The Highlanders of Scotland - Clan Strachan Society

346 THE HIGHLANDERS [part ii
succeeded to the earldom and left no male issue. Secondly,
there exists a bond of friendship entered into between
Macgregor of Glenstray and Macaulay of Ardincaple, upon
the 27th May, 1591, in which the latter owns his being a
cadet of the house of the former, and promises to pay him
the "
Calp." There can be no doubt, therefore, that the
Macaula}'s were a branch of the clan Alpine, and the mistake
as to their origin has probably arisen from the similarity of
name, and from their situation necessarily making them, for
the time, followers of the earl of Lennox.
The Alacaulays appear to have settled, at a very early
period, in the Lennox, and the first chiefs who are mentioned
in the Lennox chartulary are "
designed de Ardincapill."
Their connexion with the Macgregors led them to take some
part in the feuds that unfortunate race were at all times
engaged in, but the protection
of the earls of Lennox seems
to have relieved the :\Iacaulays from the consequences which
fell so heavily upon the Macgregors. The Macaulays never
rose above the rank of a minor clan, and like many others
in a similar situation, they have latterly become extinct.