Series 3 > Highland papers

AN ACCOUNT OF THE NAME OF McLEA
By the courtesy of the Lord Lyon this account of the
McLeas is printed from a MS. in the Lyon Office. It
gives a good deal of information about that clan.
Copy from the Original in the handwriting of Mr.
Duncan McLea, Minister at Dull, furnished by
Doctor Archibald McLea, Minister at Rothsay,
his son, 26 May, 1806.1
At Dull, JanT 3d, 1743.
Lindsaig or Leavinsaig in the Parish of Kilfinan, Lord-
ship of Cowall and Sheriffdome of Argyle, is a six merk
land of old extent, in the Baillrie of the twenty pound Land
of Ardmernock,2 wherein are these lands, Rehleck, Bar-
puntag, Achnaha, Darinacoauch-more and Darinacoauch-
beg, Lindsaid and Cramunichan which now belongs to
Lindsaig but originally to the Maclachlans of Barpuntag
and Achnaha, but was bought and adjoined to Lindsaig
some little time ago by the McLeas of Lindsaig.
And I, Mr Duncan McLea, Minister at Dull, being
resolved to transmit to posterity what I know of the name
1 The author was the son of Archibald Maclea in Rothesay. Prior to
1700 he was schoolmaster of Kilmodan, and then of Inveraray. He became
minister of Dull in 1717 and died in 1749. He had three sons, of whom
the eldest became minister of Lochgoilhead and the youngest minister of
Inverchaolain. The second son, Archibald, born in 1738, became minister
of Rothesay in 1765, married Isabella Macleod, grand-daughter of Hector
Bannatyne of Karnes, and died in 1824. The source from which this
history of the family emanates is thus to be treated with some respect,
though the importance of the sept seems considerably exaggerated.
2 Between 1309 and 1325 John de Menteth (the false Menteith) granted
to Ewen, son of Finlay (Lament of Ardlamont), the two penny lands of
Lynsay beg and Lynsay more then within his vaussarage of Ardmernog
held by him of the Steward of Scotland and that for the service of one
bowman in the Common Army of the King of Scotland (Inventory of
Lamont Papers, p. 9, Scot. Record Soc.). In 1536 these lands were sold
by John Lamont to Argyll (ibid., p. 44).