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BUCHANAN.
War Cry :" C\a.r Innis" (An island in Lochlomond).
Badge: Dearc bhraoileag (Bilberry); or Darag (Oak).
IOWARDS the middle of the 13th century, Gilbert, seneschal to the Earl of Lennox,
obtained from him a part of the lands of Buchanan in Stirlingshire, and took his
name from them.
Donald, sixth Earl of Lennox, renewed to Manrice of Buchanan the grant of
what the former Earl had conferred upon his ancestor.
The king granted a charter of confirmation to his successor of the same name,
"
to this effect, Maurice of Bouchannane, son and heir of the late Maurice of
Bouchannane of the land called Bouchannane, together with Sallachy, by these
bounds from Kelyn to Aldmar, down to the water of Hanerch, and the land of
Sallachy down to the pool of Lougchlomneid (sic), etc., with a court of life and
"
to be held by the delivery
limbs, to be held as often as he (the Earl) may incline ;
of a cheese out of each house in which a cheese is made on the said lands.
Through marriage with a daughter of Menteith of Rusky, his son, Walter of Buchanan, became
connected with the royal house. The latter married the sole heiress of the ancient family of Leny.
Their eldest son, Sir Alexander, distinguished himself, under Stuart, the Constable of France, and
at the battle of Bauje-en-Anjon, in 1421, is said to have slain the Duke of Clarence. The war-cry of
the clan, Clarineh, is said to come from this event ; bxit more probably from its rendezvous, Clarinnis,
an isle in Loch Lomond. Sir Alexander was slain in the battle of Verneuil in 1424 his second brother
;
Walter, stuxeeded to Buchanan, and his third to Leny.
Walter married Isabel (daughter of Murdoch, Duke of Albany), Countess of Lennox. Their
eldest son, Patrick, married the heiress of Killearn and Auchreoch. Their youngest son, Thomas,
founded the hou-e of Drumikil, whence, in the third generation, sprang the historian, George
Buchanan.
Patrick's son, Walter, married a daughter of Lord Graham, and by her had a younger son, who
became known in the time of James V. as the facetious " King of Kippen." Patrick, who fell at
Flodden, by his wife, a daughter of Argyll, left two sons George, Sheriff of Dumbarton in 1561, and
Walter, founder of the line of Spittal.
By Margaret Edmondston of Dnntreath, he had John, his heir, and by a second wife, Janet
Cunninghame of Craigends, William, founder of the now extinct line of Auchmar.
The principal line became extinct in 1682, when the representation was claimed by Buchanan of
Auchmar, whose line perished in 1816.
The Lairds of Buchanan built the ancient peel of that name. The mill-town of Buchanan is
near the parish church. The family lands lay in Menteith and the Lennox, near Lochs Katrine and
Lomond, and are now possessed by the Duke of Montrose.
The present chief is John Buchanan Hamilton of Leny.
A Buchanan was created a Baronet in 1878.