!BIOGRAPHY: Sir Robert Douglas of Glenbervie, Baronet, THE BARONAGE
OF SCOTLAND, Edinburgh, 1798, p. 382.
"Writer to the signet."
!BIOGRAPHY: Rev. Dr. Donald MacKinnon and Alick Morrison, THE
MACLEODS--THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section II, Edinburgh, The Clan
MacLeod Society, 1968, pp. 32-34.
Born in Berneray, was bred to the law and served his apprenticeship
under (1) Ronald Campbell and (2) John Buchanan. He became a Writer to
the Signet of Edinburgh on 7th March 1732, and along with his cousin,
John MacLeod of Muiravonside, advocate, served for many years as "doer"
of MacLeod. He was warmly interested in Gaelic poetry for Charles
Steward, notary, reported that he saw Gaelic poems in his possession.
This probably explains why sever Gaelic poems dealing with Berneray
and Luskintyre families were deposited in the Advocates'' Library in
Edinburgh. Roderick MacLeods was one of the most redoubtable members
of of the Berneray family and, like so many of them, he was a Jacobite.
In this connection we find him in 1732 playing a leading part in the
extraordinary affair of Lady Grange. This Lady, who possessed a vile and
dangerous temper, was the wife of the crypto-Jacobite Lord Grange, a
Lord of Session. For some time Lord Grange and his wife had been
estranged but she threatened to ruin him and to expose his Jacobite
intrigues. This involved the safety and fortunes of many prominent
Jacobites as well as endangering the prospects of restoring the exiled
House of Stuarts. A bold plan was conceived to silence Lady Grange by
spiriting her away to lonely islands in the Hebrides. Accordingly on 22nd
January 1732, at 10 o''clock at night, Roderick MacLeod, MacDonald of
Morar with attendants in the livery of Lord Lovat entered the house of
Mrs. Margaret MacLean, where Lady Grange resided. They tried to
persuade her to leave with them. When this failed, they used more
forceful methods and the lady was bundled into a sedan chair and taken
to Mutrie''s Hill, outside Edinburgh. From there she was taken on
horseback to Muiravoside House where she was comfortably lodged for a
day and night. Roderick MacLeod disappeard after that, but Lady Grange
was taken by servants of Lord Lovat''s to Polmaise, four miles east of
Stirling, where she was secreted for some months. Thereafter she was
taken to Callander. Here Roderick MacLeod reappeared and took charge.
When curious people enquired as to the reason for this strange
cavalcade, Roderick MacLeod replied that he was taking a demented Lady
to the Holy Pool of St. Fillan between Tyndrum and Crianlarich. The
waters of the pool were regarded as efficacious against insanity. The
cavalcade continued past Callander, the Pass of Leny and the banks of
Loch Lubnaig. Not far from Balquhidder they had to shelter in a robbers''
hut. The Lady disclosed to the robbers that she was kidnapped and
promised a rich reward if she ws rescued. Roderick MacLeod and
MacDonald with their dirks and pistols were equal to the situation and
managed to escape, taking care to take the Lady with them. They passed
Glendochart. St. Fillan''s Pool and Crianlarich and entered the wilds of
Glencoe, where they stated one night. Now they made for Loch Eil and,
securing a boat, rowed to the head of the Loch. Then they reached
Glenshiel and again rowed to the head of that Loch. Finally they reached
Castle Tioram, where Lady Grange made a desperate attempt to escape,
breaking her arm on the stairs. [CLAN MACLEOD MAGAZINE, 1943]
It was now discovered that a sloop, sent by Alexander MacDonald of
Sleat, awaited them at Loch Hourn. This involved a day and night''s hard
rowing in a four-oared boat before the "cargo" was safely deposited on
board. Lady Grange was now taken to the lonely island of Heisker off the
west coast of Uist. She made life so unpleasant for Alexander MacDonald
of Heisker for two years that she had to be removed elsewhere. Again
Roderick MacLeod appeared and this time the brothers, John and Norman
MacLeod of Northton, after some rough handling, took her to St. Kilda,
where she remained eight years, until she was later taken to Harris and
Skye by Rory MacSween. [THE CLAN MACLEOD MAGAZINE, 1957] She was
left finally in the charge of Rory MacNeil at Trumpan. She died in 1745
and was buried in the churchyard there. Her funeral expenses cost as
much as her annual maintenance by MacLeod of MacLeod.
Roderick MacLeod does not seem to habe taken an active part in the ''45
Campaign. His son, hwoever, remembered how he used to travel all the
way from Edinburgh on horseback to London to make representation on
behalf of the Jacobites imprisoned there. This in itself was no mean
achievement in the England of Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppard.
Roderick MacLeod married (1) Isobel, only daughter of Hector Bannatyne
of Kames, Buteshire, and (2) Marjory, daughter of John Taylor, writer in
Edinburgh. He died on 26th June 1784, leaving issue.