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THE CLAN CAMERON
(LOCHEIL.)
War Cry:-"Chlanna nan con thigibh a so 's gheibh sibh feoil" ("Sons of the
hounds come here and get flesh")
Clan Pip Music: Gathering -"Ceann na drochaide moire" ("The head of the high
bridge"). March "Piobaireachd Dhonuill Duibh" ("Pibroch of Donald Dubh").
Badge: Darag (Oak); or Dearca fithich (Crowberry).
I V
the best Celtic authorities, the Camerons are supposed to have been of the same
origin as the Clan Chattan. At first there were three branches of them the
Camerons of Glenevis, the Camerons of Strone, and the MacMartins of Letterfinlay,
all separated from the Clan Chattan by the end of the 14th century, probably after
the famous battle of the North Inch at Perth.
The Locheil family are supposed to belong to the Strone branch, "and," says
Robertson " it is likely they declared themselves independent of the Clan Chattan,
and this they have ever since maintained."
A tradition mentions that Allan, surnamed MacOchtry, was chief of the Camerona
in the reign of Robert II. ; butsome years before his accession to the throne, we
read of the name, in 1346, when a Sir Koger Cameron was killed at the battle of
Durham. Donald Dbuled the clan at the bloody battle of Harlaw in 1411, when the
Lord of the Isles was defeated by the Scottish Lowland troops, under the Earl of Mar.
It would appear that, though the Letterfinlay branch of the tribe were the oldest and adhered
to the Clan Chattan, yet the Locheil family obtained the following of the clan from the time their
independence was declared.
In 1426, one of the name, John Cameron, Provost of Lincluden, became Bishop of Glasgow. He
was also Lord Privy Seal. He was a native of Kilmalie.
In the early part of the same century, MacLean, who recovered Coll and conquered Barra,
obtained, it is said, from James II., a gift of the territory of the Camerons, forfeited for some offence
against the state, probably in connection with the murder of James
"
I. MacLean therefore went
with an armed force to seize his new possessions, and, I know not for what reason, took his wife with
him. The Camerons rose in defence of their chief, and a battle was fought at the head of Loch Ness,
near the place where Fort Augustus now stands, in which Locheil obtained the victory, and MacLean
with his followers was defeated and destroyed. The lady fell into the hands of the conquerors, an- 1
being found pregnant, was placed in the custody of Maclonich, one of a family branched from the
Camerons, with orders if she brought forth a boy to destroy him, if a girl to spare her. Maclonich's
wife had a girl about the same time at which Lady MacLean brought forth a boy, and Maclonich
ontrived that the children should be changed. MacLean, being preserved from death, in time re-
covered his original patrimony ; and, in gratitude to his friend, made his castle a place of refuge to
any of the clan that should think himself in danger ; and, as a proof of reciprocal confidence took
upon himself and his posterity the care of educating the heir of Maclonich."
In 1501, the name of Thomas Cameron, a notary, appears in some of the family papers of the
Ix>rds Montgomery (Eglinton Memorials, vol. ii.), and three years later, we find Ewen, son of Allan,
Captain of the Clan Cameron binding himself, by the faith and truth in his body, to George, Earl
of Huntly, to be "his leill, trew, ane fald, man and bervand," and with his kin and allies, to take
l-ai t with the earl in all his just actions and quarrels against all men. This was in May 1543 (Spatd.
Club. Minced.). The following year saw Huntly in arms, fighting the battle of Blairleine, when,
despite this bond, the Camerons were arrayed against him. Soon after he captured the chief,
together with Ronald Mac Donald of Keppoch, both of whom were declared guilty of high treason
and beheaded at Elgin.
In 1547, the successor of Ewen (son of Allan), Ewen Macconeill, signed a bond of man-rent to
the Earl of Huntly at Inverness, in which he is designated Laird of Locheil, and affixed his signature
as " Ewin Donaldson, with his hand at the pen, led by Maister John Camroun " (Ibid., \1. i v.).
During the reign of Mary, John Cameron, minister of Dunoon, was famous for hi* learning and
probity.
Another eminent native of Kilmali, was the famous Sir Ewen Cameron of Locheil, who was born
in 1629, and