COUNT VON MOLTKE A MACLEAN OF COLL.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2298, 2 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

COUNT VON MOLTKE A MACLEAN OF COLL.

Mrs Mary Macicfllvr, the poetess, sends the following interesting genealogical note to the Scotsman : —

Having travelled one day lately from Inverness to Banavie by steamer, I heard two gentlemen discuss the warlike policy of the so-called Dane, Count Von Moltke. We were nt that time passing the farmhouse of Strone, situated on the Caledonian Canal, on Lochiel's estate; and the conversation referred to recalled to me that this was the very spot which might be called tho cradle of Count Von Moltke's race. After the battle of Inverbochy, fought in 1431, between the Royal forces and the followers of the Lord of the Islen, Donald Dnbb, Chief of Lochiol, was so oppressed that he had to flee for his life to Ireland, and the Lord of the Isles save his lands ti> John Grave Maclean, tho first laird of Coll, and brother to the fourth laird of Duart, chief of the Macleans. The Camerons fought bravely to keep possession of their lands, and their chief returned to dofend thorn ; but still the Macleans claimed Luchaber, or at least the extensive parts nf it granted to them by the Lords of the Isles. John Grave died, and his son (the second laird of Coll) entered into posession, and carried on the feud more bitterloy than his father. At last they fought a decisive battle at Cnrpach, to which (place they had recently come to reside, with tha intention of keeping possession of the place. The Macleans were sorely defeated and slain, and among the fallen was their chieftain, .'John, the second laird of Coll.

The Macgillonies, of Storne, seem at this time to have acted against the interests of their chief, Lochiel, and to have secured the favour of the Lord of the Isles, for the names of their lands are not in the charter that was given to John Garve for the other places in Lochaber. On thin occasion, then, when the Macleans were defeated, the young widow fled with her child to Strone, and placed him under the care of the Macgillonies, who acted a most friendlypart to him, and reared him carefully, until in the course of time he was restored to his kinsmen. He became a stalwart man in the course of years, and he was known as John of Lochaber, lain Abrach, which term continued as the patronymic of the lairds of Coll until thou ceased to exist as such.

Count Von Moltke is the direct descendant of this child so kindly sheltered in Strnne ; in fact, he is a Maclean in the house of Mac lain Abrach, his grandfather having been a son of one of the kird.i of Oil. The grandfather and one of his brothers went as young men to Copenhagen, where they were successful in. pushing on to good positions, and the Count has proved true to the warlike proclivities of hie race. The Count is not the only di«tinguished descendants of lain Abrach, whose name has been known to this generation, for the late Hobart Pasha was a greatgrandson to the laird of Coll, whose, daughter was married to the Earl of Buckinghamshire. The present excellent chief of tho Clan Cameron—the late M.P. for Inverness-shire —is also the great grandgrandson of this descendant of the ancient foe of his house, through the mother, Lady Vere Hobart ; and among the others we may mention the name of Commander Cameron, of Africa fame, who is the greatgrandson of a lady of the house of Coll. This lady's husband was the son of Dr. Archibald Cameron, the brother of the gentle Lochiel of the '45, and their son Hector, the grandfather of Commander Cameron, was born in Oban. This Hector was Mayor of Paris during the occupaof the Ailies after the capture of Napoleon Bounaparte.