!SOURCE: Rev. Dr. Donald MacKinnon and Alick Morrison, THE MACLEODS --
THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section II, Edinburgh, The Clan MacLeod
Society, 1968, pp. 107, 108.
As a youth, William MacLeod received a commission as Lieutenant,
under Captain Donald MacDonald of Castleton, in one of the Skye
Independent Companies, [Warrand (edit.), MORE CULLODEN PAPERS, IV,
(1929), pp. 159, 177.] raised in the Island during the 1745 Jacobite
Rising. He was one of the officers who was admitted a burgess of
Forres, as appears by the town''s records, [Ibid., p. 177.] 15th January
1746. After the disbanding of the Independent Companies, William
MacLeod entered the Dutch Service, and served for a time as a Lieutenant
in General Stuart''s Regiment. But by June 1756, he is back in Skye on
half-pay, and described as''younger of Hammer''. It would appear that
Norman MacLeod of MacLeod had ''set the tack of Hammir to William''s
father and after his death to Lieutenant William for the space of seven
years''. [HAMER FAMILY PAPERS, Muniment Room, Dunvegan Castle.] On 2nd
June 1756, Lieutenant William ''renounced his right in favour of MacLeod
of MacLeod''. He does not again appear in any record known at present.
Probably he went abroad, but it is said that he survived his father and
died, about 1775, unmarried. He was succeeded in the representation of
the MacLeods of Hamer by his father''s cousin.