Bef 1132 - Yes, date unknown
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Name |
Gilchrist Progenitor of Clan Macmillan |
Birth |
Bef 1132 |
Gender |
Male |
Death |
Yes, date unknown |
Person ID |
I159552 |
My Genealogy |
Last Modified |
19 Aug 2013 |
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Notes |
- Alias "An Gille-Maolan" ("The Little Tonsured Servant", ie devotee of StJohn.)
See "BYGONE LOCHABER" Historical & Traditional. by Somerled MacMillian,1971 K & R Davidson Ltd. 205-207 West George Street, Glasgow (Printed forprivate collection) (Pages 53-54)
From The Highlanders of Scotland. By William F Skene (1902) (Page 417)
The Mac-Millans. The name is firstly Mac-Gille-Mhaoil, Gille-Maol, "BaldGille"; but it probably stands for Gille-na-maol, which means "Gille ofthe Saints." Shortened in the usual way, it appears as Maolan. CompareGille-naomh, Irish Gille-na-naomh, "Gille of the Saints," whenceM'Gilnef, and Naomhan, whence M'Niven.
The Clan MacMillan Society of Scotland. Clan MacMillan. compiled by theClan MacMillan International Centre at Finlaystone, the Scottish home ofChief George MacMillan. at http://www.clanmacmillan.org/
"The early ancestry of the M'millan chiefs is given in the collection ofWest Highland and Island genealogies generally known as MS 1467 (from thedate at which these pedigrees were at first thought to have been compiled- though they are now usually dated to about the year 1400). The MS 1467pedigree goes from the clan's namefather Gilchrist Maolan / Gillemaol toMalcolm Og, who must therefore have been chief in about 1400." athttp://www.clanmacmillan.org/Chiefsfamily.htm
Also from The Clan MacMillan Society of Scotland.
http://www.clanmacmillan.org/History.htm
"Bishop Cormac's son Gilchrist, the prognenitor of the Clann an Mhaoil,was a religious man like his father; and it was because of this that hewore the tonsure which gave him the nickname Maolan or Gillemaol. Thechurch origins of the M?millans are reflected in the connection of someof the earliest children of Maolan to two religiously based clanconfederations: the Clann GhilleFhaolain (Devotees of St Fillan) inPerthshire and Galloway; and the Clann GhilleChattain (Devotees of StCatan) in Ulster, the Hebrides, and particularly Badenoch and Lochaber.Feuding with the Mackintoshes for the Captaincy of "Clan Chattan" - thedevotees of St Catan - involved the M?millans in defeat at the Battle ofthe Clans at Perth in 1396; and finished with the chiefly family?snear-extermination at The Palm Sunday Massacre of 1430. The one survivorof the massacre, Alexander mac Lachlan, fled to Knapdale, where some ofthe clan had probably been settled since the mid-13th century; and thefamous cross that he later erected there may well be a memorial to thefamily and lands he lost in Lochaber. The M'millans' charter from theLord of the Isles for their lands in Knapdale was said to have beencarved in rock on the beach at the Point of Knap:
Coir MhicMhaolain air a Chnap
Fhad's a bhuaileas tonn ri crag
MacMillan's right to Knap shall be
As long's this rock withstands the sea
Alexander MacMillan is also remembered in Knapdale for the tower he builtat Castle Sween (shown below), the oldest stone castle in Scotland, whichhe held for the Lord of the Isles in the 1470s"
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