LAMOND, or LAMONT,
the name of a small clan of great antiquity in Argyleshire, included
under the name of Siol Eachern, and supposed to have been
originally of the same race as the Macdougall Campbells of Craignish.
According to Highland tradition, the Lamonts were the most ancient
proprietors of Cowal, and the Stewarts, the Maclachlans, and the
Campbells obtained their possessions in the district by marriage with
daughters of that family. Their chief, Lamont of Lamont, has still a
portion of their ancient inheritance. The ancestor of the Lamonts is
traced by Skene to Angus Macrory, who is said to have been lord of
Bute, whose granddaughter, Jean, married in 1242, Alexander, the high
steward of Scotland. Between 1230 and 1246 Duncan, son of Ferchar, and
his nephew, ‘Laumanus,’ son of Malcolm, granted to the monks of
Paisley the lands which they and their predecessors held at Kilmun,
and also the church of Killinan or St. Finan, now Kilfinan, which
grants were, in 1270, confirmed by Engus, the son of Duncan, and in
1295 by Malcolm, the son and heir of ‘Laumanus.’ In 1456 John Lamond
was bailie of Cowal, and in 1466 John Lamond of that ilk and the monks
of Paisley had a controversy relative to the right of patronage to the
church of St. Finan, when the former renounced it only on the
production of the charters granted by his ancestors, but with respect
to the lands of Kilfinan it is expressly stated that these lands had
belonged to the ancestors of John Lamont; hence, it is evident that
the ‘Laumanus’ mentioned in the previous deed must have been one of
the number, if not indeed the founder and chief of the family. “From
Laumanus,” says Mr. Skene, “the clan appear to have taken the name of
Maclaman or Lamond, and previous to Laumanus they unquestionably bore
the name of Macerachar and clan ic Earchar. There is one peculiarity
connected with the Lamonds, that although by no means a powerful clan,
their genealogy can be proved by charters, at a time when most other
Highland families are obliged to have recourse to tradition, and the
genealogies of their ancient sennaches; but their antiquity could not
protect the Lamonds from the encroachments of the Campbells, by whom
they were soon reduced to as small a portion of their original
possessions in Lower Cowal, as the other Argyleshire clans had been of
theirs.” [Skene’s Highlanders, vol. ii., part 2, chap. 4.]
About 1463 the lands belonging to Lamont of that ilk fell to the crown
by reason of non-entry, and for nearly a century were held by a branch
of the family, known as the Lamonts of Inveria. Smibert says, “For the
name of Lamont we must either conclude that it originated in some
chief of the hills (De Le-Mont) who had gained celebrity
in his day and generation, or that it is simply a version of Lomond,
near to which lake they dwelt.” [Clans of Scotland, p. 34.]
According to
Nisbet, the clan Lamont were originally from Ireland, but whether they
sprung from the Dalriadic colony, or from a still earlier race in
Cowal, it is certain that they possessed, at a very early period, the
superiority of the district. Their name continued to be the prevailing
one, till the middle of the 17th century. In June 1646,
certain chiefs of the clan Campbell in the vicinity of Dunoon castle,
determined upon obtaining the ascendency, took advantage of the feuds
and disorders of the period, to wage a war of extermination against
the Lamonts. The massacre of the latter by the Campbells, that year,
formed one of the charges against the marquis of Argyle in 1661,
although he does not seem to have been any party to it. On his arrest
at the Restoration, and arrival in Edinburgh, the Laird of Lamont
presented a supplication to parliament, craving warrant to cite the
marquis and some others, to appear and answer for crimes committed by
him and them as specified in the bill given in. His indictment bore
that certain of his clan having besieged and forced to a surrender the
houses of Toward (the old castle of Toward, now a ruin, being the
residence of the chief of the clan Lamont) and Escog, then the
property of Sir James Lamont, and having violated the terms of the
capitulation on which the surrender was made, “did most treacherously,
perfidiously, and traitorously fetter and bind the hands of near two
hundred persons of the said Sir James’ friends and followers,” and
after detaining them prisoners for several days “in great torment and
misery,” did, “after plundering and robbing all that was within and
about the said house, most barbarously , cruelly, and inhumanly,
murder several, young and old, yea, and sucking children, some of them
not one month old.” And again, “The said persons, defendants or one or
others of them, contrary to the foresaid capitulations, our laws and
acts of parliament, most treacherously and perfidiously did carry the
whole people who were in the said houses of Escog and Towart, in boats
to the village of Dunoon, and there most cruelly, treacherously, and
perfidiously cause hang upon none tree near the number of thirty-six
persons, most of them being special gentleman of the name of
Lamont, and vassals to the said Sir James.”
An
interesting tradition is recorded of one of the lairds of Lamont, who
had unfortunately killed, in a sudden quarrel, the son of MacGregor of
Glenstrae, taking refuge in the house of the latter, and claiming his
protection, which was readily granted, he being ignorant that he was
the slayer of his son. On being informed, he escorted him in safety to
his own people. When the MacGregors were proscribed, and the aged
chief of Glenstrae had become a wanderer, Lamont hastened to protect
him and his family, and received them into his house.
Archibald
James Lamont, Esq. of Ard Lamont, chief of the clan, born in 1818, son
of Major-General John Lamont, m. 1st, Adelaide, daughter of
James Hewitt Massy Dawson, Esq.; issue, a daughter; 2dly, Harriet,
daughter of Col. Alexander Campbell of Possil; issue, a son,
John-Henry, born in 1854, and 4 daughters.
