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Clan MacMillan (Tartans, Crest) and The Story Behind

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MacMillan

Gaelic Name: MacGhilleMhaolain

Clan Crest: A dexter and a sinister hand issuing from a Wreath grasping and brandishing aloft a two-handed sword, Proper

Clan Motto: Misesris Succerere Disco (I learn to succour the unfortunate)

Origin of Name: Son of the bald or tonsured Gaelic

Clan Badge: Holly

Lands: Lochaber, Argyll, and Galloway

Clan Chief: George MacMillan of MacMillan

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MacMillan Clan History

Clan MacMillan descended from an ancient royal house and the orders of the Celtic church. Gillie Chriosd, one of the sons of Cormac, Bishop of Dunkeld, was the clan's progenitor. As a Columban priest, his hair would have been shaved across the front of his head rather than the back.

This distinct tonsure is known as 'Mhaoillan' in Gaelic. As a result, the name MacMillan means "son of one who bore this tonsure."

Loch Arkaig in Lochaber was home to an early branch of the MacMillan clan. However, according to tradition, Malcolm IV relocated the family to the crown lands of Loch Tay in Perthshire. The MacMillan chief sheltered Robert the Bruce as he fled after the stabbing of the Red Comyn on these lands in Perthshire. The family demonstrated its devotion to the Bruce by fighting alongside him at the Battle of Bannockburn.

R.R. McIan's depiction of Clan MacMillan in the nineteenth century In Scotland today, there are two permanent MacMillan memorials. One of these is a round tower built as part of Castle Sween by the MacMillan clan's 12th chief. Castle Sween is Scotland's oldest stone-built castle. The other MacMillan memorial is a cross in the Kilmory churchyard. This cross is regarded as one of the finest surviving examples of Celtic art in Scotland, depicting a MacMillan chief hunting deer.

Finlaystone Castle is the home of Clan MacMillan's Chief. The MacMillans were not known to be Jacobites, but legend has it that two sons of John MacMillan of Murlagan carried the Lochiel from where he fell on Culloden battlefield. From the MacMillan home in Arkaig, Prince Charles Edward Stewart made his final stand.

MacMillan Places & People

People of Clan MacMillan

The author Harold Macmillan

1st Earl of Stockton, Maurice Harold Macmillan, OM, PC (1894-1986)

Brixton is where Harold Macmillan was born. Daniel Macmillan, his paternal grandfather, was a Scottish crofter who founded Macmillan Publishers. Harold attended Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. During World War I, he was a captain in the Grenadier Guards and was wounded during the Battle of the Somme. In 1920, he married Lady Dorothy Cavendish, the daughter of Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire.

In 1924, he was elected to the House of Commons. During World War II, he finally rose to power, serving in the wartime coalition government, working in the Ministries of Supply and Colonial Affairs before being sent to North Africa in 1942 as the British government's representative to the Allies in the Mediterranean. After the war, he returned to England and served as Secretary of State for Air in Churchill's Caretaker Administration.

Following the Conservative victory in 1951, he became Minister of Housing under Winston Churchill, and then Minister of Defence beginning in October 1954. Under Anthony Eden, he was Foreign Secretary from April to December 1955, and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1955 to 1957. During the Suez Crisis, he was "First In, First Out" (as Labour Shadow Chancellor Harold Wilson put it) - first enthusiastic about invasion, then a driving force behind Britain's withdrawal in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Following Eden's resignation in January 1957, Harold Macmillan became Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party.

The Profumo scandal of the spring and summer of 1963 permanently harmed Macmillan's government's credibility as well as his health. He became ill on the eve of the Conservative Party Conference and was incorrectly diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer. As a result, he resigned on October 18, 1963. Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home took his place.

He accepted a peerage in 1984, becoming Earl of Stockton and Viscount Macmillan of Ovenden. Macmillan died in Birch Grove, Sussex, in 1986, at the age of 92, the oldest British Prime Minister until James Callaghan.

Hector MacMillan was born in 1929.

Well-known Scottish playwright best known for his 1973 play "The Sash."

MacMillan, Somerled

Scottish minister who is also a well-known Gaelic scholar. "Bygone Lochaber" was published in 1971.

Sir Hugh P MacMillan (born around 1930)

Lord MacMillan of Aberfeldy was created as a life peerage.

MacMillan Tartans

Old and Ancient MacMillan

Old Modern MacMillan

The Old Weathered MacMillan

MacMillan's Ancient Hunt

Modern MacMillan Hunting

Dress by MacMillan

MacMillan Crest & Coats of Arms

Clan MacMillan Crest

Crest Description: A dexter and sinister hand emerging from a Wreath, grasping and brandishing a two-handed sword, Proper

Coats of Arms of MacMillan

A word about Coats of Arms:

A coat of arms is granted to an individual under Scottish heraldic law (with the exception of civic or corporate arms). A 'family coat of arms' does not exist. With the exceptions noted above, the arms depicted below are personal arms. Only the person who has been granted these weapons has the right to use them.

Argent, a chevron between three mullets Sable, M'Millan (England). General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, Sir Bernard Burke, 1864, p. 645.

Scott MacMillan of Rathdown: Argent, a lion passant Gules between two bars, three mullets Azure in chief. The Chief Herald of Ireland confirmed Scott MacMillan of Holybrooke Hall (now of Rathdown) on March 4, 1994.

