Matheson Collection > Macleods of Dunvegan from the time of Leod to the end of the seventeenth century

IAN (IAN BREAC), SIXTEENTH CHIEF 163
shall be, to you and all others, a sufficient warrant, and so,
expecting from your loyalty and fidelity all the assistance
you can give us, we bid you heartily farewell. Given at our
Court in Dublin Castle the 29th day of March 1689, and in
the fifth year of our Reign.
By his Majesty's command Melford.
Soon afterwards Ian received the following letter from
Dundee : Borrowrigg, April 28, 1688.
Sir, — The loyal character of your family, and your kindness
to the King's friends and servants in this time of trouble,
obliges all of us to pay our thanks to you and to give you our
thanks in our Master's name. As soon as you return to your
own house at Dunvegan, I intend, God willing, to wait on
you, and, in the meantime, I hope you will pardon me, though
I have not the happiness of your acquaintance, to intreat you
to do me the favour and kindness as to let me have one of
your falcons. I have used freedom to give you this trouble,
e'er I have the good fortune to see you, lest others should
prevent me ; you will extremely oblige me in this and believe
that I am your faithful and humble servant.
Dundee.
Neither of these letters seem to have produced any
effect. The Dunvegan Chief probably answered them,
but he did not call out his clan and join Dundee, as
MacDonald of Clan Ranald, Lochiel, and some other
Chiefs did. I can guess some of the reasons why Ian
did not move. I believe that Sir Rory and his son Ian
had been Episcopalians, but Ian Breac was, I think, a
Presbyterian. If so, he probably felt little sympathy
with a Roman Catholic King, and still less with Dundee
who, as Claverhouse, had so ruthlessly treated the
Covenanters in the south. He may have remembered
also his brother's indignation at the ingratitude shown
by Charles 11. Ian Breac himself was now over fifty,
and past the age when men rush into adventure for
adventure's own sake, and he was a man of sound judg-