28503: Donald Macaulay

This was the second son of Dugald of Breanish to be called Donald and is distinguished by the Og, or ‘young’.

By 1740 he appears as tacksman of Breanish and Ardroil and again in 1754 and 1755. As tradition has it he associated power with possession and was known to have a huge herd of cattle. One account tells that when they were being driven from the hill the head of the herd would have disappeared out of sight at Ard Bhreanish before the last cow had appeared.

He lived and had a family with his "unlawful wife", a state quite common in Uig at that time as there was no minister. When the Rev John Macleod was inducted as minister of the Parish Donald decided to get married, but not to the woman he had previously lived with. Although he chose a new wife, and after her death married another woman, he maintained a relationship with his "unlawful wife". This caused problems when it came to matters of succession with three sets of half-brothers.

He died suddenly, upwards of seventy years of age, in a boat taking a load of corn from Breanish to Pennydonald, c1762. His elegy contains reference to the recent deaths of King George 11 (Oct. 1760) and Kenneth, Lord of Fortrose (19th Oct 1761).

( In the deposition of his nephew Donald of Harris – 1805 – to the Boundary Commission he states that his uncle died about 60 yrs ago i.e. 1745)