Series 3 > Highland papers

100 AN ACCOUNT OF THE NAME OF McLEA
There were also the McLeas of Achnacree1 of whom the
family of Lindsaig is descended, who were possest of the
Lands of Achnacree for a long time, and who made the
longest appearance in that corner of any of the McLeas
there, until that McLea of Achnacree made a second
marriage with one, Campbell of Hannah’s daughter to
whom he gave the lands of Achnacree in jointure, and he
haying six or seven sons by a former marriage, and he
having not got his tocher with Hannah’s Haughter and
dying and leaving nothing to his sons and having given
his Lands in jointure to his wife, They would not allow
her to possess the Lands of Achnacree untill they got
payment of her Tocher, and she having complained to
the then Ardkinglass who was her friend and relation
and was at the time Sheriff of Argyle, and he doing dili¬
gence against them for possessing her of her jointure-
lands, McLea of Achnacree his sons went to Rosneath,
which at that time belonged to Campbell of Ardkinglass
and burnt his Lands there. Upon which, there being
Letters of Fire and Sword raised against them, they were
dispossessed of the Lands of Achnacree, and they were
given to Campbell of Rahaen in Roseneath in Compen¬
sation of the lands that had been burnt to him, and Camp¬
bell of Rahaen gave the Lands of Achnacree to Lochnell
in wadsett, which by virtue thereof, the present Lochnell
possesses these Lands, and since that time that family
is extinct. But before this happened, they tell a story
that happened above more than one hundred years ago,
as there were at and before that time in Cowal feuds
betwixt several families in the Highlands, so the then
McHugald and the family of Inveraw were at variance,
and both the familys brought all their sons and strenth
to the field to fight it fairly and to decide their quarrell
1 According to tradition the MacLeas certainly at one time possessed
Achnacree in the Benderloch, and tradition is confirmed by the appearance on
recordof JohnM'Dunslaif of Achnacrein 1557 (O.P.S., vol. ii. p. 155). They
probably held originally under the Lords of Lome and thereafter under
Campbell of Lochnell. Two other versions of how they were disponed
are given by Lord Archibald Campbell in Records of Argyll, pp. 1x4-17.