376 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



the legal proceedings which arose out of this arrangement. 

 For the present, it suffices to state that during the lifetime 

 of the first Earl Kenneth, the Seaforth estates were in the 

 hands of his father's creditors. Had the Royalist rising 

 been successful, the Earl would probably have effected the 

 recovery of his property, but it was not to be. Kenneth 

 Mor, the big Earl, big both in body and mind, must have 

 been a disappointed man and a disillusioned Royalist 

 when he breathed his last in December, 1678. He was 

 succeeded by his eldest son, Kenneth Og, whose mother 

 was Isobel, sister of Sir George Mackenzie of Tarbat. 



Kenneth Og inherited the political faith of his father, 

 and, early in his career, he was provided with an oppor- 

 tunity of striking a blow in the cause of the Stuarts. 



The unsuccessful insurrection in Scotland of the Earl of 

 Argyll, who was brought to the scaffold, like his father the 

 Marquis, and the equally useless rising in England of the 

 Duke of Monmouth, were the first signs of the gathering 

 storm which was soon to sweep the Stuarts for ever from 

 the British throne. When, in 1688, the storm burst, and 

 James II. lost, by his tyrannical bigotry, his crown, his 

 kingdom, and the respect of his subjects, a minority, 

 influenced by considerations of personal attachment, 

 religious sympathy, or unswerving loyalty to the name of 

 Stuart, was left to champion the luckless King. Among 

 these was the Earl of Seaforth, a co-religionist of the 

 deposed monarch, and therefore attached to his cause by 

 the strongest of ties. He accompanied James to France, 

 or joined him there ; and when the King, in 1689, sailed to 

 Ireland to head his partisans in that country, Seaforth was 

 one of the four Earls who attended him. He took part in 

 the famous siege of Londonderry and other engagements, 

 and as a reward for his services, James created him 

 Marquis of Seaforth.* 



Meanwhile, the Jacobites in Scotland under John Gra- 



* His son was also recognised as a Marquis by the Jacobites. Kenneth 

 Og was made a Privy Councillor in 1685, and was one of the eight original 

 Knights of the Thistle on the revival of that order in 1687. 



