!BIOGRAPHY: BURKE''S LANDED GENTRY, Eighteenth Edition, Vol. II, London,
1969, pp. 417, 418.
!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. 45-46.
This MacLeod family is descended from Donald MacLeod, tacksman of
Swordale and Duart, grandson of Donald MacLeod of the MacLeods of
Fasach, second son of Norman MacLeod, 4th of the MacLeods of Waternish.
Donald MacLeod of Swordale married Anne MacDonald, daughter of
Kenneth Campbell, tacksman of Ui in Taransay, Harris, the second son of
John Og Campbell of Scalpay. Anne was the sister of Colonel Donald
Campbel of Glen Saddell, Kintyre, and of John Campbell of Cornlarach and
Glenanibost. Her uncle, Donald Campbell of Scalpay, although not a
Jacobite, sheltered Prince Charles Edward when he was a fugitive in the
Outer Isles in 1746. [HISTORY OF THE REBELLION OF 1745, by R.
Chambers, p. 332; MEMOIR OF THE PRETENDERS AND THEIR ADHERENTS, by
J. H. Jesse, p. 285.]
They had four sons, the second of whom, Donald, was the progenitor of
the family of Suardal.
Donald was born in 1747 and followed his elder brother, Norman, to the
University at Aberdeen in 1767, [Roll of Alumni in Arts of the University
and King''s College of Aberdeen 1596-1860, edited by P. J. Anderson, and
supplied by W. S. Angus, Esq., Secretary to the University of Aberdeen.]
but leaving the University in the same year he entered the East India
Company as an Infantry Cadet for Madras and was gazetted Ensign on
15th November 1767, and Lieutenant on 28th July 1769. [From
information supplied by Major Vernon Hodson, North Devon, from his
Index of Officers in the H.E.I.C.S., and THE BRAVE SONS OF SKYE, by
Lieut.-Col. John MacInnes, p. 150.] Early in 1774, Lieut. Donald, seriously
ill, sailed for England in the NORTING and had to be put ashore at Cape
Town, where he died on 11th May 1774. [Photostat copy from the Record
Office, Cape Town, supplied by Miss Elizabeth Gorrie.] Before leaving
Madras he executed a Will, undated, to which was added a letter to his
Executors from the Cape, dated 25th April 1774. These were proved
before the Mayor''s Court at Madraspatam on the 30th August 1774. [Old
India Office Records. Probate suppled by Mrs. Margaret
Hesketh-Williams.] He left his money to his father, brothers adn sisters,
and to Mrs. Donald MacSween of Roag, Duirinish, who is believed to be the
mother of his son, Donald, before she married the tacksman of Roag.
Lieut. Donald MacLeod was succeeded in the representation of the family
of Suardal by his only son, Donald.