Tour Scotland early Autumn travel video, with Scottish bagpipes and drums music, of a road trip drive on ancestry, genealogy, history visit to Assynt, Scottish Gaelic: Asainn, in the Sutherland Highlands. The name Assynt may derive from an Old Norse word meaning ridge end. There is also a tradition that the name comes from a fight between the two brothers Unt and Ass-Unt, meaning Man of Peace and Man of Discord. The latter having won the tussle gave his name to the parish. Assynt, as King David's charter of 1343 shows, was one of the early Clan MacLeod holdings. Roderick of Lewis gave Assynt to his second son Norman in the 1420s, retaining the superiority to himself. From the start the family had internal disputes about seniority and legitimacy. Norman's son, Old Angus married twice. This involved him with the MacKintoshes who in the end slew him. Angus III's succession was disputed by his brother John, but confirmed by MacLeod of Lewis, Angus's father in law. The grievance festered, however, and Angus was murdered by his nephew, John Mor. Angus married twice, first to his chief's daughter and second to a daughter of MacLeod of Gesto. Three of the four sons of his first marriage were killed by their half-brothers or their sons or by Alexander, an illegitimate son of Angus. Of the first marriage only Donald Cam IV survived, but he had no issue. The second marriage produced John Riabhach VII who succeeded. It also produced Neill who was to be the tutor of Angus Beag VIII and also to murder his own younger brother Hucheon and his son, Donald. The respective progenies of these two carried the feud to the point of near extinction. John Riabhach VII governed the barony for 15 years 'with great commendation. He had married a daughter of MacKenzie of Fairburn and left a young family. His brother, Neill became tutor to the minor Angus Beag VIII. Neill managed the estate with competence, but his crimes caught up with him and in the end Torquil Cononach seized him and had him executed in Edinburgh in 1581. On attaining his majority, Angus Beag VIII was not considered fit for the chiefship and after only one year was ousted by an unlikely alliance of the families of Neill the Tutor and his brother Hucheon, who divided the estate between themselves. A period of anarchy followed and ended only with the emergence as chief of Donald Ban IX, another son of Neill the Tutor by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Donald MacLeod of Lewis. Donald Ban IX had to settle some of the old scores in the old-fashioned way, but he achieved much more through a policy of reconciliation between his fractious relatives. On 8 November 1596 Donald Ban purchased a charter of Assynt from the first Lord Kintail and settled it on his posterity. In 1635 Colin, earl of Seaforth, granted Donald a new charter of Assynt, but Seaforth's successor, George, had other ideas. On winning a royal charter for Lewis on 13 November 1637, he decided to incorporate Assynt fully into the MacKenzie estate. As a result of much legal manipulation in which Seaforth's brother, MacKenzie of Pluscardine, and Kenneth MacKenzie of Scatwell played dubious roles, Seaforth now believed he could eject Donald Ban from his lands. A thousand MacKenzie troops invaded Assynt in 1640, but Donald Ban succeeded in getting a decree against Seaforth. The MacKenzies raided Assynt in May 1646 and caused much material damage. They returned in 1672 and carried off the MacLeod charter chest, thereby extinguishing any hope of a MacLeod renaissance in Assynt. Donald Ban was still alive on 21 May 1646 when he left the estate of Annat to Donald Og. By his first wife, Mor or Marion, daughter of Aodh MacKay of Farr,
Donald Ban had four sons and three daughters; by his second wife,
Christian, daughter of Nicholas Ross of Pitcalnie, three sons and two daughters. In succeeding decades, they and their children were to be dispersed throughout Scotland and Europe and to' produce the cadet lines of MacLeods of Cambuscurrie , Cadboll, Sallachy, Geanies and
Flander. When driving in Scotland, slow down and enjoy the trip
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