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MacKellar is the Gaelic
Mac Ealair, 'son of Ealair', from Hilarius, Bishop of Poitiers in about 1230, and the main
family was in Argyll from the thirteenth century, before spreading to other parts of
Scotland and oversees.
From
http://www.my-broun-wyld-stewart-lang-ancestry.org.uk/duncan-mackellar.shtml
Duncan MacKellar, 'the old
man' as my aunt Mrs Malcolm always called him, came from Glendaruel, and was
recognised as the Chief of the MacKellars. He married Margaret Dick, a
Greenock lady [I possess a water colour sketch of the Cloch light-house
which she painted in 1811] ; left the Highlands about that date. The ship he
commanded was taken by the French in 1812 and carried into Brest; but in the
night he managed to free himself and his crew, overpowered the prize-crew,
and brought the ship safely home, for which he was awarded a gold medal by
the owners.
"Later he became a squatter in Australia, and my great-aunt Margaret used to
describe to me the dangers they ran from bush-rangers. According to my aunt,
all the MacKellar men of her family had white hair by the age of
twenty-five, which was believed to be a curse incurred for their taking
part, at the bidding of the Campbells, in the Massacre of Glencoe - a fact
which somewhat modified my pride in my Highland ancestry." |
