!SOURCE: Alick Morrison, "The MacLeods of Gairloch", THE MACLEODS: THE
GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section V, Edinburgh, The Associated Clan
MacLeod Societies, p. 9.
Neil MacLeod was the father of "Nele Nelesoun" (i.e., Neil, son of Neil),
who was the first to receive a Royal Grant to the lands of Gairloch. As
in the later case of Raasay, the Gairloch family may well have possessed
Gairloch before they received a Royal Grant of the territory. We have no
information of Neil MacLeod I of Gairloch who was probably a grandson
of the progenitor of the race. He was married with issue.
!SOURCE: William Matheson, "The MacLeods of Lewis," TRANSACTIONS OF
THE GAELIC SOCIETY OF INVERNESS, Vol. LI (1978-1980), Inverness,
Scotland, 1981, pp. 320-337, makes no mention of this person.
!SOURCE: Alick Morrison, THE MACLEODS: THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN,
Section V, Edinburgh, The Associated Clan MacLeod Societies, 1976, pp.
9-10.
Alexander MacKenzie omits this family in his `History of the MacLeods''
1889, apart from occasional references to individual members of the
sept. He seems to have followed the authority of Sir Robert Gordon in
his ''Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland''. Sir Robert normally
a very trustworthy historian, blundered badly when he believed that the
MacLeods of Gairloch and the MacLeods of Raasay were one and the same
family. It is true that both were septs of the Siol Thorcuil MacLeods of
Lewis: it is also true that they used the same patronymic, MacGillechaluim.
The MacLeods of Gairloch, however, were some 200
years older than the MacLeods of Raasay. No doubt, Alexander MacKenzie
in his agreement with Sir Robert Gordon, must have found it impossible
to reconcile his knowledge of individual members of the Gairloch race
with the well-known facts on the MacLeods of Raasay, and probably for
that reason made no effort to include a separate account of the MacLeods
of Gairloch in his ''History of the MacLeods'' 1889.
The patronyumic of the Giarloch family -- MacGillechaluim -- is
attested not only by Sir Robert Gordon in his ''Genealogical History of the
Earldom of Sutherland'', page 276, but also by Sheriff Donald MacLeod III
of Geanies in the Geanies Papers.
Their progenitor was therefore a Malcolm MacLeod, probably the one
mentioned as chief of the MacLeods of Lewis by Sir George MacKenzie.
Neil MacLeod was the father of "Nele Nelesoun" (i.e., Neil, son of Neil),
who was the first to receive a Royal Grant to the lands of Gairloch. As
in the later case of Raasay, the Gairloch family may well have possess
Gairloch before they received a Royal Grant of the territory. We have no
information of Neil MacLeod I of Gairloch who was probably a grandson
of the progenitor of the race. He was married with issue.
!REVISION: Alick Morrison, in his 1974 edition of THE MACLEODS; THE
GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section IV, has this man as son of Malcolm
Gille-caluim Beag [RIN 7858]; however, in the Revised Edition of 1990,
he is the son of Torquil, IV of Lewis, and brother of Gille-caluim Beag.
[See next reference]
!SOURCE: Alick Morrison, THE MACLEODS: THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN,
Section IV, Revised Edition, "The MacLeods of Lewis", Edinburgh, Associated
Clan MacLeod Societies, 1990, pp. 2.
Progenitor of the MacLeods of Gairloch.