It is an old and accredited
tradition in the Highlands, that the Lamonds or Lamonts were the most ancient proprietors
of Cowal, and that the Stewarts, Maclauchlans, and Campbells obtained possession of their
property in that district by marriage with daughters of the family. At an early period a
very small part only of Cowal was included in the sheriffdon of Upper Argyle, the
remainder being comprehended in that of Perth. It may, therefore, be presumed that, on the
conquest of Argyle by Alexander II, the lord of Lower Cowal had submitted to the king, and
obtained a crown charter. But, in little more than half a century after that event, we
find the High Steward in possession of Lower Cowal, and the Maclauchlans in possession of
Strathlachlan. It appears indeed, that, in 1242, Alexander the High Steward of Scotland,
married Jean, the daughter of James, son of Angus MacRory, who is styled Lord of Bute;
and, from the manuscript of 1450, we learn that, about the same period, Gilchirst
Maclauchlan married the daughter of Lachlan MacRory; from which it is probable that this
Roderic or Rory was the third individual who obtained a crown charter for Lower Cowal, and
that by these intermarriages the property passed from his family into the hands of the
Stewarts and the Machlauchlans. The coincidence of these facts, with the tradition above
mentioned, would seem also to indicate that Angus MacRory was the ancestor of the Lamonds.
After the marriage of the Steward with the heiress of Lamond, the next of that race of
whom any mention is made is Duncan MacFercher and "Laumanus", son of Malcolm,
and grandson of the same Duncan, who appear to have granted to the monks of Paisley a
charter of the lands of Kilmore, near Lochgilp, and also the lands "which they and
their predecessors held at Kilmum" . In the same year, "Laumanus", the son
of Malcolm, also granted a charter of the lands of Kilfinnan, which, in 1295, is confirmed
by Malcolm, the son and heir of the late "Laumanus" (domini quondam Laumanis).
But in an instrument, or deed, dates in 1466, between the monastry of Paisley and John
Lamond of Lamond, regarding the lands of Kilfinan, it is expressly stated, that these
lands had belonged to the ancestors of John Lamond; and hence, it is evident, that the
"Laumanus", mentioned in the previous deed, must have been one of the number, if
not indeed the chief and founder of the family. "From Laumanus", says Mr Skene,
"the clan appear to have taken the name of Maclaman or Lamond, having previously to
this time borne the name of Macerachar, and Clan Mhic Earachar".
The connection of this clan with that of Dugall Craignish, is indicated by the same
circumstances which point out the connection of other branches of the tribe; for whilst
the Craignish family preserved its power it was followed by a great portion of the Clan
Mhic Earachar, although it possessed no feudal right to their services. "There is one
peculiarity connected with the Lamonds", says Mr Skene, "that although by no
means a powerful clan, their genealogy can be proved by charters, at a time when most
other Highland families are obliged to have recourse to tradition, and the genealogies of
their ancient sennachies; but their antiquity could not protect the Lammonds from the
encroachments of the Campbells. by whom they were soon reduced to as small a portion of
their original possessions in Lower Cowal, as the other Argyleshire clans had been of
theirs". The Lamonds were a clan of the same description as the Maclauchlans, and,
like the latter, they have, not withstanding "the encroachments of the
Campbells", still retained a portion of their ancient possessions. The chief of this
family is Lamond of Lamond.
According to Nisbet, the clan Lamond were originally from Ireland, but whether they sprung
from the Dalriadic colony, or from a still earlier race in Cowal, it is certain that they
possessed, at a very early period, the superiority of the district. Their name continued
to be the prevailing one till the middle of the 17th century. InJune 1646, certain chiefs
of the clan Campbell in the vicinity of Dunoon castle, determined upon obtaining the
ascendency of the period, to wage a war of extermination against the Lamonds. The massacre
of the latter by the Campbells, that year, formed one of the charges against the Marquis
of Argyll in 1661, although he does not seem to have been any party to it.
