Note 133 — Chapter I

Skene’s Highlanders, vol. ii. pp. 177, 178. That the captains of clans were originally the oldest cadets, is placed beyond all doubt by an instance which Mr Skene has mentioned in the part of his work here referred to. “The title of captain occurs but once in the family of the Macdonalds of Slate, and the single occurrence of this peculiar title is when the clan Houston was led by the uncle of their chief, then in minority. In 1545, we find Archibald Maconnill, captain of the clan Houston; and thus, on the only occasion when this clan followed as a chief a person who had not the right of blood to that station, he styles himself captain of the clan.”