The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

342 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
the}- are very often mentioned, but they do not appear to
have been engaged in man}- transactions by which their name
is separately brought forward as a clan. Although so great
a distance intervened between the country of the Macgregors
and that of this famih', the}- are unquestionably a branch of
the former clan. In the MS. of 1450 they are brought from
Finguine, a brother of Anrias or Andrew, who appears in the
Macgregor genealog}^ about the year 1130. This connexion
is farther proved by a bond of friendship entered into between
Lauchlan Mackinnon, of Strathardill, and James Macgregor, of
Macgregor, in 1671, in which bond, "for the special love and
amitie between these persons, and condescending that they are
descended lawfully /"rr? twa breetJiern of anId descent, quhairfore
and for certain onerous causes moving, we witt ye we to be
bound and obleisit, likeas be the tenor hereof we faithfully bind
and obleise us and our successors, our kin friends and followers,
faithfully to serve ane anither in all causes with our men and
servants, against all wha live or die."
In consequence of their connexion with the Macdonalds,
the Mackinnons have no history independent of that clan, and
the internal state of these tribes during the government of the
lords of the Isles is so obscure that little can be learned regarding
them, until the forfeiture of the last of these lords. During
their dependence upon the Macdonalds there is but one event
of any importance in which we find the Mackinnons taking a
share, for it would appear that on the death of John of the
Isles, in the fourteenth century, Mackinnon, with what object
it is impossible now to ascertain, stirred up his second son,
John Mor, to rebel against his eldest brother, apparently with
a view to the chiefship, and his faction was joined by the
Macleans and the Macleods. But Donald, the elder brother
was supported by so great a proportion of the tribe, that he
drove John Mor and his party out of the Isles, and pursued
him to Galloway, and from thence to Ireland.
The rebellion being thus put down, John Mor threw himself
upon his brother's mercy, and received his pardon, but Mackinnon
was taken and hanged, as having been the instigator
of the disturbance.
On the forfeiture of the last lord, Mackinnon became inde-