An interesting tradition is recorded of one of the lairds of Lammond, who had
unfortunately killed, in a sudden quarrel, the son of MacGregor of Glenstrae, taking
refuge in the house of the latter, and claiming his protection, which was readily granted,
he being ignorant that he was the slayer of his son. On being informed, MacGregor
escorted
him in safety to his own people. When the MacGregors were proscribed, and the aged chief
of Glenstrae had become a wanderer, Lamond hastened to protect him and his family, and
received them into his house. Another
Account of the Clan
BADGE: Luidh Cheann (octopetala)
dryas.
PIBROCH: Spaidsearachd
Chaiptein Mhic Laomainn.
 AMONG the clans of the West
Highlands which appear to be able to claim actual descent from early
Celtic stock, Clan Lamont may be considered one of the most assured. There
is some reason to believe that the Lamont chiefs were originally a branch
of the great house of O’Neil, kings of Ulster in early times. The hand
surmounting the old Lamont crest is pointed to as being undoubtedly the
"Red hand of Ulster," and the Lamont motto, " Nec parcas
nec spernas," is also pointed to as indicating the close
relationship, while the documents of early times which refer to the Chief
as "The Great Lamont of Cowal" seemed to indicate a relationship
with the Ulster title of "The Great O’Neil." The name Lamont
appears to date from the middle of the thirteenth century. One feudal
charter of that time was granted by "Laumanus filius Malcolmi, nepos
Duncani, filius Fearchar," conveying lands at Kilmun and Locbgilp to
Paisley Abbey, while another, dated 1295, is by " Malcolmus filius er
haeres domini quondam Laumani." It is from this Lauman that the later
chiefs take their name, and are styled Mac-Laomainn. Before the date of
these charters the chiefs are said to have been named Mac’erachar from
their early ancestor, Farquhar, grandfather of Lauman, who lived about the
year 1200. In any case, from a very early time the Lamonts appear to have
possessed the greaser part of Cowal, and the ruins of several of their
strongholds still remain to attest their greatness.
The beginning of their
eclipse may be dated from the middle of the fourteenth century. In 1334,
when Edward Baliol had overrun Scotland, basely acknowledging Edward III.
of England as his suzerain, and when, as a consequence of the battles of
Dupplin and Halidon Hill, it had looked as if all the labours and
victories of Robert the Bruce had been in vain, Bruce’s young grandson,
Robert the High Steward, suddenly turned the tables. From hiding in Bute
he escaped to Dunbarton, raised his vassals of Renfrewshire, and stormed
the stronghold of Dunoon. This was the signal for the Scots to rise,
and before long Scotland was once more free. Among those who helped the
High Steward on this occasion, was Sir Colin Campbell of Lochow, and when
Robert the Steward became King Robert II. in 1371, he made Campbell
hereditary keeper of his royal castle of Dunoon. From that day the
Campbells used every means to increase their footing in Cowal, and before
long a feud broke out between them and Clan Lamont, the ancient possessors
of the district, which was to end, nearly three centuries later, in one of
the most tragic incidents of Highland history.
One of the first episodes
of the feud took place in the year 1400. The King’s court was then at
Rothesay Castle, and from it, one day, three young lords crossed over to
hunt at Ardyne in the Lamont country. As a sequel to their excursion, they
tried to carry off some of the young women of Cowal; at which four sons of
the Lamont Chief came to the rescue and slew the ravishers. A garbled
account of the incident was carried to the court, and as a result, the
King confiscated the Lamont territory in Strath Echaig, and conferred it
on the Campbell chief.
Forty years later another
incident occurred in which the generosity of the chief of Clan Lamont was
turned to account by his enemies. Celestine, son of Sir Duncan Campbell
the Black Knight of Lochow, had died while being educated in the Lowlands.
It was winter, and by reason of the deep snows, Campbell professed to find
it impossible to convey the body of his son through the mountain passes to
Loch Awe. He accordingly asked permission from the Lamont chief to bury
his son in the little Lamont kirk at Kilmun on the Holy Loch. Permission
was granted in terms thus translated from the Gaelic: "I the Great
Lamont of all Cowal do give unto-thee, Black Knight of Lochow, the grave
of flags wherein to bury thy son in thy distress." Soon afterwards
the Campbell chief endowed the burial-place of his son as a collegiate
church, and from that day to this Kilmun has remained the burial-place of
the Argylls. In 1472 Colin, Earl of Argyll, obtained a charter of further
lands about Dunoon Castle, including the West Bay and Innellan, and the
stronghold of Dunoon appears forthwith to have become a chief seat of the
Argylls.
