304-305.]
It is not intended here to discuss whether Hugh of Sleat and his
elder brother Celestine of Lochalsh were illegitimate or not.
They were so called by their father, Earl Alexander, and by their
brother, Earl John. The first describes Celestine as "filius
naturalis" in a charter preserved in the Mackintosh charter
chest, dated 1447, and Earl John calls his brother Austin or Hugh
"frater carnalis" in two charters, dated respectively 1463 and
1470. This goes far to corroborate the Sleat historian, who was not
the least likely to introduce illegitimacy into his own favourite
family unless the charge was really true. It is instructive to
find that Celestine succeeded to all the lands of the monastery
of Applecross in Lochalsh, Lochcarron, and Lochbroom. These lay
abbots are also said to have held, under the old Earls of Ross,
the Sleat district of the Isle of Skye, which Hugh, first of that
family, is alleged to have inherited through his mother, daughter
of the Red Priest and a descendant of Farquhar Mac an t'Sagairt, Earl
of Ross. It will be observed also that Austin, Uisdean, or Hugh,
a common name among the Applecross and old Earl of Ross dynasty,
comes into the Macdonald family for the first time at this period,
after Earl Alexander of the Macdonald line had formed a union with
the daughter of the last lay Abbot of Applecross.
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