!SOURCE: Rev. Dr. Donald MacKinnon, THE MACLEODS: THE GENEALOGY OF A
CLAN, Section III, "Cadet Families", Edinburgh, The Clan MacLeod Society,
1970, p. 96.
Alexander was born about 1724, and was known in Skye and the Isles as
''Sandy Balmeanach''. During the exciting times of the 1745 Jacobite
Rising he acted as a messenger between MacLeod of MacLeod and the
notorious Simon, Lord Lovat. The latter, in a letter to Donald Cameron of
Lochiel (written about 1st November 1745), calls Sandy a ''little
sneaking gentleman'' [MacKenzie: HISTORY OF THE FRASERS, p. 407.]. When
the Independent Companies were raised, Sandy received a lieutenant''s
commission, under Capt John MacLeod of Talisker, in the MacLeod
Company. On 15th January 1746, he, along with MacLeod of MacLeod and
other Skye officers, was admitted a burgess of Forres [Warrand: MORE
CULLODEN PAPERS, IV, p. 177.] Perhaps Sandy MacLeod is best
remembered as the officer whom Flora MacDonald so cleverly
hoodwinked in Monkstadt House, Trotternish, on Sunday, 29th June 1746,
on the occasion of her arrival in Skye from Benbecula in charge of the
Prince [see THE TRUTH ABOUT FLORA MACDONALD, p. 34.] When the
Fraser Highlanders (the 78th Regiment) were raised for service abroad,
in 1757, Sandy MacLeod obtained a commission as Lieutenant in the
regiment, and went overseas. He was present at Quebec, Canada, in
1760, and was wounded. he retired from the army with the rank of
Captain, and returned to Balmeanach, where he died on 7th April 1772.
Before he died he received a new tack of Balmeanach, which was to
endure for thirty-eight years from whitsunday 1773. His widow, whose
name is not known, was in Balmeanach in 1773, but she was dead by
1778. In that year her brother-in-law, Major Roderick MacLeod,
succeeded to the tack.