Lochaber was home to M'millans from very early in the clan's history, when it was a branch of the original Clann Ghille-Chattain [see Graeme M. Mackenzie, "For Ever Unfortunate - The Original Clan Chattan" in Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Vol. LXI (1998-2000), pages 332-370]. Following the disasterous outcome of the M'millans' feud with the M'intoshes - which was inherited by the Camerons when they became, with M'millan support, the leading power in Lochaber - the clan consolidated themselves on their lands around West Loch Tarbert in Knapdale. Though a branch of the clan remained at Dunmore after the Campbells were given Knapdale in the early 1500s - for assisting the crown against the Lords of the Isles, whom the M'millans supported - many M'millans moved elsewhere. Most went south to Kintyre where the chiefs had lands in the Mull; but one son of M'millan of Knap is said in the clan traditions to have fled from Kilchamaig (on the southern shores of West Loch Tarbert, opposite Dunmore) back north to Lochaber after having killed someone of importance - almost certainly one of the incoming Campbells. From this individual are supposed to have sprung the Macmillans of Murlagan; and in fact the first probable ancestor of the chiefs of the later Lochaber Macmillans is indeed to be found on the record in 1547, when Duncane Beane McFinlay is listed amongst the followers of Cameron of Lochiel in their rebellion against the crown and the Campbells in support of the old Lords of the Isles.
The descent of the Macmillans of Murlagan from 1547 to 1661, when Ewen mac Iain (Ewen son of John) was chief of the Lochaber clan, can be followed in Graeme M. Mackenzie's "Origins of the Lochaber Macmillans", a chapter in "The Lochaber Emigrants to Glengarry" edited by Rae Fleming and published in 1994 by Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. of Toronto, Canada. As will be seen from the genealogy of this family appearing elsewhere on this site (click on the link below) the descent from the Ewen Macmillan of Murlagan in 1661 to the John Macmillan of Murlagan in 1746 - and thus on to the modern Macmillans of Murlagan - has had to be revised in the light of new evidence. But even this revised line is not yet certain, and research is continuing into it, and into the connected ancestry of the Macmillans of Glenpean (also given in the on-line genealogy accessed below).
The arms of the Macmillans of Murlagan - as shown above - were matriculated in 1957 by Andrew Harkness Macmillan, and are based on an engraving on an old kettle which had been passed down in his family. The bunch of arrows grasped in the lion's paw indicates the loyalty of the old Macmillans of Murlagan to the Camerons of Lochiel, which sometimes resulted in Lochaber Macmillans being called "Cameron" in the 17th and 18th centuries (and even occasionally into the 19th century) - often when they settled elsewhere in the highlands outwith Lochaber. Examples are to be found in "Origins of the Lochaber Mcmillans".
It's hoped that some firm conclusions will eventually be reached on the exact connections between the later Macmillans of Murlagan, the Macmillans of Glenpean, and the earlier chiefs of the Lochaber clan; and they will in due course be published in Volume Two of Graeme Mackenzie's new history of Clan MacMillan. For the progress of this work please watch the news pages of this website. Advance extracts of it will however be published from time to time in the Clan MacMillan International Newsletter. For subscription details please click here.
On-Line Genealogy of the Macmillans of Murlagan and of Glenpean