| There is much doubt of his legitimate status. Sir Robert Gordon asserts definitely that he was illegitimate, and that his mother was a daughter of Ross of Balnagown. But there is some reason for uncertainty, and it seems he was the son of Fingole. He was born in 1491, and in 1509, when only eighteen, he opposed the service of his brother John as heir to their father, and requested that curators ad lites should be appointed to himself. This was done, and they advised him to renounce his right in and to the earldom in favour of his brother John and sister Elizabeth, and her husband Adam Gordon, reserving his right of succession if their heirs wholly failed. As a compensation he was secured in lands worth forty merks yearly, which sum was duly paid to him. In 1514 he, being now of age, appeared by a procurator, Mr. Robert Munro, designed his brother, and opposed the service of his half-sister Elizabeth as heir to her brother Earl John, but did not found his pretensions on his right of blood, but on an alleged deed of entail in his favour, which, however, he did not produce. In 1515 he committed various acts of spoliation, among other feats taking possession of Dunrobin, and was incarcerated in Edinburgh Castle for wrongfully uplifting certain duties belonging to the Crown. In the year 1518 he was again in the north, and a second time seized Dunrobin Castle, which, however, he was obliged to surrender.6 |