Donald Maclean

From 'The Macleans of Boreray' page 156 (the last page):

"The last representative of the Macleans of Boreray was Alexander Duncan Maclean, who was born in the Nilgherry Hills, India, on the 26th October 1850. He became a tea planter in Ceylon.............. (He) died without issue at Hilton Compton Park Villas, in Plymouth, on 7th August 1924........ (With his death) the direct heir male of line of the ancient House of Boreray comes to an end. The male representative of the family must now be looked for amongst the descendants of Donald, 11th of Boreray - Neil and Lachlan - who escaped to America after the '45 rebellion, whom failing, the descendants of Charles MacLean, third son of Neil Ban, VII Maclean of Boreray, and his wife Anne, daughter of Alexander Mackenzie of Kilcoy, represented by the MacLeans of Kilfinichen, Scour, and Kilmoluag..........."

That includes some of us as to blood but none as to name, and the whole idea that primogeniture or male descent as opposed to female, or even the blood line generally, has any particular importance now seems quite absurd, except for financial, romantic or medical reasons.
Attitudes have changed in 100 years!


A note on Boreray, and the tacksmen: they were the gentry of the highlands, the intermediaries between the aristocrats who owned the land and the crofters and farmers. They didn't necessarily farm themselves, though some did, but they collected the rents and passed them on. Boreray is a small speck of an island, lying in the Hebrides just north of North Uist, and north-west of Skye. "The (now) uninhabited island of Boreray is in the St Kilda group of islands that lie 52 miles (83 km) west of North Harris in the Western Isles. Situated 3 miles (5 km) north east of St Kilda, this island is little more than a rock outlier with steep cliffs that are home to nesting sea birds. Owned by the National Trust for Scotland it has aa area of 77 ha (190 acres) and a height of 384m (1260 feet). The island of Stac an Armin lies to the north." You had to be tough to live there!


Alan Ray-Jones, 2004