Of all the native earls of Scotland, those of this district alone have had a foreign origin assigned to them, though, apparently, without any sufficient reason. The first Earl of Lennox who appears on record is Aluin comes de Levenox, who lived in the early part of the 13th century; and there is some reason to believe that from this Aluin the later Earls of Lennox were descended. It is, no doubt, impossible to determine now who this Aluin really was; but, in the absence of direct authority, we gather from tradition that the heads of the family of Lennox, before being raised to the peerage, were hereditary seneschals of Strathearn, and bailies of the Abthanery of Dull, in Athole. Aluin was succeeded by a son of the same name, who is frequently mentioned in the chartularies of Lennox and Paisley, and who died before the yeare 1225.
It is recorded by the greatest of Scottish archaeologists, Chalmers, in his Caledonia, quoting from the twelfth-century Simeon of Durham, that the ancestor of the family was the Saxon Arkil, son of Egfrith. This Arkil, a Northumbrian chief who fled to Scotland to escape the devastations of William the Conqueror, received from Malcolm Canmore the custody of the Levanax or Lennox district, and became first founder of the family bearing that title. Alwyn, son of Arkil, was a frequent witness to the charters of David I. and Malcolm IV the Maiden., and was created Earl of Lennox by the latter King. The son, another Alwyn, of the first Earl of Lennox being a minor at his father’s death, William the Lion gave the earldom in ward to his brother David, Earl of Huntingdon, but the young Earl recovered possession before the yeare 1199. When he died in 1224, he left no fewer than eight sons. Of these, Malduin, the eldest, became third Earl of Lennox, and Gilchrist, the fourth son, obtained from the latter in 1225 a charter of the lands of Arrochar, and became ancestor of the MacFarlans. Along with Clan Donachy, the MacFarlans are said to have been the earliest of the clans to hold their lands by feudal charter. Like other vassals of the Earls of Lennox, the MacFarlan chiefs exercised their rights under the stipulation that all criminals condemned by them should be executed on the Earl’s gallows at Catter.
One of the earliest traditions connected with the family has to do with the great Norse invasion of Hakon, which ended at the battle of Largs in 1263. Previous to that battle, Hakon sent Olaf, King of Man, with sixty ships, up Loch Long. The Norsemen drew their vessels across the narrow isthmus of the MacFarlan country, between Arrochar and Tarbet on Loch Lomond, and the spot is pointed out, at the milestone midway, where the Laird of Arrochar hid his family from the fierce Norse raiders. Duncan, the second Laird of Arrochar, married Matilda, sister of Malcolm, fifth Earl of Lennox—he who was the friend of Wallace and Bruce, who fought at Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn, and fell at Halidon Hill, and there is reason to believe that the Laird of Arrochar and his followers fought under the Earl of Lennox at Bannockburn.
The son of Duncan of Arrochar and Matilda was named Malcolm, probably after his uncle the Earl; and Malcolm’s son, the fourth Laird, was named Pharlan, which has been translated Bartholomew. It is from this individual that the family have since taken their surname of MacFarlan. Pharlan’s son Malcolm had a charter confirming him in possession of the lands of Arrochar in 1354, and his son Duncan, the sixth Chief, married Christian, daughter of Sir Cohn Campbell of Lochow, and died shortly before 1460. His son John married a daughter of Sir James Mure of Rowallan, and sister of Elizabeth Mure, first wife of King Robert II. The next Chief, Duncan, was served heir to his father in 1441, and the next, Walter, married a daughter of the second Lord Livingstone.
The clan takes its name from Parlan, grandson of Gilchrist. Duncan, 6th chief obtained the lands of Arrochar from the Earl of Lennox and in 1395 he acquired many of the ajoining lands by marriage. On the death of the last of the old Earls of Lennox without male issue, Macfarlane claimed the title and lands. This was rejected and the title was conferred on Sir John Stewart of Darnley which led to a long emnity between the contesting families.
In Donald, the sixth earl, the male branch of the family became extict. Margaret, the daughter of Donald, married Walter de Fassalane, the heir male of the family; but this alliance failed to accomplish the objects intended by it, or, in other words, to preserve the honours and power of the house of Lennox. Their son Duncan, the eighth earl, had no male issue; and his eldest daughter Isabella, having married Sir Murdoch Stuart, the eldest son of the Regent, he and his family became involved in the ruin which overwhelmed the unfortunate house of Albany. Donald, the sixth Earl, had left only a daughter, Margaret. She married her cousin, Walter de Fassalane, on the Gareloch, who, as the earldom appears to have been a female fief, became seventh Earl in right of his wife. The son of this pair, Duncan, eighth Earl, was again the last of his line. His daughter Isabella became the wife of Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany, grandson of King Robert II., and for a time Regent of Scotland. On the return of James I. from his long captivity in England, Duke Murdoch, his two sons, Walter and Alexander, and his father-in-law Duncan, Earl of Lennox, were all arrested, tried, and executed on the Heading Hill at Stirling. Afterwards, on the death of the Duchess Isabella in 1460, her youngest son’s son, Lord Evandale, held the earldom in liferent till his death. Upon that event occurred the Partition of the Lennox; one-half of the territory went to the daughters of Earl Duncan’s second daughter, Margaret. These daughters were married respectively to Napier of Merchiston and Haldane of Gleneagles. The other half went to Elizabeth, Earl Duncan’s youngest daughter, married to Sir John Stewart of Darnley.
At the death of Isabella, in 1460, the earldom was claimed by three families; but that of Stewart of Darnley eventually overcame all opposition, and acquired the title and estates of Lennox. Their accession took place in the yeare 1488; upon which the clans that had been formerly united with the earls of the old stock separated themselves, and became independent. In 1473 Darnley obtained a royal precept declaring him heir, not only of half the lands, but of the title of Earl of Lennox.
Of these clans the principal was that of the Macfarlanes, the descendants, as has already been stated, of Gilchrist, a younger brother of Maldowen, Earl of Lennox. It appears, indeed, that the ancestor of this clan was Gilchrist, the brother of Maldowen or Malduin, the third Earl of Lennox. The war-like clan, Macfarlane claim descent from Giolchrist brother of the 13th Earl of Lennox, who held territories at the head of Loch Lomond.
It was probably in this character that, shortly after Flodden, the MacFarlans attacked the castle of Boturich on the south shore of Loch Lomond, which was part of the ancient property of the earldom that had fallen to the share of Haldane of Gleneagles.