Still the Lamonts appear to
have been willing to act the friendly part to the Campbells. In 1544, when
Henry VIII. was seeking to annex Scotland by forcibly obtaining possession
of the infant Queen Mary, and when, to support the enterprise, the Earl of
Lennox sailed with an English fleet up the Firth of Clyde, the Lamonts
mustered to help the Campbells in defending the stronghold of Dunoon. On
that occasion Lennox landed under cover of the fire from his ships, forced
the Lamonts and Campbells to retreat with much slaughter, burnt Dunoon,
and plundered its church.
A pleasant contrast to that
episode was the visit of Queen Mary herself nineteen years later. The
Countess of Argyll was the Queen’s favourite half-sister, and it is
narrated how Mary, then twenty-one years of age, on July 26th rode from
Inveraray and slept at Strone, a Lamont seat; how, next morning, she came
to Dunoon, where she spent two days in hunting, and signed several
charters; and how on the 19th she rode to Toward Castle, where she dined
with the chief of Clan Lamont, Sir John Lamont of Inveryne, before
ferrying across to Southannan at Fairlie, on the Ayrshire coast. On that
occasion the Queen may have been entertained with music from the famous
ancient Celtic harp, which was a treasured possession of the Lamonts for
several centuries. About the year 1640 this harp passed by marriage into
possession of the Robertsons of Lude, and it is described and illustrated
in Gunn’s elaborate work on the music of the Highlands.
It was a few years after
this that an event occurred which throws a vivid light upon the chivalric
character of these old Highland chiefs. The incident took place either in
1602 or 1633. The tradition runs that the son of a Lamont chief had gone
hunting on the shores of Loch Awe with the only son of MacGregor of
Glenstrae. At nightfall the two young men had made their camp in a cave,
when a quarrel arose between them, and in the sudden strife Lamont drew
his dirk, and MacGregor fell mortally wounded. Pursued by MacGregor’s
retainers, the aggressor fled, and, losing all idea of his way in the
dark, and at last espying a light, applied for shelter at MacGregor’s
own house of Glenstrae. The old chief was stricken with grief when he
heard the tale, and guessed it was his own son who had been slain. But the
Highland laws of hospitality were inexorable. "Here, this
night," he said, "you shall be safe "; and when the
clansmen arrived, demanding vengeance, he protected young Lamont from
their fury. Then, while it was still dark, he conducted the young man
across the hills to Dunderave on Loch Fyne, and procured him a boat and
oars. "Flee," he said, "for your life; in your own country
we shall pursue you. Save yourself if you can!"
Years afterwards an old
man, hunted and desperate, came to Toward Castle gate and besought
shelter. It was MacGregor of Glenstrae, stripped of his lands by the
rapacious Campbells, and fleeing for his life. Lamont had not forgotten
him, and he took him in, gave him a home for years, and when he died,
buried him with all the honour due to his rank in the little graveyard
about the chapel of St. Mary on the farm of Toward-an-Uilt, where his
resting place was long pointed out.
As is well known, the
Campbells had been engaged for over a century in making themselves masters
of the ancient lands of Clan Gregor, and it may be that this act of
hospitality to the old MacGregor chief formed the last drop in the cup of
the ancient feud which brought destruction upon Clan Lamont.
