!SOURCE: Rev. Dr. Donald MacKinnon and Alick Morrison, THE MACLEODS:
THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section III, "MacLeod Cadet Families",
Edinburgh, The Clan MacLeod Society), 1970, pp. 226, 231-232.
Alexander MacLeod was the elder son of John MacLeod of Bay''s second
marriage with the Beaton or Bethune heiress of the tack. In the
testament, dated 26th July 1799, made and given up by him on behalf of
his father who died in 1792, he describes himself as "Lieutenant
Alexander MacLeod, lawful son of the defunct and Executor dative qua
nearest in kin to his father, John MacLeod of Bay". He succeeded to Bay
in 1792; he joined the Skye Volunteers as First Lieutenant in 1795, and
became a Captain in the Princess Charlotte of Wales'' Fencibles on 11th
June 1799. He left Bay and moved to Gillen, probably for three reasons:
(1) the house in Gillen was in better repair, (2) he was probably annoyed
when the Chief''s Trustees in 1790 sold a part of the tack of Bay to the
North British Fishery Society, and (3) members of the Fishery Society
were behaving disagreeably to the old inhabitants in the area. An
incident to prove this occurred on Saturday, 6th June 1801. Captain
Alexander MacLeod of Bay and Captain Norman MacLeod (Cypruss) were
walking round the head of the Bay, when they were approached by an
agent of the Society, William Porter, an Irish surgeon. In his hand, he
wielded a heavy stick, which which he repeatedly struck Captain
Alexander MacLeod over the head until the blood ran down in torrents
over his shoulders. As a result Captain Alexander''s vision was
permanently affected and his head was so painful and swollen that he
was probably saved from worse misfortune by the prompt care and
attention of Dr. John Maaskill. Captain Alexander demanded £200
damages for this dastardly attack. He described the behaviour of the
British Fishery Society''s Agent as "more like a Spanish viceroy than a
man employed to encourage the natives of this country to industry and to
direct their attention from emigrating to the States of America." The
fishing venture at Loch Bay eventually failed and the Society was
compelled to sell its lands in Skye in 1837.
Captain Alexander MacLeod of Bay and Gillen married Flora, daughter of
the Rev. William MacQueen of Snizort, with issue.