Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

THE CLAN MACPHERSON. 29
clan, and obtaining a dispensation from the
Pope, he married a daughter of the Thane of
Cawdor and became the father of five sons. It
was from this office of " parson " that his heirs
obtained the surname of Macpherson, properly
Macphersain, Their history, like that of most
clans in the Highlands, is a long record of feuds
with other clans. They were often at open war
with the Mackintoshes, the rival branch of their
own sept, in the bitter struggle for supremacy :
a struggle carried on at first by the sword, and
then at law, and even still in our own day
waged with the pen. Their disputes led them
into antagonism with the Camerons and the
Davidsons, and between them all there was
continual strife and enmity. They were ardent
supporters of Queen Mary in the sixteenth and
Charles the First in the seventeenth century.
They took a leading part in resisting the Earl of
Argyle when he marched with a royalist army
against the Earls of Huntly and Errol and other
Cathohcs in 1594 ; and their chief, John Mac-
pherson, stoutly and successfully defended the
Castle of Ruthven in Badenoch, and afterwards
fought under Huntly at the battle of Glenlivet.
They led a rough and lawless life ; the Highlands