Clann MATHESON

This clan descends from a 12th century Gilleoin, reputed to have been a scion of the ancient royal house of Lorne.  This name was derived from the Gaelic 'Mac Mhath-gham' (Son of the Bear).  According the Gaelic Manuscript of 1450, the Mathesons and the MacKenzies were kinsmen.

The clan was granted the lands of Lochalsh and Kintail in Wester Ross by the mediaeval Earls of Ross.  Kenneth MacMathan, constable of Eilean Donan Castle, joined Alexander III's expedition against the Norsemen of King Haakon in 1262.  Their star rose quickly, and by the early 15th century, the Chief of the Mathesons was said to have 2,000 men at his command.

The other main branch of the family lived at Shiness, Sutherland.  Their leader was James Sutherland Matheson, benefactor of Lewis and co-founder if Jardine, Matheson & Co.

Once the rule of the western isles had come under the Lordship of the MacDonalds, the Mathesons became their supporters, especially when the Earldom of Ross became part of their principality.  Mathesons fought for the MacDonalds at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411, where Alasdair, their Chief was taken prisoner.  From that time onwards, the fortunes of the MacDonalds waned, and with it those of the Mathesons.  The MacLeods on the west and the MacQueens on the east squeezed the Mathesons into oblivion.

On Matheson did succeed in obtaining a footing in the organizations of church and state.  Dougal mac Ruadhri Matheson was prior of Beauly on the borders of Ross between 1498 and 1514; and he sat in parliament in 1504 when Ross was erected into  a separate sheriffdom.   More characteristically. the Matheson Chief, Iain Dubh, died defending Eilean Donan Castle in Wester Ross in 1539.  On this occasion, they were supporting their kinsmen, the MacKenzies, against the MacDonalds.

Branches of he Mathesons spread to the Hebrides and to the north of Scotland, and it was among those that the clan produced the great Gaelic poet, Donald Matheson (1719 - 1782).  Sir James Matheson went forth to found his great commercial empire in the far east  and came back to buy much of the island of Lewis.  The woodland that he planted there remains as a testament to his love for his homeland. 

Large numbers of Mathesons emigrated overseas, those that remained had their thatched roofs burned over their heads during the Kildonan clearances in the early 1800s.