_John MACLEOD __
_Norman The_General MACLEOD _|_Emilia BRODIE _
_John Norman MACLEOD ___________|
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_Norman MACLEOD _______________|
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|--Rev. Roderick Charles MACLEOD
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| _St._Andrew 13th Lord ST._JOHN _|
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|_Hon. Louisa Barbara ST._JOHN _|
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!BIOGRAPHY: Rev. Dr. Donald MacKinnon and Alick Morrison, THE MACLEODS--THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section II, Edinburgh, The Clan MacLeod Society, ND, pp. iii-xxii. Rector of Conington, Vicar of Bolney and later of Mitford and finally Canon of Newcastle 1916-1934. Canon Roderick was keenly interested in the history of his clan and published THE MACLEODS OF DUNVEGAN, THE BOOK OF DUNVEGAN, THE ISLAND CLANS DURING SIX CENTURIES, as well as learned articles in the SCOTTISH HISTORICAL REVIEW and other journals. In 1885 he married Katherine Louisa (d. 1935), daughter of Rev. W. E. Jelf, with issue.
!SOURCE: BURKE'S LANDED GENTRY, Burke's Peerage Ltd., London, 1939, p. 1494. Archaeologist and author of THE MACLEODS OF DUNVEGAN and THE ISLAND CLANS DURING SIX CENTURIES, Canon of Newcastle, 1916-34, Rural Dean of Morpeth, 1910-28, Rector of Conington, Hunts, 1884-86, Vicar of Bolney, Sussex, 1852; educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, M.A. (1896).
!BIOGRAPHY: Brenda Osbaldeston-Mitford, RODERICK CHARLES MACLEOD OF MACLEOD, A SHORT MEMOIR, Inverness, the author, 1941. My father, RODERICK CHARLES MACLEOD, was born in London on 18th April, 1852. He was the youngest son of Norman, 25th Chief of MacLeod, and of Louise Barbara, daughter of the 13th Lord St. John of Bletso. His father had been completely ruined by his efforts to feed his starving people in the disastrous potato famine in the Highlands in the years 1846 and 1847, so that in 1848 he and his wife, to their sorrow, had to leave Dunvegan and go to London, where my grandfather obtained a very junior post in a Government office. Years of grinding poverty followed, and probably for this reason and also because he was five years younger than his next brother, Reginald, my father had a very lonely childhood. In consequence he became a great reader, and before he was ten he was reading Macaulay's History, thus unconsciously laying a foundation for the historical research to which he devoted so many years of his life. By 1863 the family finances had so much improved that it was possible for my grandfather to take Dunvegan once more into his own hands, and in that year my father, at the age of eleven, paid his first visit to Skye. From that time onwards his parents spent several weeks every summer in their beloved home, where they entertained large parties of relations and friends, among them some of the most interesting men of the day. My father, in later life, used to recollect these happy holidays with the greatest pleasure, and was never tired of telling us children a,bout the many interesting and amusing happenings of his boyhood days in Skye. He learnt to shoot and fish there, and later became very keen on sailing a small boat, which he handled himself with considerable skill . When the time came for him to go to a public school he went to Harrow, following in the footsteps of his father and elder brothers. From there he went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took a second class Honours degree in Law and History. I remember him saying that when the lists were out, his history tutor came to him raging because he was not head of the Tripos, as he was his most promising pupil. But in those days it was not possible to take a degree in history alone at Cambridge, and it was necessary to combine it with a subject in which he took no interest whatever. After he left the University my grandfather sent the young man abroad, and he made a protracted tour in Italy and Austria. In 1875 he was ordained, and held various curacies until he was presented to his, first living at Conington in Huntingdonshire in 1884. Soon after this he first met his future wife while on a trip in Norway. She was Katharine Louisa, daughter of the Rev. Dr. William Jelf, a famous Greek scholar of his time. They became engaged on New Year's Day, 1885, and were married at Hustings less than six weeks after. Later in the same year my father took her to Skye for the first time. From the earliest days of her married life she entirely identified herself with her husband's old home and its interest, and was never so happy as when at Dunvegan, where the Skye people took her absolutely to their hearts. In 1887 my parents moved to Bolney, in Sussex, where their three children were born, the youngest of whom, Ian Breac, was killed in the trenches in April, 