Clan Buchanan

Extract: “The Scottish Nation ; or The Surnames, Families,Literature, Honours And Biographical History of the People of Scotland,” By William Anderson ; A.Fullarton & Co., Edinburg and London, 1862. Vol. 1 , p. 459

Buchanan, a surname belonging to a numerous clan in Stirlingshire, and the country on the north side of Loch Lomond. The reputed founder of the Buchanans was Anselan, son of O’Kyan, king of Ulster in Ireland, who is said to have been compelled to leave his native country, by the incursions of the Danes, and take refuge in Scotland. He landed, with some attendants, on the northern coast of Argyleshire, near the Lennox, about the year 1016, and having, according to the family tradition, in all such cases made and provided, lent his assistance to King Malcolm the Second in repelling his old enemies the Danes, on two different occasions of their arrival in Scotland, he received from that king for his services, a grant of land in north Scotland. The improbable character of this genealogy is manifested by its farther stating that the aforesaid Anselan married the heiress of the lands of Buchanan, a lady named Dennistoun; for the Dennistouns deriving their name from lands given to a family of the name of Danziel, [ see Dennistoun, surnamre of,] who came into Scotland with Alan the father of the founder of the abbey of Paisley, and the first dapifer, seneschal, or steward of Scotland, no heiress of that name could have been in Scotland until after the period here referred to. It is more probable that a portion of what afterwards became the estate of Buchanan formed a part of some royal grant as being connected with the estates of the earls of Lennox, whom Skene and Napier have established to have been remotely connected with the royal family of the Canmore line, and to have been in the first instance administrators, on the part of the crown, of the lands which were afterwards bestowed upon them.

The name Buchanan is territorial, and is now that of a parish in Stirlingshire, which was anciently called Inchcaileoch, (‘old woman’s island,’) from an island of that name in Loch Lomond, on which in earlier ages there was a nunnery, and latterly the parish church for a century after the Reformation. In 1621 a detached part of the parish of Luss, which comprehends the lands of the family of Buchanan, was included in this parish, when the chapel of Buchanan was used for the only place of worship, and gave the name to the whole parish.

Regarding the etymology of Buchanan (or, as it was formerly spelled, Bouchannane) the following curious passage occurs in Bleau’s Atlas, published in Holland in 1658: “Buchanan qui ont de belles Signeuries sur la riviere d’Aneric du coste du Midi, et sur le lac de Leimond du coste du l’occident, l’une desquelles appartient au chef de la famille, qui s’appelle vulgairment Buchanan, laquelle a donne le nom a toute la maison: le mot, qui signifie une possession, est compose, et veut dire un terroir bas et proche des eaux, car Much on Buch signifie un lieu bas Annan de l’eau; et en effect il est ainsi,” &c. [Tome vi. Pp. 96,07.] We have not a doubt that the name Buchanan has the same origin as the word Buchan (see ante, p. 458), being its diminutive of Buchanino or Buquhanino, the little Buquhan or cattle-growing district.

Anselan (in the family genealogies styled the third of that name) the seventh laird of Buchanan, and the sixth in descent from the above-named Irish prince, but not unlikely to be the first of the name, which is Norman French, is dignified in the same records with the magniloquent appellation of seneschal or chamberlain to Malcolm the first earl of Levenax (as Lennox was then called). He and two of his sons, Gilbert and Methlen, are witnesses to a charter granted by the same earl to Gilmore son of Maoldonich, of the lands of Luss, in the reign of King Alexander the Second, a nobleman of no great influence or power, descended from administrators of one of the abthaneships of Dull, or royal lands reverting to the crown by demise of younger branches, in which charter they are more correctly designed the earl’s clients or vassals. In 1225, this Anselan obtained from the same earl a charter of a small island in Lochlomond called Clareinch, witnesses Dougal, Gilchrist, and Amalyn, the earl’s three brothers, the name of which island afterwards became the rallying cry of the Buchanans. The same Anselan is also mentioned as a witness in a charter granted by the earl of Lennox of the lands of Dalmanoch in mortification to the old church of Kilpatrick, by the designation of Absalon de Buchanan, Absalon being the same as Anselan. He had three sons, viz. Methlen, ancestor of the MacMillans ; Colman, ancestor of the MacColmans ; and his successor Gilbert.

His eldest son, Gilbert, or Gillebrid, appears to have borne the surname of Buchanan. There is a charter of confirmation of that of Clareinch, and some other lands of Buchanan, granted in favour of this Gilbert by King Alexander the Second in the seventeenth year of his reign, and of our Lord 1281. The same Gilbert is also witness to a charter, by Malcolm earl of Lennox, to the abbot and monks of Paisley, dated at Renfrew in 12 74. [Chartulary of Dumbartonshire ]

Buchanan Pedigee

Buchanan Pedigree
Clan Buchanan of Scotland

Source: Americans of Royal Descent, Second Edition,By Charles Henry Browning, Phildelphia, Porter & Coates, 1891.