The story of the final act
of the feud was told lately by Mr. Henry Lamond, a member of the clan, in
the pages of the Clan Lamont Journal for 1913. The original account
is to be found in the charge of high treason and oppression brought
against the Marquess of Argyll in 1661, included in Cobbett’s Complete
Collection of State Trials, vol. v. The author of this account rightly
says that, while the massacre of the MacDonalds of Glencoe in 1692 still
sends a shudder through the veins of the reader of history, not less
horror would attend a perusal of the Dunoon massacre, were it as generally
known. As a matter of fact, the massacre of the Lamonts by the Campbells
at Dunoon was a much more dreadful affair than even the massacre of the
MacDonalds by the Campbells at Glencoe. The incident took place after the
defeat of the forces of King Charles I. under the Marquess of Montrose at
Philiphaugh in 1646. By that victory the Marquess of Argyll, chief of the
Campbells and of the Covenanting party in Scotland, became absolute ruler
of the kingdom, and he forthwith proceeded to use his powers for the
destruction of three of the clans from whom his family had been engaged in
seizing lands and power for several centuries bygone. First the MacDonalds
were stormed and massacred in their stronghold of Dunavertie at the south
end of Kintyre; then the MacDougals saw their last castles of Gylen and
Duqolly overthrown and given to the flames; and, last of the three, the
Lamonts were attacked and well nigh exterminated in their own region of
Cowal.
Sir James Lamont of
Inveryne, knight, then chief of the Clan, had been educated at Glasgow
University, had represented Argyllshire in the Scottish Parliament, and
had been King Charles’ commissioner and a friend of the Marquess of
Montrose. In fairness to Argyll it should be mentioned that the commission
to Sir James, given under the hand of King Charles I. in March, 1643,
authorised and ordered him to prosecute a war and levy forces in His
Majesty’s name against those in rebellion, and particularly against the
Marquess of Argyll, and that, in accordance with this commission, Sir
James had gathered together his friends and followers. But upon the king’s
surrender to the Scottish army at Newcastle, Lamont had laid down arms and
retired peaceably to his own houses of Toward and Ascog. The indictment
goes on to relate how, after the overthrow of Montrose at Philiphaugh,
James Campbell of Ardkinglass, Dugald Campbell of Inverawe, and other
officers, under the order of the Marquess of Argyll, laid siege to these
two houses. On the third of June, Lamont surrendered upon conditions,
signed by seven of the Campbell leaders, which granted indemnity to the
Lamonts in person and estate, with power to pass freely where they
pleased. But no sooner were the strongholds yielded than the Campbells
proceeded to plunder them utterly, and to waste the whole estates and
possessions of the Lamonts, doing damage to the extent of £50,000
sterling, and in the course of their operations murdering a number of
innocent women, whose bodies they left for a prey to ravenous beasts and
fowls. While the plundering was going on, Sir James and his friends and
clansmen were kept guarded in the house and yards of Toward, with their
hands cruelly bound behind their backs in the greatest misery. The
Campbells next burned Ascog and Toward to the ground, threw their
prisoners into boats, and conveyed them to Dunoon. There they hanged
thirty-six persons, most of them gentlemen of the name of Lamont, upon a
growing ash tree behind the churchyard. The rest, to the number of over
two hundred and fifty, they stabbed with dirks and skeans at the ladder
foot, and cast, many being still living, spurning and wrestling, into
pits, where they were buried alive. So much did the horror of the
circumstances impress people’s minds, that it was said the tree withered
and its roots ran blood, till the Campbells at last found it necessary to
"Houck out the root, covering the hole with earth, which was full of
the said matter like blood."
Sir James Lamont himself
was spared, and, being carried to Inveraray, was forced to sign a paper
declaring that he himself had been in the wrong; and he was afterwards
kept a close prisoner at Dunstaffnage, where, under a threat of being kept
in the dungeon "until the marrow should rot within his bones,"
he was forced to sign a deed yielding up his estates. He was also made to
sign a bond for 4,400 merks as payment for his four years’ entertainment
in the castle. He was afterwards imprisoned at Inisconnell in Loch Awe,
and in Stirling Castle, and was only liberated when Cromwell overran the
country in 1651.
This act of massacre and
oppression against Clan Lamont formed the chief item upon which Argyll was
charged after the Restoration, and if it were for nothing but this alone,
he may be held to have richly deserved his fate when his head fell under
the knife of the "Maiden."
The massacre, however, had
meanwhile exercised a far-reaching effect upon the fortunes of the clan,
many of whom, harried and driven from their lands, had been forced to
assume other names, so that to the present hour there are many Browns and
Blacks and Whites both in Cowal and elsewhere, who are of pure Lamont
descent.
