The eponym of the Clan Donald: Donald, the 3rd Lord of the Isles- son of Ranald (Reginald of the Isles), son of Somerled - was active in the early years of the thirteenth century, and it was his son and successor, Angus Mor, who first designated himself de Ile (of Islay). This title was retained by the leaders of the clan, the Lords of the Isles, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was Donald's great-grandson, Angus Og, the 6th Lord of the Isles who sheltered Robert the Bruce at the lowest ebb of his career. Angus Og was instrumental in Bruce's defeat of the English at Bannockburn. On a charter of 1408, written in Gaelic, Donald Lord of the Isles signs himself McDomhnaill and it is as The MacDonald that he would have been known to his subjects. Angus Og's grandson, Donald, the 8th Lord of the Isles, married the heiress of the Earldom of Ross and in 1411 fought the Battle of Harlaw to keep his wife's inheritance from being usurped by the Regent Duke of Albany. His army of 10,000 men included the forces of almost every clan of the Highlands and Isles. All these clans were willing vassals of the Lord of the Isles. They regarded the MACDONALD Chiefs as the heads of the ancient "Race of Conn," and lineal heirs of the ancient Kings of the Dalriadic Scots, going back to the 6th century and beyond. The Lords of the Isles had residences on Islay at Kilchoman and Finlaggan. Several families in Gaelic society included physicians, musicians, poets, and metal-workers; or by hereditary appointments to serve chiefs and landlords.Some of these families, including the Macbeths, MacArthurs, MacVurichs and MacEacherns, are associated with Islay. The Macbeths were hereditary doctors or physicians to the Lords of the Isles. There is a tradition that the MacEacherns of Islay (Clan Gowan) were smiths to the Lords of the Isles; there was another branch of them long established in Morvern, in mainland Argyll. Donald MacGuin of Esknish in the Parish of Killarow was one of the men of Islay who petitioned the Privy Council about 1600 in support of Angus MacDonald of Dunyvaig and his son James. It is likely that many Islay folk of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, surnamed Smith, are descendants of the MacEacherns and MacGowans.
There is another Islay family of interest in this context, the MacNocards. Their name is derived from the Gaelic for the son of the ceard, meaning a smith or metalworker, often with the sense of someone who worked in copper and silver, rather than iron. It is believed that at a later date MacNokards in Argyll generally adopted the name SINCLAIR, and Sinclairs do indeed turn up in Islay rentals of the eighteenth century. SINCLAIR (Mac na Ceardadh) of Caithness, Midlothian & Orkney is derived from the French parish of Saint Clair-sur-Elle in Normandy, from which place William de Sancto Claro emigrated to Scotland in the 12th Century. William received a grant of the barony of Roslin in Midlothian. The Sinclairs are descended from the Ynglingar dynasty of Norway.
Their name MACDONALD comes from Donald of Islay, one of the sons of Somhairle, Lord of Argyle. Donald’s younger brother, John, the progenitor of the MacDonalds of Dunyvaig, a castle on the south shore of Islay, has first name and surname recorded on the 1408 document as Eoin MacDomhnaill (John MacDonald). By the fifteenth century they were the most powerful clan in Scotland, controlling the entire western coast of the country. The timeline from Scandinavia includes the Isle of Man. Olav's Ship. In the sixteenth century the dominant family on the island remained a branch of the Clan Donald, the MacDonalds of Dunyvaig, leaders of Clan Donald South, and the descendants of John MacDonald of Dunyvaig with extensive lands elsewhere in Kintyre and Ireland. His grandson John rebelled against royal authority and was executed in Edinburgh in 1499 along with his son. In 1545 when Islay was re-granted to James MacDonald of Dunyvaig. The MacDonalds of Dunyvaig also had to contend on Islay with the MacLeans of Duart (Mull). With the acquisition of Islay by the Campbells of Cawdor in 1614 Clan Donald South effectively disappeared. All of these Campbells belonged to families which had come to Islay as landlords since 1614. There is no evidence for any population interchange with England, or any with Lowland Scotland prior to the arrival of the Campbells of Cawdor. There were MacMurchies, including one called Neil who was a doctor. John MacMurchie, doctor of medicine, who witnessed a band by Ranald MacDonald to Sir James Campbell of Cawdor in 1615, might be a descendant. Some of the Campbell tacksmen also had land elsewhere, like the Campbells of Kilchoman (on Islay) and Ardesier (in Inverness-shire), and Campbell of Laganlochan (mainland Argyll) who had Ardlaroch in the 1730s. Such were the Campbells of Octomore, Sunderland, Elister, Balliclaven, Daill, Torrabus and Lossit. There were also other families of incomers in the seventeenth century, including Pyotts, Stewarts, Wallaces, Dallases, Frasers, MacNabs and Hunters, all of whom could have come from the estates of the Campbells of Cawdor in the northeast of Scotland. In the years after the acquisition of the island by the Campbells of Shawfield in 1726, including MacFadyens, Taylors, Bells, Keiths, Grahams, Carmichaels, Simpsons, Hyndmans, Johnstons and Wilkinsons. Some of these may be hitherto unrecognised old Islay families.
