History Of The Mackenzies [199]
in war with such a powerful chief as Macleod of Lewis, while he felt himself insecure in his other possessions, but after arranging matters amicably with his nephew of Kintail, and now being master of a fortune and possessions suitable to his mind and quality, he resolved to avenge the murder and to "make it productive of his own advantage." He summoned all those who were accessory to the assassination of his sister's children before the Chief Justice. Their well grounded fears made them absent themselves from Court. Hector produced the bloody shirts of the murdered boys, whereupon the murderers were declared fugitives and outlaws, and a commission granted in his favour for their pursuit, "which he did so resolutely manage that in a short time he killed many, preserved some to justice, and forced the remainder to a composition advantageous to himself. His successors, who were both active and prudent men, did thereafter acquire the rest from their unthrifty neighbours." The greatest defeat that Hector ever gave to the Macleods "was at Bealach Glasleoid, near Kintail, where most of them were taken or killed." At this fight Duncan Mor na Tuaighe, who so signally distinguished himself at Blar-na-Pairc, was present with Hector, and on being told that four men were together attacking his son Dugal, he indifferently replied, "Well, if he be my son there is no hazard for that," a remark which turned out quite true, for the hero killed the four Macleods, and came off himself without any serious wounds. [Duncan in his old days was very assisting to Hector, Gairloch's predecessor, against the Macleods of Gairloch, for he, with his son Dugal, who was a strong, prudent, and courageous man, with ten or twelve other Kintailmen, were alwise, upon the least advertisement, ready to go and assist Hector, whenever, wherever, and in whatever he had to do, for which cause there has been a friendly correspondence betwixt the family of Gairloch and the MacRas of Kintail, which still continues."--Genealogy of the MacRas.]
The massacre of Island Isay followed a considerable time after this, and its object was very much the same as the murder of Loch Tolly, although carried out by a different assassin. Ruairidh "Nimhneach" Macleod, son of Allan "Mac Ruairdh" of Gairloch, and nephew of the Loch Tolly assassins, determined not only to remove the children of John Mor na Tuaighe, brother of Alexander Macleod, II. of Raasay, by Janet Mackenzie of Kintail, but also to destroy the direct line of the Macleods of Raasay, and thus open up the succession to John na Tuaighe's son by his second wife, Roderick Nimhneach's sister, and failing him, to Roderick's own son Allan. By this connection it would, he thought, be easier for him to attain repossession of the lands of Gairloch, from which his family was driven by the Mackenzies.
Roderick's name appears as "Rory Mac Allan, alias Nevymnauch," in a decree-arbitral by the Regent Earl of Murray between Donald Macdonald, V. of Sleat, and Colin Mackenzie, XI. of Kintail, dated at Perth, the 1st of August, 1569, in terms of which Macdonald becomes responsible for Roderick and undertakes that he and his kin shall "desist and cease troubling, molesting, harming or invasion of the said Laird of Gairloch's lands and rowmes, possessions, tenants, servants, and goods, while on the other hand Kintail shall see to it that Torquil Cononach shall cease to do the same in all respects to Macdonald's lands." In 1586 Roderick is described as "of Lochgair," but another person is named in the same document as "Macleud, heritor of the lands of Gairloch," which proves that Roderick Nimhneach was not the actual proprietor of even the small portion of that district which was still left to his family. He was the second son, and one of the objects of the massacre on Island Isay was to cut off his father's only surviving son and heir by his first wife--a daughter of Mackenzie of Kintail--who escaped the previous massacre on the Island of Loch Tolly.
With the view of cutting off
The massacre of Island Isay followed a considerable time after this, and its object was very much the same as the murder of Loch Tolly, although carried out by a different assassin. Ruairidh "Nimhneach" Macleod, son of Allan "Mac Ruairdh" of Gairloch, and nephew of the Loch Tolly assassins, determined not only to remove the children of John Mor na Tuaighe, brother of Alexander Macleod, II. of Raasay, by Janet Mackenzie of Kintail, but also to destroy the direct line of the Macleods of Raasay, and thus open up the succession to John na Tuaighe's son by his second wife, Roderick Nimhneach's sister, and failing him, to Roderick's own son Allan. By this connection it would, he thought, be easier for him to attain repossession of the lands of Gairloch, from which his family was driven by the Mackenzies.
Roderick's name appears as "Rory Mac Allan, alias Nevymnauch," in a decree-arbitral by the Regent Earl of Murray between Donald Macdonald, V. of Sleat, and Colin Mackenzie, XI. of Kintail, dated at Perth, the 1st of August, 1569, in terms of which Macdonald becomes responsible for Roderick and undertakes that he and his kin shall "desist and cease troubling, molesting, harming or invasion of the said Laird of Gairloch's lands and rowmes, possessions, tenants, servants, and goods, while on the other hand Kintail shall see to it that Torquil Cononach shall cease to do the same in all respects to Macdonald's lands." In 1586 Roderick is described as "of Lochgair," but another person is named in the same document as "Macleud, heritor of the lands of Gairloch," which proves that Roderick Nimhneach was not the actual proprietor of even the small portion of that district which was still left to his family. He was the second son, and one of the objects of the massacre on Island Isay was to cut off his father's only surviving son and heir by his first wife--a daughter of Mackenzie of Kintail--who escaped the previous massacre on the Island of Loch Tolly.
With the view of cutting off