The incident of the
massacre, terrible as it was, had been all but forgotten by everyone
except the Lamonts themselves and a few people who took an interest in the
history of Cowal, till, a few years ago, the Clan Society was formed, and
set about erecting a monument on the spot where so many of the clansmen
had suffered a violent death.
Sir James Lamont was
reinstated in his property in 1663, but Toward Castle was never rebuilt by
the Lamont chiefs, and stands a sad ruin yet among its woods. The modern
Toward Castle was built by Kirkman Findlay, the famous East India merchant
of Napoleonic times. The later seat of the Lamont chiefs was Ardlamont
House, on the promontory between Tignabruaich and Loch Fyne, but following
a notorious murder which took place there during the occupancy of some
English tenants, about the beginning of the twentieth century, the estate
was sold, and the chief of the clan now resides principally at Westward Ho
in Devonshire.
The present Chief,
twenty-first of the name, is Major John Henry Lamont of Lamont, and he has
a record behind him of hard fighting in the great Afghan War, in which he
took part as a lieutenant in command of a troop of cavalry in the famous
march under Lord Roberts to the relief of Kandahar and the crushing defeat
of Ayoub Khan. Major Lamont is a famous polo player, steeplechase rider,
and follower of hounds, and the only regret of his clansmen is that he no
longer lives upon the acres of his ancestors. He is unmarried, and his
apparent successor in the chiefship is Edward Lewis Lamont, Petersham,
N.S.W., Australia, a great-grandson of the eighteenth chief. He is the
eldest son of the late Edward Buller Lamont of Monidrain, Argyllshire, and
grandson of the late Captain Norman Lamont, M.P. for Wells, Somersetshire,
who was second son of the eighteenth chief. He is unmarried, but has
numerous nephews to support the chiefship of the clan.
The only landed man of the
name now in Cowal is Sir Norman Lamont, Bart., of Knockdow. His father,
the first baronet, who died on 29th July, 1913, in his eighty-sixth year,
was the only son of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Lamont of Knockdow, whom
he succeeded as laird in 1861. Sir James, who as a young man held a
commission in the 91st Argyllshire Highlanders, was a noted big-game
hunter in Africa, and had a story of strange adventures in Greece, Egypt,
and Turkey. In his own yachts, the Ginevra and the Diana, he
made several expeditions to the Polar seas which, though their primary
object was sport, resulted in some valuable contributions to geographical
and other knowledge. He published accounts of his adventures in two racy
books, Seasons with the Sea-Horses and Yachting in the Arctic
Seas, and in 1912-3, over the signature "84," he published a
series of ten articles of sporting reminiscences which attracted a great
deal of attention. He was also for a time member of Parliament for Bute,
for which also his elder surviving son, the present baronet, was member
from 1905 till 1910.
Among many other members of
the clan who have distinguished themselves may be cited David Lamont, D.D.,
who was chaplain to the Prince of Wales in 1785, Moderator to the General
Assembly in 1782, and appointed chaplain in ordinary for Scotland in 1824;
also Johann von Lamont, the astronomer and magnetician of last century,
who was Professor of Astronomy in the University of Munich, and executed
the magnetic surveys of Bavaria, France, Spain, North Germany, and
Denmark. The work of John Lamont, the diarist of the seventeenth century,
also remains of great value to the Scottish genealogist.
The latest evidence of the
clan’s activities is the Clan Lamont Society, instituted a few years
ago, which is now a flourishing institution in the West of Scotland. Its
inception in 1895 was largely due to Lieutenant-Colonel Lamont, V.D., a
descendant of the MacPatrick branch of the clan. Colonel Lamont is the
author of a brochure on the Lamont tartan, which has attracted wide notice
among students of these things, and is of the deepest interest to the
clan.
Septs of Clan Lamont:
Black, Brown, Bourdon, Lambie, Lamb, Lamondson, Landers, Lemond, Limond,
Limont, Lucas, Luke, Macalduie, MacClymont, MacGillegowie, MacLamond,
Macilwhom, MacLymont, MacLucas, MacPhorich, MacPatrick, Meikleham,
MacSorley, Sorley, Patrick, Towart, Toward, White, Turner. |