The MACDONALD surname was largely confined to the actual descendants of Donald, the grandson of Somerled, until the seventeenth century. Other well known Scottish names like MacAlastair, MacPherson, MacEwen, MacCartney and MacIntyre. Clan Donald maintained their dominance in the seas around Islay and across the North Channel to Ireland. Donald MacGillespie’s father is given on his grave-slab as Patrick, otherwise unrecorded. He may have been descended from Dougald MacGillespie who witnessed a charter of the Lord of the Isles on Islay in 1479 and was one of the temporary sheriffs appointed in 1499 to give sasine of Islay lands to MacIan of Ardnamurchan. His son Malcolm was parson of Kilchoman and chaplain of Finlaggan.
MACDONALD is extremely numerous and widespread throughout Ireland. It is commonly a confusion for MACDONNELL (q.v.), and shares the same origin, coming from the Gaelic personal name Domhnall, meaning 'world mighty'. The MacDonnells of the Hebrides invaded, A.D. 1211, the territories of Antrim and Derry, where they afterwards made settlements. Angus Mor, being the son of Domhnall (Donald, the 3rd of the Isles) took on the surname of MacDomhnall. They are one of the group of Scottish clans who claim descent from Conn of the Hundred Battles, the legendary Irish king, through Colla Uais, who colonised the Hebrides. In February, 1256 King Henry III o England commanded his bailiffs and subjects in Ireland not to allow Angus Mor MacDonnell, or other Scottish male factors to be received in Ireland, and again in 1260 admittance to that country was denied to the Scots. Alasdair Og MacDonnell was born 1272 in 5th Lord of the Isles, and died 1308. Alasdair Og MacDonnell became the progenitor of Galloglach of Ulster. In September 1286 he attended the meeting in favor of the elder Bruce and against the succession of the Maid of Norway at Turnberry, and, in 1291 offered the oath of allegiance to the English King who at that time was seeking out for making Scotland an English province. On the 11th of July 1292 a safegard was given to him on behalf of the family for the purpose of commerce in Ireland. Henceforth Alexander supported Edward I, who appointed him High Admiral of Western Seas and ballie of part of Kintire. The theory then, is that Robert the Bruce, the Clan Donald of Angus Og, and the Knights Templar joined forces in driving out the English at Bannockburn. The Knights or Gallowglasses had spent years studying battle and passed this knowledge on to the troops at Bannockburn most of which were under Angus Og.
The MACDOUGALLS descend from Somerled's eldest son Dugall and the eponymous Donald was a grandson of Somerled through his second son, Ranald. The MacDougalls of Lorn are the senior branch of the royal house of Somerled, King of the Hebrides and Regulus of Argyll. As a Highland clan, the MacDougalls are one of the three oldest in existence dating from 1164 when Dougall, Somerled's oldest son and the clan's patronymic forebear, inherited the central portion of his father's kingdom. Dougall's heritage from the Gael and the Norse is shown in the present arms of the MacDougall Chiefs which quarter the lion of the ancient Scottish Kingdom of Dalriada and the black royal galley of the Norse. In the warring which followed the forces of the MacDougall chief nearly captured Bruce, who in order to escape, was forced to leave his brooch--- the famous Brooch of Lorn---along with his cloak in the hands of the MacDougalls. Their name was originally MACDOUGALL, but their patronymic ancestor is said to by Duegald, a younger son of Uchtred, second Lord of Galloway. The "w" was an anglicization introduced under Edward I of England and the "e" is the Irish spelling. Because John The Red Comyn of Badenoch, the grandson of Dervorguilla of Galloway, was murdered by Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, in order to usurp the crown, the Galloway MacDougalls were mortal foes of Robert I and close allies of the crowned Baliols of Galloway, of Alexander Comyn Earl of Buchan and of their fifth cousin Edward I of England. The eritage prospers and the old belonging takes on new dimensions in the Clan MacDougall Society of North America and a sister society in Australia. The main migrations of the family name were to Ireland during the Plantations of Ulster, and then to America during the Irish potato famine as a result of which most members of the family now live in the United States.