Historical and genealogical account of the Clan Maclean

GENEALOGICAL ACCOUNT. ^43
HOUSE OF URQUHART,
OR
" THE MACLEANS OF THE NORTH."
The founder of this ancient branch of the
house of Maclean was Charles of Achat, second
son of the second Hector* of Lochbuy by Mar-
rion daughter of Macleod of Harris. He ob-
tained the lands of St. Ninians and Drimbuy,
together with the ancient privileges appertaining
to the castle of Urquhart (1463), from John
Lord of the Isles and Earl of Ross, from whom
they were held in vassalage until the forfeiture
of that princely noble in 1493, when the Mac-
leans of Urquhart, in common with others, be-
came tenants of the crown. Charles of Achat,
* The Duart MS. makes Charles the founder of the house
of Urquhart, a son of the first Hector (or Eachunn Re-
ganeach) of Lochbuy, and states that he lived in the reign
of James II. (vide p. 9.), whereas the MS. of the house
itself, in the possession of the representative, Maclean of
Dochgarroch, makes the progenitor of the family a son of
the second Hector of Lochbuy, great-grandson of the first ;
and adds that he lived in the reign of James III. Without
offering a decided opinion upon the subject, I may be allowed
to add, that on this point, in particular, I place more reliance
on the accuracy of the Dochgarroch MS., because the detail
therein appears to me more clear and satisfactory. The
circumstance of the progenitor of the Urquhart Macleans
having been present at the battle of the Bloody Bay in 1482,
is proof that he could not be a son of the first Maclean of
Lochbuy ; it also shows that he must have lived contemporary
with James III., not James II.
R 2