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ORIGINS OF THE CLANExtracts from "The Scottish Nation" by William Anderson, published in 1868.
The Clan McLaren, MacLaren, MacLaurin, Labhrin.MacLaurin, From Argyllshire the tribe of Laurin moved into Perthshire, having, it is said, acquired from Kenneth MacAlpin after his conquest of the Picts in the ninth century, the districts of Balquhidder and Strathearn, and three brothers are mentioned as having got assigned to them in that territory the lands of Bruach, Auchleskin, and Stank. In the churchyard of Balquhidder, celebrated as containing the grave of Rob Roy, the burial places of their different families are marked off separately, so as to correspond with the situation which these estates bear to each other, a circumstance which so far favours the tradition regarding them. Among the followers of Malise, Earl of Strathearn, at the Battle of the Standard in 1138 AD, were a tribe called "Lavernani", supposed by Lord Hailes to have been the clan Laurin. Of those Scottish barons who swore fealty to Edward I in 1296 AD, were Maurice of Tiree, an island in the county of Argyll which formerly belonged to the MacLaurins. Conan of Balquhidder, and Laurin of Ardveche in Strathearn, all of the clan Laurin. When the earldom of Strathearn became vested in the crown in 1370 AD the MacLaurins were reduced from the condition of proprietors to that of "kyndly" or perpetual tenants, which they continued to be till 1508 AD, when it was deemed expedient that this Celtic holding should be changed and the lands set in feu, "for increase of policie and augmentation of the king's rental." The MacLaurins were among the loyal clans that fought for James III at Sauchieburn in 1488 AD. They were also at Flodden and at Pinkie. In the well known rolls of the clans possessing chiefs, dated in 1587 AD and 1594 AD "the clan Lauren" are mentioned. A sanguinary encounter once took place between the MacLaurins of Auchleskin and the Buchanans of Leny, arising out of the following circumstance: at the fair of St. Kessaig held at Kilmahog, in the parish of Callander, one of the Buchanans struck a MacLaurin of weak intellect, on the cheek, with a salmon which he was carrying, and knocked off his bonnet. The latter said he would not dare to repeat the blow at next St. George's fair at Balquhidder. To that fair the Buchanans went in a strong body, and on their appearance the half witted MacLaurin, who had received the insult, for the first time told what had occurred at the fair at Kilmahog. The warning cross was immediately sent through the clan, and every man able to bear arms hastened to the muster. In their impatience the MacLaurins began the battle, before all their force had collected, and were driven from the field, but one of them, seeing his son cut down, turned furiously upon the Buchanans, shouting the war cry of his tribe, ("Craig Tuirc," the rock of the boar,) and his clansmen rallying, became fired with the miri-cath, or madness of battle, and rushed after him, fighting desperately. The Buchanans were slain in great numbers, and driven over a small cascade of the Balvaig stream, which retains the name of Linan-an-Seicachan, "the cascade of the dead bodies." Two only escaped from the field, one of whom was slain at Gartnafuaran, and the other fell at the point which, from him, was ever afterwards known as Sron Lanie. Traditional variously fixes this clan battle in the reign of one of the Alexanders, that is, between 1106 and 1286, and in the sixteenth century. About 1497, some of the clan Laurin having carried off the cattle from the Braes of Lochaber, the Macdonalds followed the spoilers, and, overtaking them in Glenurchy, after a sharp fight, recovered the "lifting". the MacLaurins straight away sought the assistance of their kinsman Dugal Stewart of Appin, who at once joined them with his followers, and a conflict took place, when both Dugal and Macdonald of Keppoch, the chiefs of their respective clans, were among the slain. This Dugal was the first of the Stewarts of Appin. He was an illegitimate son of John Stewart, third lord of Lorn, by a lady of the clan Laurin, and in 1469 when he attempted, by force of arms, to obtain possession of his father's land, he was assisted by the MacLaurins, 130 of whom fell in a battle that took place at the foot of Bendoran, a mountain in Glenurchy. The clan Laurin were the strongest sept in Balquhidder, which was called "the country of the MacLaurins." Although there are a few families of the name there now, so numerous were they at one period that none dared enter the church, until the MacLaurins had taken their seats. This invidious right claimed by them often led to unseemly brawls and fights at the church door, and lives were sometimes lost in consequence. In 1532, Sir John MacLaurin, vicar of Balquhidder, was killed in one of these quarrels, and several of his kinsmen, implicated in the deed, were outlawed. A deadly feud existed between the MacLaurins and their neighbours, the Macgregors, of Rob Roy's tribe. In the 16th century, the latter slaughtered no fewer than 18 householders of the MacLaurin name, with the whole of their families, and took possession of the farms which had belonged to them. The deed was not investigated till 1604, 46 years afterwards, when it was thus described in their trial for the slaughter of the Colquhouns: "and siclyk, John McCoull Cheire, ffor airt and pairt of the crewall murthour and burning of auchtene houshalders of the clan Lawren, thair wyves and bairns, committit fourtie sax zeir syne, or thairby." The verdict was that he was "clene, innocent, and acquit of the said crymes." The hill farm of Invernenty, on "the braes of Balquhidder," was one of the farms thus forcibly occupied by the Macgregors, although the property of a MacLaurin family, and in the days of Rob Roy, two centuries afterwards, the aid of Stewart of Appin was called into replace the MacLaurins in their own, which he did at the head of 200 of his men. All these farms, however, are now the property of the chief of clan Gregor, having been purchased about 1798, from the Commissioners of the Forfeited Estates. The MacLaurins were out in the rebellion of 1745. According to President Forbes, they were followers of the Murrays of Athol, but although some of them might have been so, the majority of the clan fought for the Pretender with the Stewarts of Appin under Stewart of Ardsheil. Among them was MacLaurin of Invernenty, who was taken prisoner after the battle of Culloden, but made his escape in a very singular manner from the soldiers who were conducting him to Carlisle. The incident has been introduced by Sir Walter Scott into 'Redgauntlet', where "Pate-in-Peril" is the hero of it. On the way to England the party had reached the well known "Devil's Beef Stand," otherwise called "Johnstone' Beef Tub," a deep and gloomy hollow near Moffat, so named from its having been employed, in the reiving times of old, as a hiding place for stolen cattle. It was a misty morning , and MacLaurin, taking advantage of the opportunity, suddenly threw himself down the sides of the declivity, knowing that the soldiers, ignorant of the locality, would not dare to follow him. Gaining a morass, he immersed himself up to the neck in water, and covering his head with a turf, he remained there until night. In the disguise of a woman he afterwards lived undiscovered in Balquhidder, until the act of indemnity was passed in 1747. The chiefship was claimed by the family to which belonged Colin MacLaurin, the eminent mathematician and philosopher, and his son, John MacLaurin, Lord Dreghorn, memoirs of whom follow. In the application given in for the latter to the Lyon court, he proved his descent from a family which had long been in possession of the island of Tiree, one of the Argyleshire Hebrides. His great grandfather, Daniel MacLaurin, author of Memoirs of his Own Times, removed from Tiree to Inverness, of which he became a very useful citizen. Click below for Dad's photos.
Pictures © Jim McLaren 2000
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