Lord Kirkcudbright

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The title Lord Kirkcudbright was bestowed on Sir Robert Maclellan of Bombie in 1633 by King Charles I of England on a visit to Scotland. Maclellan had already been created a baronet in the Nova Scotia in 1631.

Sir John (Maclellan) de Bondeby, was with Scottish rebel Sir William Wallace in the year of 1298, during the battle of Falkirk, after which he sailed with Wallace from Kirkcudbright for France, to seek the support of the French king Philip, in his struggle against Edward I of England.

This name is said to have derived from 'son or servant of gillie', of St. Fillan, or "Mac Gille Fhaolain." Fillan or "faelchu", is old Irish for wolf. The Maclellan Motto: "Think on."

The MacLellan family was numerous in Galloway in the later half of the 14th Century and gave its name to Balmaclellan, MacLellan's town, in the Stewartry of Galloway. It is understood that the Balmaclellan lands were given to John MacLellan by James III, king of Scotland, in 1466 on John MacLellan's intention to provide a site for a church there abouts. By the beginning of the fifteenth century there were no fewer than fourteen knights of that name then living in Galloway.

Consequent upon, and sometime after the murder of Sir Patrick Maclellan by the 8th Earl of Douglas at his stronghold of Threave in 1452, family feuding without the King's authority led to the forfeiture of the Maclellan Barony of Bomby, along with other collateral estates. Not long afterwards however in 1455 some Bombie lands were recovered, when King James II, of Scotland, with support from the Maclellans, undertook the siege of Threave Castle, and won a victory over the 'Black Douglas' clan.