!BIOGRAPHY: Sir Robert Douglas of Glenbervie, Baronet, THE BARONAGE
OF SCOTLAND, Edinburgh, 1798, p. 375.
IX. William Macleod of that ilk, Herries, &c. … being born a younger
brother, was designed for the church, and was called Achlerach or clerk,
but soon after his succession to the estate, he raised a spreath out of
that part of Lovat''s lands called Aird, in revenge of an injury he had
received in that country in his youth. He brought the cattle to Sky, and
slaughtered them in Hearloth, at at a place from that accident called
Buniskavigh, or field of the offals, to this day.
Sometime thereafter his estate was invaded by the followers of the
Macdonalds, lords of the isles; he came up with them at Lochsligichan,
and by a stratagem, and his superior military skill, gave them a total
overthrow, and divided the spoil at a rock, which, from that accident,
has ever since been called Creganniseanigh, or the rock of the spoil.
He married a daughter of John Maclean of Lochbuy, by whom he had
three sons.
1. John, his heir.
2. Tormod, of whom the Macleods called Macvic-William, &c. and of
them Borline; also, the Macbie-Alister Roys, of whom Ballimore, St
Kilda, &c. are descended.
3. George, who went abroad and settled in Lorraine, of whom several
families of considerable property, still subsisting in that country, are
descended.
This William did not long survive his father, died in the end of the reign
of king Robert III, and was succeeded by his eldest son, John Macleod.
!CONFLICT: Douglas lists Tormod/Norman, founder of the families of
Borline, St. Kilda, etc. as the son of William Cleireach MacLeod, V of
Hammer. However, MacKinnon and Morrison have this man as a son of
John Iain Borb MacLeod. This is where he is located in this database.
!BIOGRAPHY: Rev. Dr. Donald MacKinnon, MACLEOD CHIEFS OF HARRIS AND
DUNVEGAN, Edinburgh, The Clan MacLeod Society, 1969, p. 12. Alick
Morrison, THE CHIEFS OF CLAN MACLEOD, East Kilbride, Scotland, 1986.
William, as his father''s second son, was educated for the church, and
was known as UILLEAM CLEIREACH (William the Clerk), but when his
elder brother, Malcolm was killed in Lewis, he returned home to prepare
himself for the duties of the chiefship. He married, according to the
BANNATYNE MANUSCRIPT, a daughter of MacLean of Duart, but, according
to Alexander MacKenzie, [HISTORY OF THE MACLEODS, p. 13] his wife was
a daughter of John MacLaine, 2nd of Lochbuie. [The Rev. A. MacLean
Sinclair agrees with Alexander MacKenzie that William''s wife was a
daughter of MacLaine, 2nd of Lochbuie, but gives his Christian name as
Murdoch and not John (CLAN GILLEAN, p. 255).] William had issue....
William did not live to be an old man. He died suddenly c. 1409, at
Castle Camus in Sleat, and was buried in Iona. He was succeeded in the
chiefship by his son.