Clan MacKellar

History

The name MacKellar is an anglicised Mac Ealair, which Electric Scotland and the Campbell septs list both translate as 'son of Hilary'. Each connects it with Hilarius, bishop of Poitiers, but they disagree on the period: Electric Scotland gives about 1230, while the septs list points to the saint of the 4th century. Electric Scotland also places the principal family in Argyll from the 13th century. That reaches well back before the surviving records, which begin later.

Charters of the 1400s quoted in the septs list give the earliest names. A MacKellar, recorded in Latin form as 'Felanus Hilarii', witnessed a charter issued by Duncan, 1st Lord Campbell, in 1432. It suggests a family already moving among the Campbells.

Ardare, on the south bank of Loch Awe, is the home with the fullest record. In 1470 Colin, 1st Earl of Argyll, issued a precept to Cristinus McAlare of Ardare. Six years later Gilchrist Makalare of Ardare, thought to be the same man, resigned the lands to the Crown; his wife Mariota MacIsaac resigned Craigmurell, and both properties were regranted to Gilchrist. A licence to trade in England was given to an Archibald Makelar of Argile in 1489.

Further branches settled in Cowal and beside Loch Fyne. The list notes a sasine at Lochgoilhead in 1494 and Kilmun charters of 1520 and 1528, and describes families in Glendaruel, Cruachan and Glenshira. Only three small MacKellar lairdships were left by the 1751 valuation, yet 25 separate families lived on the Knockbuy estate later in the century.

Through all of this runs the connection with the Campbells. According to the septs list, MacKellars were part of the Campbell chiefs' bodyguard and served as their musicians, and Duke Niall believed they arrived in Cowal as officers of the Argyll family. These are traditions and opinions, not documents. The Register adds that the white and yellow lines in the tartan were intended to mark the clan as a Campbell sept.

In later years the family dispersed. The same list says Glassary families appear to have gone to Canada and Loch Fyne families to Australia, while many MacKellars in Glasgow became seafarers and shipowners. We found no MacKellar chief on the Standing Council's chiefs list, so we call the name armigerous. For the early centuries, Duncan Beaton's 2001 article in The Scottish Genealogist is the study to seek out; we have not read it.