94 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



was confirmed by a Crown charter dated loth November, 

 1495. On the death, in 1460, of Alexander, the last promi- 

 nent representative of the Siol Godfrey, that family dwindled 

 into insignificance, and the Siol Ranald prospered on its 

 ruin. 



The Earl of Cromartie states that Alexander Lord of 

 the Isles granted, in 1432, a charter to Torquil (should be 

 Roderick I.) Macleod of Lewis of his lands, to be held for 

 homage and service, which lands he had previously resigned 

 into the hands of the King in favour of Alexander. The 

 Earl also says that Alexander's successor John, in 1464, 

 by a precept of dare constat> declared Roderick Macleod 

 (II.) heir to Torquil (III.) in the possession of Lewis 

 and Waternish. That the Macleods of Lewis held their 

 lands as vassals of the Lords of the Isles is beyond dispute. 



In the same year as the Inverness Parliament was held 

 (1427), Gilleonan Roderick Murchard Macneill received 

 from Alexander, Lord of the Isles, a charter of Barra and 

 Boisdale in South Uist (confirmed by the Crown in 1495), 

 one of the conditions of which was that in the event of a 

 failure of legitimate heirs, the lands were to be divided 

 between the sons of Roderick, Gilleonan's father, by the 

 daughter of Ferchard Maclean. For, in the year 1372, the 

 possession of Barra had passed from the Macruaries to 

 John of the Isles, through the instrumentality of his father- 

 in-law Robert II., and was thus at the disposal of the Lords 

 of the Isles. As we have seen, the Macleans of Duart and 

 the Macneills of Barra were closely connected by marriage, 

 but a feud existed between John Garve Maclean of Coll 

 and Gilleonan Macneill of Barra, which ended in the death 

 of the latter at the hands of Maclean in Coll. There is a 

 tradition to the effect that Macneill married, as his second 

 wife, the widow of Lachlan Maclean of Duart (the daughter 

 of John Macleod of Harris) and attempted to take posses- 

 sion of Coll, the inheritance of Lachlan's son, John Garve 

 by Macleod's daughter. This is given as the origin of the 

 dispute between Macneill and Maclean of Coll, but it is 

 elsewhere stated that, on the contrary, the feud arose from 



