Note 32 — INTRODUCTION

The name ‘Macgregor’ was then proscribed, and all members of the clan had to adopt another name; that adopted by Balhaldy’s branch was ‘Drummond.’ Balhaldy’s father, Alexander, was a man of some consequence. He had been a trader about Stirling, and made some money, and he married a daughter of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, his son Balhaldy being thus a first cousin of Lochiel of the ’45. In 1714 the Clan Gregor being chiefless, certain of its leading members elected Alexander to be hereditary chief. (A. G. M. Macgregor, Hist. of Clan Gregor, vol. ii. p. 270.) He was created a Scots baronet by the Chevalier in 1740, and he died at Balhaldie House, Dunblane, in 1749. His son, William, was born in 1698. Though never in Scotland after 1743 he was attainted in 1746, and specially exempted from the act of indemnity of 1747. He married Janet, daughter of Laurence Oliphant of Gask, at Paris in January 1758. He died near Paris in 1765.