_Leod OLAFSON _______________
_Tormod [Norman] MACLEOD ______|_Heiress_of Armuin MACRAILD _
_Murdoch Murchadh MACLEOD _|
| | _____________________________
| |_Fingula [or_Flora] MACCROTAN _|_____________________________
_Torquil Og MACLEOD _|
| | _____________________________
| | _______________________________|_____________________________
| |_[Daughter] NICOLSON ______|
| | _____________________________
| |_______________________________|_____________________________
|
|--Neil MACLEOD
|
| _____________________________
| _______________________________|_____________________________
| ___________________________|
| | | _____________________________
| | |_______________________________|_____________________________
|_Margaret NICOLSON __|
| _____________________________
| _______________________________|_____________________________
|___________________________|
| _____________________________
|_______________________________|_____________________________
!SOURCE: Alick Morrison, THE MACLEODS: THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section V, Edinburgh, The Associated Clan MacLeod Societies, 1976, pp. 9-10. Alexander MacKenzie omits this family in his `History of the MacLeods' 1889, apart from occasional references to individual members of the sept. He seems to have followed the authority of Sir Robert Gordon in his 'Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland'. Sir Robert normally a very trustworthy historian, blundered badly when he believed that the MacLeods of Gairloch and the MacLeods of Raasay were one and the same family. It is true that both were septs of the Siol Thorcuil MacLeods of Lewis: it is also true that they used the same patronymic, MacGillechaluim. The MacLeods of Gairloch, however, were some 200 years older than the MacLeods of Raasay. No doubt, Alexander MacKenzie in his agreement with Sir Robert Gordon, must have found it impossible to reconcile his knowledge of individual members of the Gairloch race with the well-known facts on the MacLeods of Raasay, and probably for that reason made no effort to include a separate account of the MacLeods of Gairloch in his 'History of the MacLeods' 1889. The patronyumic of the Giarloch family -- MacGillechaluim -- is attested not only by Sir Robert Gordon in his 'Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland', page 276, but also by Sheriff Donald MacLeod III of Geanies in the Geanies Papers. Their progenitor was therefore a Malcolm MacLeod, probably the one mentioned as chief of the MacLeods of Lewis by Sir George MacKenzie. Neil MacLeod was the father of "Nele Nelesoun" (i.e., Neil, son of Neil), who was the first to receive a Royal Grant to the lands of Gairloch. As in the later case of Raasay, the Gairloch family may well have possess Gairloch before they received a Royal Grant of the territory. We have no information of Neil MacLeod I of Gairloch who was probably a grandson of the progenitor of the race. He was married with issue.
!REVISION: Alick Morrison, in his 1974 edition of THE MACLEODS; THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section IV, has this man as son of Malcolm Gille-caluim Beag [RIN 7858]; however, in the Revised Edition of 1990, he is the son of Torquil, IV of Lewis, and brother of Gille-caluim Beag. [See next reference]
!SOURCE: Alick Morrison, THE MACLEODS: THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section IV, Revised Edition, "The MacLeods of Lewis", Edinburgh, Associated Clan MacLeod Societies, 1990, pp. 2. Progenitor of the MacLeods of Gairloch.