82 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



evidence, we find that it is altogether on MacVurich's 

 side. In 1373, Ranald received a grant of the Macruari 

 lands, to be held from his father and his heirs ; these lands 

 having previously been conveyed to John of the Isles by 

 his father-in-law Robert II., thus confirming his possession 

 of them through his first wife.* There is, on the other 

 hand, no official record of any grant of lands to Godfrey. 

 The obvious inference is that Ranald was the elder, and 

 Godfrey the younger son, and that the grant was made to 

 salve the wounded feelings of Ranald for having been 

 unjustly deprived of his birthright as Lord of the Isles, in 

 favour of his half-brother Donald. 



Mr. Gregory has endeavoured to meet the difficulty 

 created by the charter to Ranald, by suggesting that 

 although Godfrey was the elder of the two, he refused to 

 acquiesce in the unjust proposals of his father, and was 

 therefore ostracised by the latter, who gave the more pliant 

 Ranald the lands in question. This explanation, however, 

 is hardly admissible as an argument, however plausible it 

 may be as a theory. 



For some unexplained reason, Lewis and Harris seem 

 to have passed temporarily out of the hands of the Lords 

 of the Isles, and to have again become incorporated with 

 the Earldom of Ross. This appears from the following 

 circumstances. 



Euphemia, Countess of Ross in her own right, was the 

 daughter of William, Earl of Ross, Justiciar of Scotland 

 and brother-in-law of Robert II. who had married his 

 sister, Euphemia. The first husband of the Countess was 

 Sir Walter Lesley, who, in right of his wife, became Earl 

 of Ross. Her second husband was Alexander, Earl of 

 Buchan, the notorious Wolf of Badenoch, who was the 

 fourth son of Robert II. By a Crown charter dated 25th 

 July, 1382, Skye and Lewis became the joint property of 

 the Earl of Buchan and his wife, the Countess of Ross.f 

 It is possible that the grant of Lewis to John of the Isles 



* Registrum Magni Sigilli (1306-1424), pp. 90, 117 and 125. 



t Robertson's lndex> p. 124. Reg. Mag. Sig. (1306-1424), p. 165. 