1915. Sussex never suited my mother, so another move was made early in 1897 to Mitford, in Northumberland, where my father remained as vicar until his death in 1934. He was keenly interested in his Church work, and was a great believer in visiting and getting into personal touch with his parishioners. He and my mother used to bicycle many miles to visit out-lying farms and hamlets, and they became very much loved by the people of Milford. He had also considerable gifts of oratory, and became a popular preacher. Besides all the work in his own parish, my father was a member of various Diocesan committees. In 1910 he became Rural Dean of Morpeth, and in 1916 the Bishop made him an honorary Canon of St Nicholas' Cathedral, Newcastle-on-Tyne. During his term of office as Rural Dean he realized that several of the livings in the Deanery were very inadequately financed, and by his efforts they were all raised to a minimum stipend of £300 a year. With all his interest in his professional work he had many hobbies. He was a keen musician and was at one time his own organist, going straight from pulpit to organ-stool. He also composed various hymn tunes and other Church music. He was very keen on Gothic architecture, besides being a capable amateur photographer, and he left behind him a volume in typescript describing the Churches of the Deanery with his own illustrations. But one might say that the mainspring of his life was his intense love of Skye. As a young man, instead of accepting invitations from friends of his own age, he would prefer to spend his winter vacations with his aunt, Miss Emily MacLeod, at Dunvegan. She was a delightful old lady, full of all the legends and traditions of the Highlands in the past, and she found a more than willing listener in her youngest nephew. As the years went on, his love of Dunvegan became almost a thing apart in his life, and it was this intense affection for the place, combined with his interest in history, which must have made him undertake the truly herculean task of reading and sorting the hundreds of documents in the muniment-room. My sister and I cannot remember when he began this, but we both have vivid recollections of the interest he took in it, and also his joy in the many discoveries he made. The actual work at Dunvegan was necessarily intermittent owing to his professional duties, but he took photographs of many of the documents, and read and transcribed them at leisure at his home in Northumberland. My parents spent the winter of 1919-20 at Dunvegan, and during that time a tremendous amount was accomplished in the muniment-room, and order was produced out of absolute chaos. In all this work my father was much helped by my mother, without whose assistance and encouragement so much could never have been achieved. As a result of all this research, several books were produced. "The MacLeods of Dunvegan" came out in 1927, followed by " The MacLeods: Their History and Traditions" in 1928. These were both published by the Clan MacLeod Society. Later, Carruthers of lnverness brought out "The Island Clans Through Six Centuries," also a short life of my uncle, Norman, 26th Chief. Articles were also contributed to various Scottish periodicals and newspapers, and in consequence letters of appreciation were received from clansmen all over the world. ["The Book of Dunvegan" has been published by the Spalding Club of Aberdeen since my father's death, and I am grateful to this Society for permission to reprint this short memoir, and also for the use of the block of the photograph.] Thanks to the hospitality of the Sir Reginald, the 27th Chief, my parents, during the latter years of their lives, spent some weeks every summer at Dunvegan, where "Mr. and Mrs. Rory," as they were affectionately called in Skye, spent much time in seeing their many friends. The work in the muniment-room still went on until June, 1933, when the 7000 papers were finally put away in a large cabinet which Sir Reginald had had made for the purpose. I remember that they only just got this finished before leaving Dunvegan for what proved to be the last time. My mother died at the end of August after a very short illness, and my father followed her less than seven months later. Up to the time of his death he was eagerly looking forward to a possible visit to Skye the following summer. Both of them lie buried in Mitford Churchyard, and there is a stone to their memory in the family burying-ground in the old kirk at Dunvegan. On this is recorded the fact that my father was historian to the family, so that clansmen in the far and distant future may be reminded of all he did for his family and clan. His life on the whole was an extraordinarily happy one, and he was singularly blessed in having the only too rare opportunity of doing work in which he took a real joy, and for which he was so well fitted in every way.