PEDIGREE XIII.______________
1.__Fargallus [Fargal], the 156th Monarch of all Ireland, who was killed A.D. 718, by Moroch, King of Leinster, had:
2.__Conchobhar [Conner], Prince of Leim-an-Madaidh, Londonderry, brother of Niall Frasach, 162d Monarch of Ireland, d. 773, who had: Gruagan, who had: Dungan, who had: Cathain, who had: Cathusach O'Cathain, or O'Kyan, who had:
7.__Dermod O'Kyan, KIng of the southern part of Ulster, who had:
8.__Anselan Buey O'Kyan, or O'Bocainain, anglicized Buchanan, who succeeded as provincial King of Southern Ulster. He took part in the slaughter of Turgesius, the Danish general, and his army, at Limerick, and was, with his followers, compelled to leave Ireland, by King Canute, and flee to Scotland, in 1016, and soon after entered into the service of King Malcolm II. against the Danes. He so signalized himself in this monarch's service that he obtained from him many grants of land in the northern part of Scotland as a reward, among which were the lands of Pitwhonidy and Strathyre, and was recognized as the first Laird of Buchanan. He m. the heiress of the Laird of Deniestown, and had:
9.__John, second Laird of Buchanan, who had:
10.__Anselan, third Laird of Buchanan, who had:
11.__Walter, fourth Laird of Buchanan, who had:
12.__Gerald, fifth Laird of Buchanan, who had:
13.__MacBeath, sixth Laird of Buchanan, who had:
14.__Anselan, seventh Laird of Buchanan, who was Chamberlain to Malduin, Earl of Lennox, in 1225, and obtained a charter from him of an island in Lochlomond, which he called "Clareinch," the slughome, or war-cry, proper to the family of Buchanan. He had:
15.__Gilbert Buchanan, eighth Laird of Buchanan, who was the first to assume the surname of Buchanan. He suceeded his father as Senechal, or Chamberlain, to the Earl of Lennox, and had:

[Note: Gilbert had two brothers: Methlan, ancestor of the MacMillans and Colman, ancestor of the MacColmans]

16.__Sir Maurice Buchanan, Knt., ninth Laird of Buchanan, who had:
17.__Sir Maurice Buchanan, Knt., tenth Laird of Buchanan, who m. the second daughter of Sir John Monteth, d. 1324, second son of Walter Stuart, Earl of Monteth,1258 (third son of Walter Stuart, Lord High Steward of Scotland, and his wife, Lady Beatrix, daughter of Gilchrist, Earl of Angus), and his wife, daughter of Mauritius, Earl of Monteth, and had:
18.__Walter Buchanan, Knt.,eleventh Laird of Buchanan, who had:
19.__John Buchanan, of that ilk, only son,d. v.p. He m. Lady Janet, the heiress of John Buchanan, Laird of Lenny, and had:
20.__Sir Walter Buchanan, Knt., second son, twelth Laird of Buchanan, and Laird of Lenny. He m. Lady Isabel Stewart, daughter of Murdoch, second Duke of Albany and Governor of Scotland, a grandson of Robert II., King of Scotland, and had:
21.__Thomas Buchanan, third son, younger brother to Patrick, thirteenth Laird of Buchanan, from whom he had, in 1461, a grant of the lands of Gartincaber, and who was, in 1476, the first Laird of Carbeth. He had:
22.__John Buchanan, of Raster-Ballat, second son (younger brother of Thomas, second Laird of Carbeth, who d. s.p.), who d. before his brother, leaving issue:
23.__Thomas Buchanan, who succeeded as third Laird of Carbeth, in 1555. He had by his second wife, Janet, a daughter of the then Laird of Buchanan:
24.__John Buchanan, of Gartincaber, eldest son, who was a half-brother of Thomas, fourth Laird of Carbeth, and a brother of William Buchanan, of Blairnborn, whose grandson, Archibald Buchanan, settled in Virginia. He had:
25.__George Buchanan, of Blairlusk, who had:
26.__John Buchanan, of Blairlusk, who had:
27.__George Buchanan, who sold Blair lusk to his brother, William Buchanan, and removed to the north of Ireland. He had:
28.__Thomas Buchanan, of Romelton, County Donegal,in Ireland (brother of William Buchanan, of County Tyrone), whose grandson:
30.__John Buchanan, of Romeelton, County Donegal,had:
31.__James Buchanan, who removed to America in 1783, and settled near Mercersburg, in Franklin county, Pa., where he d. in 1821, leaving issue by his wife, Elizabeth Speer, whom he m. in Adams county, Pa:
1.__James Buchanan, President of the United States of America, who d.s.p.
2.__William Speer Buchanan, d.s.p. aged 22.
3.__George W. Buchanan, d.s.p., aged 25.
4.__Rev. Edward Young Buchanan, D.D., of Philadelphia, Pa., who m.,1833, Ann Elizabeth, daughter of William B. Foster, of Pittsburg, Pa. etc., ...

(Note: This is a partial extract of the Buchanan pedigree. Notes by Woody Coleman)