The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

CHAP. VIII] OF SCOTLAND 331
Clan Mathan.
The Macmathans or Mathiesons are represented in the
manuscript of 1450 as a branch of the Mackenzies, and their
origin is deduced in that document from Mathan or Mathew,
a son of Kenneth, from whom the Mackenzies themselves take
their name.
This origin is strongly corroborated by tradition, which has
always asserted the existence of a close intimacy and connexion
between these two clans. The genealogy contained in
the manuscript is also confirmed by
the fact that the Norse
account of Haco's expedition mentions that the earl of Ross,
in his incursions among the Isles, which led to that expedition,
was accompanied by Kiarnakr, son of Makamals, while at that
very period in the genealogy of the manuscript occur the names
oi Kenneth and Matgamna or Mathew, of which the Norse names
are evidently a corruption.
Of the history of this clan we know nothing whatever.
Although they are now extinct, they must at one time have
been one of the most powerful clans in the north, for among
the Highland chiefs seized by James
at Inverness in 1427, Bower mentions Macmaken, leader of
I. at the Parliament held
two thousand men, and this circumstance affords a most striking
instance of the rise and fall of different families ; for, while the
Mathison appears at that early period as the leader of two
thousand men, the Mackenzie has the same number only, and
we now see the clan of Mackenzie extending their numberless
branches over a great part of the north, and possessing an
extent of territory of which few^ families can exhibit a parallel,
while the once powerful clan of the Mathisons has disappeared,
and their name become nearly forgotten.
Siol Alpine.
The general appellation of Siol Alpine has been usually
given to a number of clans situated at considerable distances
from each other, but who have hitherto been supposed to
possess a common descent, and that from Kenneth Macalpine,
the ancestor of a long line of Scottish kings. These clans are
the clan Gregor, the Grants, the Mackinnons, Macquarries,