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Historical input from Bernard Gilchrist
From THE WORLD OF GILCHRIST
MACLACHLAN
Extract from "Scottish Clans and Tartans" by Ian
Grimble. MacLachlan " is one of the clans which descends
according to tradition, fortified by a Gaelic manuscript of
1450, from the oldest traceable family in Europe. The line of
Lachlan passed, according to this tradition, through the
historical O'Neill kings from Niall of the Nine Hostages, who
was High King of Ireland in 400,. Aedh, younger grandson of
King Flaithbertach, married a Scottish princess who was the
heiress of Cowal and Knapdale. In about 1238, their descendant
in these properties, Gilpatrick son of Gilchrist, witnessed a
charter by which one of their cousins increased the endowments
of Paisley Abbey. Gilpatrick was the father of Lachlan Mor
(Lachlan the Big) from whom the clan takes its name though it
descends in the male line from the house of O'Neill."
The clan lands, to this day, lie within the Cowal
Peninsula, on the south side of Loch Fyne, opposite Inverary on
the north side of the loch, which is the seat of the very much
larger and more powerful Clan Campbell. Here, Castle Lachlan
lies within Strathlachlan through which runs the Lachlan Water.
"Gil", as the prefix to a name, indicated that the
bearer was follower, devotee or servant to "St Patrick" or
"Christ". These devotees were succeeded by Lachlan Mor and
then naming harked back to the older form in his son Gillescop
MacLachlan but by that time the familiar clan name had become
established. In 1536, then current chief Lachlan MacLachlan
visited France in company with the Campbell Earl of Argyll for
the marriage of James V to Madeleine of Valois.
The MacLachlan chief gave support to Robert Bruce and
attended the King's first Parliament at St. Andrews in 1308.
Friendship with the Campbell's also brought benefit as that
clan steadily expanded its influence throughout Argyll. However
the MacLachlans were supporters of the Stewart kings and
probably fought at Killiecrankie in 1689. They were present
among the forces of the old Chevalier in 1715 and the clan
rallied to Prince Charles in 1745, fighting at the battle of
Culloden. Another chief Lachlan MacLachlan was aide-de-camp to
the Prince during the campaign and, leading the clan into
battle on the day of Culloden, was shot from his saddle by a
cannonball and killed. Castle Lachlan was bombarded from the
sea and left in ruins. However, their chief having been killed,
he was no longer a target for attainment, and the clan escaped
the worst of the harm that followed he defeat of Culloden. The
long-standing friendship with the Campbells probably deflected
some of the potential damage too. Nevertheless it was a period
of great misery in the Highlands and members of the clan
MacLachlan fled from their former lands, some seeking refuge in
Ireland.
MACLACHLAN - GILCHRIST
Ancestors who left Strathlachlan for Ireland after
1745, initially and for the hundred or so years of their time
in that country, probably followed a pattern of life very
little different from the one they had followed previously in
Scotland. No written record from that time in Ireland has so
far been obtained and one is dependent on what has been
reported by just two people- Sidney Harry Gilchrist (1888-1978)
and his sister Dorothy Ellenea Wilson (1906- ). They were most
likely to have been Roman Catholic and there may be Church
records from the area where they are reported to have lived,
near Lough Ree on the Shannon in Central Ireland.
As incomers these ancestors would have had no claim on
any particular piece of land being historically a thousand
years away from any involvement in Ireland by their
forebearers. Though they shared a similar language and culture
with their new country and there must have been a significant
level of trading between Scotland and Ireland at the time, they
would be very much incomers when it came to taking over a piece
of land on which to live and to cultivate crops. It may have
been a case of accepting what they could get. The population
of Ireland was rising rapidly at the time and was to reach a
peak some one hundred years later in the famine decade 1840 to
1850 brought on by blighting of potato crops on which the
populace was largely dependent. The MacLachlans in Ireland
must have suffered with the rest.
General conditions in Ireland, brought to a head by
the famine, caused the displacement of many people from Ireland
to other countries. Gilchrist ancestors moved the short
distance to England where the Industrial Revolution was making
Manchester a place of great opportunity and were to end up
living in the northern sector of the city. The timing of that
move, and who were the individuals in the Gilchrist line to
carry out the move, are uncertain. Equally in doubt is the
date of the adoption of the name "Gilchrist" as a surname.
However, it is likely that the move to Manchester and the
establishment of the name had been effected by 1860.
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