Clan MacDowall

History

MacDowall is a Galloway name, and it should not be confused with MacDougall of Argyll. According to the clan society, the founder was Duegald, whose grandfather was Fergus, Lord of Galloway. Duegald was a younger son of Uchtred, and he died in 1185 while taking his brother Roland's side. The society finds no proven link to the Argyll MacDougalls. Even so, his descendants were first called Macdougall, a name it reads as "son of the black stranger".

The spelling shifted in the 1290s. In July 1292 Galloway landholders swore fealty to Edward I. The clan's own history says the clerks entered Dougal of Gairachloyne and his brother Fergus as Macdowyl and Macdowald. In Galloway itself the name sounded more like "mock-dool", and that is one reason later forms such as McDouall appeared. In 1295, the clan society says, Dougal had a charter from King John Balliol for Gairachloyne, Logan and Elrig.

The family backed the Balliol cause. From 1306, the clan society says, Sir Dougal and his heirs held Galloway against Robert Bruce for some fifty years. Kinsmen were later prisoners in England alongside David II. By the same account, Sir Fergus Macdowall held both Garthland and Makerstoun, near Kelso, around 1370, the latter inherited from his mother. At Homildon Hill in 1402 he is said to have been wounded and taken prisoner, then freed for a ransom.

The sixteenth century was hard on the name. The clan history on Electric Scotland says Uchtred Macdowall of Garthland, his heir Thomas, Charles McDouall of Logan and Gilbert Macdowall of Freugh all fell at Flodden in 1513, and that more of the family died at Pinkie in 1547. Separate lines grew up at Logan, Freugh and Makerstoun, and the society lists many smaller branches across Wigtownshire.

A Renfrewshire chapter followed. A Lochwinnoch local history site says William Macdowall made his money in sugar on St Kitts and Nevis, and in 1727 he bought the Castle Semple estate. It passed to his son, also William, in 1748. In 1752 the younger William bought Garthland, title and all, from a cousin in Galloway. The American war, the collapse in 1795 of the Atlantic trading house Alexander Houston & Co. and the campaign against slavery all cut into the family's wealth. Garthland was sold in 1811 and Castle Semple in 1814, but the family kept Barr, bought in 1778.

In 1987, the clan society says, the chief re-matriculated his arms at the Lyon Court and settled on MacDowall as the spelling. The clan's history counts up to 76 ways of writing the name, with many McDowells in Ireland after families crossed from Galloway. Today the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs lists a chief styled Macdowall of Garthland, and the clan keeps close ties with the Clan MacDougall Society of North America.