A site for those belonging to Clan McLean of Coll Thank you for visiting the Clan McLean of Coll site. As a descendant of a McLean family from Coll, I felt compelled to put forward an alternative view to that presented by most authors & historians. I want to highlight the fact that those McLeans, of Coll extraction, are just that, true "McLeans", not Macleans who have, at some point in history abbreviated their name. At present our web site is still under construction. Please visit regularly as new content will be added soon. (This site is not affiliated, and has no connection with any other Clan Maclean web site, organisation or society) Hopefully, if your a McLean, of Coll origin, you will find this site of some interest. Of course when I say of Coll origin, that includes the whole of the Laird of Colls estate ie Rum, Muck and the Quinish estate in Mull etc. (Left....line drawing of tomb effigy on the Isle of Iona of a 16th century McLean of Coll chief.)
The red shaded area's on the map show shows the Coll estate
It "is" McLean of Coll...not Maclean of Coll!
For the past 120 years, authors of Clan Gillean histories have informed us that the "correct" form of the name is Maclean, with all other spellings being variations of it. The correct designation of the clan as a whole, is Clan Gillean, but it is now more widely referred to as Clan Maclean. As a consequence, most people now believe that Maclean is the correct form of the name for all members of all branches. The books I refer to specifically are "A History of the Clan Maclean" by J. P. Maclean 1889 and "The Clan Gillean" by Rev. A. Maclean Sinclair 1899, but authors up to the present day follow their line of thinking. Of course visitors like Johnson & Boswell and other outsider's sometime's used Maclean incorrectly in their writings of Coll. Let's look at the three main branches and these authors view of them.: Maclean of Duart...correct.
Maclaine of Lochbuie...it is a phonetic variation of Maclean.
McLean of Coll... it is an abreviation of Maclean, having a capital L is incorrect.
Firstly, all three names are pronounced the same and all are more or less phonetic versions of Macgillean. They also tell us that as the name is a patronym, and a lower case L must be used, reasoning that the name "Macdonald" means of the Clan Macdonald, whilst MacDonald means son of Donald, but not necessarilyof Clan Macdonald. So far so good. But why do they all use Macdonald as the example and not Maclean? Easy, because unlike Macdonald, Mckenzie, Maclachlan etc, Maclean is not a simple patronym of two words, it has three. The L is the remnant of Ghille, (meaning servant) so it doesn't effect the patronymic meaning of the name one little bit, only the E could have that result. Another reason given, is that most armigerous Macleans and all the senior branches of Duart use the "Maclean" form of the name. So what?.A clan takes it's name from it's own Chief, not from another branch, or even an armiger of it's own branch. The Coll Chiefs, cadet families and clan have used the McLean name since the late 18th century, prior to this, there were many different spellings used such as McClayne, McLaine, McLeane, McClean etc, but since the 18th century, census and shipping records consistently show the name standardized as McLean, conversley, there appears to be no evidence that they ever used the "Maclean" spelling at any time. Interestingly, the old version "McClean" is the most common spelling in Ulster. It is the spelling used by the first members Clan Gillean to settle there in the 16th & 17th centuries. Of course there will be people originating from Coll whose name is spelt differently, and there are many reasons for this. An ancestor could have came over to Coll from Mull, Tiree or another Maclean territory to settle or marry. Also many Collachs or their decendants have changed the spelling of their name after migrating from Coll ,perhaps caught up by the hype and spin created since Victorian times, that Maclean is the only correct form. Just to prove my point, below is the bookplate from a book of 1808 owned by Alexander McLean, Chief of Coll. Those Chiefs before him, and all after him used McLean.
"a gentleman's name may be spelt incorrectly on his death certificate......a gentleman's name may be spelt incorrectly on his gravestone...... but a gentleman's name is never spelt incorrectly on his bookplate!"
Isn't there only one Clan Maclean?
Clans has never been a static entity, but have changed and evolved throughout their history. In the late nineteenth century, like-minded clansmen came together to celebrate their heritage and formed the first Maclean associations. To-days clan structure of one clan Chief with cadet Chieftains really stems only from this period.
Clan Gillean (pronounced Gill-ane) descended froma warrior of the 13th century named Gillean-na -Tuaighe (Gillean of the battle-axe). In the 14th century Gillean's great-grandson Donald Dubh had two sons, Lachlain Lubanach (Lachlan the wily) and Eachann Reaganach (Hector the stern). Both received an independent charter of lands in Mull from John,1st Lord of the Isles. Lachlan became the first Chief of Duart, while Hector became first Chief of Lochbuie. In the early 15th century from the House of Duart came the branches of Coll and Ardgour, from the House of Lochbuie the Kingairloch branch. These three branches all held their lands by charter from the Lord of the Isles, but Ardgour appears to always to have been a vassal of Duart, Kingairloch being somewhat distant joined the Clan Chattan confederation, but it's ultimate loyalty was also with Duart.
This situation continued for almost the next 500 years. Three separate branches of Clan Gillean. Duart, Lochbuie and Coll. Each a free Baron, holding their estates first by grant of the Lord of the Isles and then by royal charter, each was Chief of his clan and answerable to neither of the others with regard to his estates and the control of his clansman.
Usually Duart could be regarded as the strongest branch by virtue of his large estates, and of being able to call the largest number of men to arms, and he done this on more than one occasion, against both Lochbuie and Coll. But why if he was the Chief of all Clan Maclean, would it be necessary? Similarly, if he was their feudal superior, he could call them out to support him in any conflict he chose to enter. Whilst the branches of the clan had no hesitation in uniting in a common cause, they also had no hesitation in joining opposing sides in other causes.
So how to we describe this situation? Is it one clan, three branches? One family, three clans? The official Clan Maclean structure presently is, as stated previously, one clan with a Chief and all other representatives sub- Chiefs or Chieftains.
The Chiefs of Maclaine of Lochbuie have naturally found this position untenable, and have refused any involvement for over 100 years. Amazingly some websites still persist in listing Lochbuie as a Chieftain of Clan Maclean despite the fact that he is on the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs. Unfortunately the position of Chief of McLean of Coll has been dormant since 1882, but if a successful claimant should come to light, he too would be eligible for the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs.
