THE MACLEODS OF LEWIS. 149 



by Hugh Morison, "breoun " (Brehon) " of Lewis," who 

 was then " in ye poynte of deathe," to his confessor, " Sir 

 Patrick Makmaister of Barwas," acknowledging the pater- 

 njty of Torquil Conanach. Deathbed confessions are by 

 their nature open to suspicion, and it is difficult to say 

 whether pressure may not have been brought to bear, to 

 extract a declaration which would prove gratifying to 

 Ruari Macleod, and still more gratifying to Donald Gorm 

 Macdonald of Sleat. And for the following reason. 



By his second wife, Barbara Stewart, Ruari Macleod 

 had a son, also named Torquil, who, to distinguish him 

 from the disinherited brother, Torquil Conanach, was 

 known as Torquil Oighre, or the heir. This Torquil, who 

 is described as " a young chief of great promise," was the 

 subject of a communication from Mary, Queen of Scots, 

 which deserves to be quoted in full. The Queen's letter is 

 as follows, the spelling being modernised : 



" Torquil Macleod : We greet you well. We are in- 

 formed that some of the Isles are desirous to have you 

 allied to them by marriage ; and because you have that 

 honour to be by the Stewart blood, we thought expedient 

 to give you advertisement, that it is our will and pleasure 

 that you ally yourself to no party in marriage without our 

 advice, and until we declare our opinion to yourself therein. 

 Subscribed with our hand at Inveraray the 24th of July, 



1563."* 



Whether Torquil Oighre ever married or not we cannot 

 tell. About three years after the above letter was addressed 

 to him, he was drowned in the Minch, with sixty of his 

 followers, when on his way to Trotternish or Waternish ; 

 another version being that he was driven by a storm on 

 the Assynt coast, where he and his followers were slain by 

 Donald Bayne who had usurped the lands of Assynt. He 

 left no male issue, and the succession to the estates thus 

 rested between his brother Torquil Conanach the dis- 

 owned and disinherited and Donald Gorm Macdonald of 



* Fraser's Earls of Cromartie> Vol. I., p. xxxiv. 



