. To Maldwin succeeded his son, BARTHOLOMEW, or, as that name is called in Gaelic, PHARLAN. He lived in the reign of David Bruce, and was father of MALCOLM MACFARLANE, or the son of Pharlan, of Arrochar, who became, on the demise of Donald sixth Earl of Lenox, in 1373, undoubted heir male of that noble family. He died not long after, and was succeeded by his son, DUNCAN MACFARLANE of that Ilk, who married Christian, daughter of Sir Colin Campbell, of Lochow, and died in the reign of JAMES I. leaving a son and successor, JOHN MACFARLANE of that Ilk, who died temp. JAMES III., having had two sons, WALTER, his heir; and John, from whom descended the Macfarlanes of Kenmore, Muckroy, and Dunnamanich. The elder son, WALTER MACFARLANE, of that Ilk and Arrochar, wedded a daughter of James B second Lord Livingston, and left two sons: the younger, Dugal, was ancestor of the Macfarlanes of Tullichinthall, Tinart, &c., while the elder, ANDREW MACFARLANE of that Ilk, marrying one of the daughters of John Stewart, Lord Darnley, left a son, Sir JOHN MACFARLANE of that Ilk, who received the honour of knighthood from JAMES IV., and attended that prince to the fatal field of Flodden, where he was slain with the pride and flower of the Scottish gentry. His eldest son, ANDREW MACFARLANE of that Ilk, married Lady Margaret Cunningham, daughter of William Earl of Glencairn, Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, and dying in the commencement of the reign of MARY, was succeeded by his son, DUNCAN MACFARLANE of that Ilk, a gallant warrior of the troubled period in which he lived, who joined, with 300 of his clan, the Earls of Lenox and Glencairn, and, participating in the battle of Glasgow Muir in 1544, was attainted, but shortly after obtained a reversal under the Privy Seal. He married, first, Isabel Stewart, daughter of Andrew Lord Ochiltree, by whom he had no issue; and secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, by whom he had a son, ANDREW, his heir. The Laird of Macfarlane ultimately fell at Pinkie, and was succeeded by his son, ANDREW MACFARLANE of that Ilk, a zealous promoter of the Reformation, and a warm partisan of the Regent Murray, in opposition to the ill-fated Mary Stuart. We find him at Langside enrolled under that nobleman's banner, and to his "valiance" Holingshed ascribes the success of the Earl. He married Agnes, daughter of Sir Patrick Maxwell, of Newark, and was succeeded by his son, devoted Royalist, who was fined 3000 merks for joining the standard of Montrose, and was twice besieged by the Parliamentarians, who burned to the ground his castle of Inveronglass. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir James Semple, of Belltrees, and had issue : JOHN, his heir, who died, leaving daughters only: the eldest, Jean, married John Buchanan, of Lenie ; the second, Giles, Alexander Macmillan, of Dunmore; and the third, Grizzle, Archibald Buchanan, of Torie. ANDREW, of Ardess. Giles, married to Adam Colquhoun, of Glens. The second son, ANDREW MACFARLANE of Ardess, but eventually of that Ilk, married twice, and had several sons, of whom three were slain at Malplaquet. The eldest, JOHN MACFARLANE of that Ilk, Colonel of a Regiment of Foot, left by Helen, his second wife, daughter of Robert, second Viscount Arbuthnot, three sons, WALTER of that Ilk, a distinguished antiquary, who married Lady Elizabeth Erskine, daughter of the sixth Earl of Kellie, but died issueless. WILLIAM, of whom presently. Alexander, who settled in Jamaica, where he was one of the assistant Judges, and a Member of the Assembly. He was a distinguished mathematician. He died unmarried. The second son, WILLIAM MACFARLANE, Esq., who succeeded his elder brother Walter at Macfarlane, married Christian, daughter of James Dewar, Esq. of Vogrie, and was grandfather of the present General Sir ROBERT HENRY MACFARLANE, K.C.B., K.G.H., &c. Colonel of the 89th Regiment of Foot, a gallant and highly distinguished officer, who married at Palermo, 10th February 1815, Maria Gertrude, eldest daughter of G. Henry Vankemper, Esq., Captain in the Dutch Navy and Consul of the Netherlands at Tripoli-the lady whose portrait forms the illustration of the JOHN MACFARLANE of that Ilk, a gentleman of great piety and benevolence, who founded a noble alms-house at Brintfort, on the main land opposite to his castle of Elenore, for the reception of poor passengers. By the Lady Helen Stewart, his second wife, daughter of Francis Earl of Bothwell, he left a son and successor, WALTER MACFARLANE of that Ilk, a present month's Magazine. |