Kenneth Mor, third Earl of Seaforth, who, according to the Gruinard
Genealogy, was John of Gruinard's uncle, was born at Brahan Castle
in 1635. In 1651 he is described as "a child" by a contemporary
writer, who says that the Kintail people declined to rise with him
in that year during his father's absence on the Continent, because
"he was but a "child," and his father, their master, was in life."
Colin, first Earl of Seaforth, died in 1633, and the author of the
Ancient MS. says that "Earl George, being then the Laird of Kildun,
married before his brother's death, the Lord Forbes's daughter."
Thus, George of Kildun could not have been born before 1636 or
1637 at the very earliest; and the date of his first marriage,
twenty-four years later, strongly corroborates this. How then
could he have had a married son, John Mackenzie of Gruinard, whose
wife undoubtedly obtained lands in 1655; that is, when Kildun
himself was only 18 years of age, and when John, already designated
of Gruinard, was, in 1656, old enough to be cautioner for Kenneth,
Earl of Seaforth? Proof of the same conclusive character could be
adduced to any extent, but in face of the documents already quoted,
it is obviously superfluous to do so.
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