!BIOGRAPHY: Sir Robert Douglas of Glenbervie, Baronet, THE BARONAGE
OF SCOTLAND, Edinburgh, 1798, p. 381.
!ARMS: The same with Macleod of that ilk, with a proper mark of
cadency. !CHIEF SEAT: At Talisker in Skye.
!BIOGRAPHY: Rev. Dr. Donald MacKinnon and Alick Morrison, THE
MACLEODS--THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section II, Edinburgh, The Clan
MacLeod Society, 1968, pp. 8-9.
John was educated for the medical profession. James Boswell, who,
with Dr. Johnson, paid a visti to Talisker in the autumn of 1773, wrote
that ''Talisker, having been bred to physic, had a tincture of scholarship
in his conversation, which pleased Dr. Johnson''. During the 1745
Jacobite Rising, John of Talisker was a Captain in the MacLeod
Independent Companies, and was heartily detested by the people of Skye
and the Isles for his cruel treatment of those who had befriended Prince
Charles Stuart, and had helped him to escape in 1746. It was he who was
sent by General John Campbell to arrest Flora MacDonald at her home in
Armadale, Sleat, for the part she played in the Prince''s escape. In 1747,
he left Talisker and joined the Scots Brigade in Holland. He served with
much distinction in that country and Germany, and rose to be a
Lieut.-Colonel in 1766. Soon afterwards he returned to Talisker, of
which MacLeod of MacLeod had given him a tack, dated 15th September
1757, for thirty-eight years. At Talisker, Colonel MacLeod entertained
many distinguished guests. We have already state that he had Dr.
Johnson and James Boswell as his guests in 1773. In the previous year,
Thomas Pennant, the Rev. John Lightfoot and the Rev. John Stuart of
Killin stated at Talisker, where they were received ''with the utmost
hopitality''. John Knox, the traveller, was at Talisker in 1786. Colonel
MacLeod met Knox and his companions on the shore, and conducted them,
''through a small but rich valley, to the seat of plenty, hospitality and
good nature''. Knox says that MacLeod was ''extremely corpulent''. He
married, in 1744, as his first wife, Mary, daughter of Hector MacLean,
13th of the MacLeans of Coll, with issue, a son, who was born in 1745,
and died young. Colonel MacLeod married, as his second wife, Christina,
daughter of John MacKay, merchant, Inverness, without issue. He died on
14th July 1798, and was succeeded by his brother.