The Lee MacLellan Family Story
The Clan MacLellan
The Scots are nomadic people; they have a flair for the wanderlust. And when they moved, they moved together as tribes. Over time tribes became clans. Clans were the center of early Scottish life; they had their own rules, property, and most of all, they had chieftans. The Scots have also been a warlike country for centuries. When there wasn't a war to fight, it is said that the clans would wage war on each other.
There have been hundreds of clans in Scotland. Some of the major ones have familiar sounding names: Campbell, McDonald, McKenzie. But as important as it is to us, the MacLellan clan is considered a "minor" clan by experts on Scottish clans. In fact, it doesn't even show on some clan maps, and if it does, it seats the clan home in the city of Kircudbright (sounds like "Keer-coo-bree") far south from where our our branch of MacLellans lived. I should also mention that the spelling of MacLellan is not consistent; it can be MccLellan, or simply McLellan.
The MacLellan coat of arms is distinguished by the sword at the top with a man's head speared on it. The man was a "Moor", or gypsy, a nasty group that plagued Scotland. They so infuriated the King that it was said he cried out, "Can no one rid me of this pest"?
Sir William MacLellan took the king up on his offer. He captured the leader of the band, and carried the head on the point of his sword to the King. For his reward the King restored the lands stripped from Sir William's father, Sir Patrick MacLellan of Bombie, when Sir patrick marauded the lands of the Douglas clan. The Douglasses were mortal enemies of the MacLellans.
The MacLellan Tartan