1st Earl of Stockton, Rt Hon Maurice Harold Macmillan, OM, PC: Argent a Chief Or overall between three Open Books proper edged Or and bound Azure, those in chief inscribed in letters Sable "Miseres" and "Discere" and those in base inscribed in letters Sable "Succo" and as many Mullets Azure a Lion rampant Sable. Given by the English Kings of Arms.

Macmillan: Argent, a lion passant between two barrulets Gules, three stars Azure in chief. General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, Sir Bernard Burke, 1864, p. 645.

Or, a lion rampant Sable on a chief per fess of the second and Gules three mullets Argent, Macmillan of Dunmore (Variant). An Inquiry into the Genealogy and Present State of Ancient Scottish Surnames (1820; orig ed 1723), p. 283; also in Sir Bernard Burke, General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (1864), p. 645.

Argent on a chevron between three mullets Sable as many bezants, Macmillan of Brockloch. A System of Heraldry, Vol I, p. 219 (1722), by Alexander Nisbet.

Macmillan: Argent, a lion passant between two bars Sable, and three mullets Azure in chief. Pre-1663 manuscripts of Ross Herald.

Makclenand of yt ilk: Argent, a lion passant between two bars, and three mullets Gules in chief. Forman's Armorial, 1563, is the source. In Slains Armorial, 1565, the same arms are captioned Makcleland of yt ilk. The striking resemblance to the later MacMillan arms shown below strongly suggests either a close genealogical connection or an identification error on the part of the rolls' compilers.

Andrew McMillan of Cleghorn: Or a roaring lion? Armed and langued sable Gules, two ancient pistols in dexter and sinister chief, butts downward and outward, and flintlocks showing, in base a mound of ironstone enflamed all proper. The date of grant is unknown. In Stephen Friar's ed., A Dictionary of Heraldry, (1987), he is shown impaled with the arms of the Worshipful Company of Gun Makers, of which Andrew McMillan was master.

Or a lion rampant Sable armed and langued Gules between three mullets Azure in chief and five open books disposed in orle therewith of the fourth, within a bordure engrailed of the third for difference. Lyon Register 40/93, 21 June 1955. The Rt Rev John Victor Macmillan, OBE, Bishop of Guildford (b. 1877, d. 1956) was Lt Col Peter Hugh Macmillan's father.

Hugh Pattison MacMillan, GCVO, PC, KC, Baron Macmillan of Aberfeldy: On a chief Ermine three mullets Azure, a lion rampant Sable armed and langued Gules. Lyon Register 30/23, 1 March 1932

Per pale Or and Argent, a lion rampant Sable in chief three mullets Azure, Macmillan of Shorthope (Reconstruction). Matriculated in 1876 to Walter Macmillan-Scott of Wauchope and Pinnacle Hill, eldest son of Thomas Macmillan-Scott (1816-1862), to be quartered in 2nd and 3rd with the arms of Scott of Wauchope (Or on a bend Azure a mullet between two crescents Or within a bordure compony Azure and Or). In accordance with the terms of the Shorthope estate entail, Thomas Scott of Wauchope took on the additional surname and arms of his maternal grandfather, Thomas Macmillan of Shorthope. Balfour Paul Ordinary 4630; Sir Bernard Burke, General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, p. 906 (1864).

Or, a demi-lion rampant Sable armed and langued of the third, grasping in its paws a fiery cross proper, accompanied by three mullets in chief Azure, a bordure engrailed Gules charged with a crescent Argent in centre chief. On October 30, 1964, she enrolled in Lyon Register 46/139.

Angus McMillan: Or issuant from a base undy Vert charged with two bars undy of the first and surmounted of a crescent per pale Gules and Argent with an Lochaber axe head of the last issuant therefrom, a demi-lion rampant Sable armed and langued of the third grasping in its paws a weaver's shuttle also of the third threaded of the fourth, accompanied by three mullets in chief Azure, a bordure engrailed Gules. On February 9, 1961, he enrolled in Lyon Register 43/154.

MacMillan of Murlagan: Or, a demi-lion rampant Sable armed and langued Gules grasping in its dexter paw a dagger Azure hilted Or and in its sinister a sheaf of five arrows proper, accompanied by three mullets in chief Azure, issuant from a base undy Vert charged with two bars undy of the first. Granted to Andrew Harkness MacMillan of Murlagan (confirmation of ancient user), Lyon Register 42/48, 16 April 1957; matriculated to Dr William George McKelvie MacMillan of Murlagan, Lyon Register 47/80, 5 February 1965.

Or, a lion rampant Sable armed and langued Gules, accompanied in chief by three mullets Azure, two cross crosslets fitchée Gules in fess, and three salmon naiant Vert in base. Prior to the determination that he was entitled to the undivided arms, above, as hereditary chief of the clan, Lt Gen Sir Gordon Holmes Alexander MacMillan of Laggalgarve, Lyon Register 38/6, 18 May 1950. Following that, his second son, Lt Gen Sir John Richard Alexander MacMillan, KCB, CBE, matriculated.

MacMillan of Dunmore (now MacMillan and Knap): Or a lion rampant Sable armed and langued Gules and three mullets Azure in chief. Confirmed to Duncan Macmillan of Dunmore, Esq., "Representative of the Antient Family of Macmillan of Knapdale," Lyon Register 1/376, 20 December 1742; matriculated to Lt Gen (later Gen) Sir Gordon Holmes Alexander MacMillan of MacMillan, KCB, KCVO, CBE, DSO, MC and bar, Lyon Register 38/96, 18 July 1951; inherited 1986 by his