_Sir_Roderick Ruairidh_Mor MACLEOD _
_Sir Norman MACLEOD ______|_Isabel MACDONALD __________________
_John MACLEOD _________________|
| | _John MACKENZIE ____________________
| |_Margaret MACKENZIE ______|_Isabel MACKENZIE __________________
_Donald 'Old_Trojan' MACLEOD _|
| | _Sir_Roderick MACKENZIE ____________
| | _Kenneth MACKENZIE _______|____________________________________
| |_Isabel MACKENZIE _____________|
| | _Walter ROSS _______________________
| |_Janet ROSS ______________|____________________________________
|
|--Captain Alexander MACLEOD
|
| _John Iain Mor MACLEOD _____________
| _John Iain_Breac MACLEOD _|_Hon. Sibylla MACKENZIE ____________
| _Roderick Ruairidh_Og MACLEOD _|
| | | _Sir_James Mor MACDONALD ___________
| | |_Florence MACDONALD ______|_Mary MACLEOD ______________________
|_Anne MACLEOD ________________|
| _George MACKENZIE __________________
| _Kenneth MACKENZIE _______|_Barbara FORBES ____________________
|_Lady Isabella MACKENZIE ______|
| ____________________________________
|_Isabel MACKENZIE ________|____________________________________
!SOURCE: Rev. Dr. Donald MacKinnon and Alick Morrison, THE MACLEODS-- THE GENEALOGY OF A CLAN, Section II, Edinburgh, The Clan MacLeod Society, 1968, pp. 77-80. Became the Captain of the LORD MANSFIELD, an East Indiaman, trading to Bombay and other Indian ports. His purser on some of these voyages was his nephew, later John MacPherson, who succeeded Warren Hastings as Governor General in India. When Captain Alexander retired from his seafaring life, he had acquired "a noble fortune". As early as 1750, Donald MacLeod, the Captain's father had been worried by his Chief's extravagance and in consequence felt it incumbent upon himself to write him a letter of advice warning him to restrict his expenditure or else the consequences would be disastrous. The Chief paid little heed. The Old Trojan, now to secure himself and his family was desperately anxious to get a feu of his farm of Berneray in Harris. By 1761, the Chief, Norman XXII, was in real financial trouble and his creditors were insisting on immediate payment. Luckily for the Chief, Captain Alexander of the MANSFIELD was in a postion to grant him a loan but in return he insisted that the Chief should grant a feu of Berneray to his father. So desperate was the Chief to get the loan that he signed an agreement, leaving blank the terms on which the feu should be granted. [Dr. I.F.Grant, THE MACLEODS.] The terms filled in by purser John MacPherson, provided that the feu of Berneray should be granted upon the payment of a premium of £300, an annual feu duty of £150 and a fine of £130, whenever an heir succeeded to the feu. This feu of Berneray was to play a very important part in the sale of Harris. In 1769, the Chief decided to raise the rents in his estates; but found that the proposed feu duty for Berneray was well below what he felt he was entitled to by raising the rents. He now disowned the agreement. In May 1772, Donald MacLeod of Berneray wrote MacKenzie of Delvine, "The Laird has raised his estate so extravagantly he will find himself disappointed as the people are not able to pay his demand which obliged many of them to emigrate to foreign countries. For my part, were not for my time of life, I would rather follow the gentlemen going to America as hold by the terms of feuars." As early as January of that year, Captain Alexander was astounded to read in the LONDON CHRONICLE that the estate of Harris was for sale. He was in a strong position to buy it: the Chief was in his debt: the terms of the Berneray feu were bound to prove a stumbling block to any other prospective buyer. Under the circumstances, he made a reasonable offer for the state, a flat sum of £15,000, which meant a 25 1/2 years purshase of the rent of the estate. The young Chief, Norman 23rd, would not hear of it. Meanwhile he, his mother and the Trustees endeavoured to contest the legality of the feu of Berneray, which it was now apprehended was proving a deterrent to other prospective buyers. All their efforts proved unavailing and nothing could soften "our cousin's heart". Though Captain Alexander "wanted to buy Harris exceedingly", he refused to budge and finally on 25th July 1779 he bought the estate at the price he had originally offered for it. He decided to reside at Rodel in Harris in 1792 where he built for himself a commodious dwelling house. He was a most enlightened proprietor with the well-being of the people of Harris very much at heart, and towards improving their economic and social fortune. He restored the Church of St. Clement's, "ruined by the fury of the Reformation". He probably built the "caibeal" to his father in the churchyard there with its interesting inscription: he probably also placed the marble slab above the lintel in Berneray House to the memory of his great-grandfather, Sir Norman MacLeod of Berneray. At sacrista he built a fine church of stone and lime. In Rodel, he began improvements "which in aim and comprehensiveness have a modern flaviour". Here he built excellent piers, docks, boathouses and stores for casks, salt and meal. He anticipated Lord Leverhulme by some 140 years in endeavoring to make Harris the hub of a great herring industry. He fitted out a cutter for sounding the fishing grounds from St. Kilda to the Minch. In a letter on the 22nd March 1787 to Mr. Dempster, the Deputy Governor of the British Society for extending the fisheries, he put forward bold and generous proposals for developing the industry in Harris. He drew attention to the great shoals of herring passing from St. Kilda to the Long Island. He favoured deep sea fishing as against loch fishing but both could be used. He drew attention to the excellent sites in Harris for the establishment of fishing villages. 1. The island of Hermetray with a good harbour and roadstead, where there was formerly a fishing station in the time of Charles II. 2. Finsbay and Loch Stockinish, both fit for ships of any burden. 3. Tarbert, with a narrow neck of land, 100 yards wide, across which the Bounty fishermen had made a road for hauling their boats. 4. St. Kilda where a harbour could be constructed in the Bay. He suggests that people settled in these fishing stations should be supplied with boats and tackle and a small monthly wage to start with, and all this, they would repay as their industry prospered. He points out that though Harris does not afford much meal, it has great abundance of sheep and cattle. He ends by stating, "If the Society wishes to erect a village at Loch Tarbert or any other part of my estate, they may obtain lands from me to the necessary extent on their own terms." He expressed to Mr. Knox [Knox, TOUR OF THE HEBRIDES] of the Fishing Society his anxiety to improve housing in Harris. He brought expert fishermen from the East Coast with Orkney yawls to teach the people how to fish more efficiently. He set up a factory at Rodel for spinning and making herring nets. He even set up flour mills and fulling mills, worked by water power. All in all, here was a true father of his people in many ways ahead of his time and proof that Highlanders, given the means, can be as progressive as people in other parts. His generous efforts for Harris were not in the long run successful. John Lane Bucchanan blamed the tacksmen for this but his evidence is tainted for he had a vendetta against those who had testified truthfully that as a clergyman he was unworthy of his cloth. Captain Alexander himself blamed the vexatious salt tax and excise laws for at least some of his difficulties. The real reason however lies in the uncertainty of the herring industry itself. No full explanation has yet been given why herring periodically desert favoured lochs in the West Highlands. Broken down in health Captain Alexander MacLeod went to Harrow for the benefit of his health and here he died on 7th January 1790. "His schemes died with him." He married a lady of the name of Hume, probably the daughter of Abraham Hume, a Glasgow merchant, who had chartered the LORD MANSFIELD in 1763 for a voyage to Bombay. They had issue.
!BIOGRAPHY: John Burke, Esq., A GENEALOGICAL AND HERADIC HISTORY OF THE COMMONERS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, Vol. II, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1977, pp. 175-178.