Clan Mac Aulay - Origins

Origins

Clan MacAulay, or the family of the MacAulays of Ardincaple, is first recorded within the lands of Dumbartonshire, which was controlled in the Middle Ages by the mormaers (earls) of Lennox. Within the kindred of the mormaers, forms of the Gaelic given name Amhlaíbh were used by family members; and today the patronymic form of this name can be Anglicised as MacAulay. One such Amhlaíbh was a younger son of Ailín II, Earl of Lennox. This Amhlaíbh was the subject of a lay attributed to the poet Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh in which Muireadhach's Lennox property was named Ard nan Each. The Gaelic àrd means "high"; and each means "horse". Amhlaíbh and his descendants were the lords of Faslane and an extensive tract of land along the Gare Loch. The seat of Clan MacAulay was located at Ardincaple, which is situated on the shores of the Gare Loch in what is now the village of Rhu and town of Helensburgh. The place-name Ardincaple has been stated to be derived the Gaelic form of "cape of the horses" and "height of the horses". According to William Charles Maughan writing at the end of the 19th century, the Ardincaple estate had two main residences, one at Ardincaple, the other to the north at Faslane. Maughan stated that the site of the castle of Faslane could be distinguished, at the time of his writing, "by a small mound near the murmuring burn which flows into the bay". Geoffrey Stell's census of mottes in Scotland lists only four in Dunbartonshire; one of which is Faslane (grid reference NS249901), another listed as a "possible" is at Shandon (grid reference NS257878); Shandon being located between site of Faslane and the town of Helensburgh. Maughan wrote that at Faslane there stood an oak tree at place called in Scottish Gaelic Cnoch-na-Cullah (English: "knoll of the cock"). According to legend, when a cock crowed beneath the branches of the old oak upon the knoll, a member of Clan MacAulay was about to die.

The actual ancestry of Clan MacAulay is uncertain. The recorded chiefs of the clan were the lairds of Ardincaple and styled with the territorial designation: of Ardincaple. The early 18th century Scottish heraldist Alexander Nisbet claimed the clan descended from Morice de Arncappel who was listed in the Ragman Rolls as swearing homage to Edward I in 1296. According to Nisbet, "Maurice de Arncaple is the ancestor of the Lairds of Ardincaple in Dumbartonshire, who were designed Ardincaples of that Ilk, till King James V.'s time, that Alexander, then the head of the family, took a fancy and called himself Alexander Macaulay of Ardincaple, from a predecessor of his own of the name of Aulay, to humour a patronymical designation, as being more agreeable to the head of a clan than the designation of Ardincaple of that Ilk". Later the 18th century antiquary (and chief of Clan MacFarlane) Walter MacFarlane stated that the MacAulays of Ardincaple derived their name from an Aulay MacAulay of that Ilk, who lived during the reign of James III (reigned 1440–1488).

According to George Fraser Black, the territorial designation Ardincaple did not become an ordinary surname until the 15th century. Several men with the surname Ardincaple or styled of Ardincaple are recorded in the Mediaeval Scottish records. Johannes de Ardenagappill was a charter witness in Lennox in about 1364. Arthur de Ardincapel witnessed a charter by Donnchadh, Earl of Lennox in about 1390. In 1489, a remission was granted to Robert Arnegapill for his part in the holding of Dumbarton Castle against the king of Scots. Later in 1513, Aulay Arngapill of that Ilk is mentioned in records. Later in 1529, an escheat of goods of Awlane Ardincapill of that Ilk is recorded. According to the 19th century historian Joseph Irving, an early laird of Ardincaple was Alexander de Ardincaple, who in 1473, served on the inquest of the Earl of Menteith. Another laird, Aulay de Ardincaple, was invested on a precept from John Stewart, 3rd Earl of Lennox, in the lands of Faslane adjoining Ardincaple in 1518. Aulay and his wife, Katherine Cunningham, had sasine of the lands of Ardincaple in 1525. Several historians have stated that the first Laird of Ardincaple to take the surname MacAulay was Alexander de Ardincaple, son of this Aulay de Ardincaple. Alexander lived during the reign of James V (reigned 1513–1542). There is record in 1536 of an Awla McAwla of Ardencapill; another Awla McAwla was clerk of the watch of Queen Mary's guard in 1566.