Names associated with Colquhoun with their possible connections. The main Clan names are in bold.

Cahoon Irish form of Colquhoun

Cahoone Irish form of Colquhoun

Cahoun Irish form of Colquhoun

Cahn variation of Colquhoun

Cahun variation of Colquhoun.

Calhoon American form of Colquhoun

Calhoun American form of Colquhoun

Caun corruption of Colquhoun

Cessoc associated with Kessog of Luss

Cohan corruption of Colquhoun

Colquhoun

Cothun corruption of Colquhoun

Cowan corruption of Colquhoun

Cowen corruption of Colquhoun

Cowing corruption of Colquhoun

Culchom corruption of Colquhoun

Culhane corruption of Colquhoun

Gahn Swedish form of Colquhoun

Gilmer variation of Gilmore

Gilmore associated with Luss

Gilmakessoc associated with Luss

Ingram accepted as descendants of Ingram de Colquhoun

Kahn variation of Colquhoun

Kessan variation of Kessog

Kessog name associated with Luss area

Kilpatrick

King

Kirkpatrick

Kirk

Lang descriptive name for a tall person found in many areas

Law common name in Glasgow area

Leckie a common name in Colquhoun lands in Dumbartonshire

Lennox name found in the Lennox district, long associated with Luss

Luss name associated with Luss area

MacA'Chambaich Gaelic form of Colquhoun

Macauslan strictly Buchanans but lived in Glen Douglas & intermarried Colquhouns

MacClintock Irish form of McLintock

MacCowan variation on Cowan

MacKessog associated with Luss parish

MacKinlay lived on Colquhoun lands

MacLinden variation on McLintock

McLintock

MacManus lived among and serve the Colquhoun families

MacMains variation of Mcmanus

McOwen variation of Cowan

MacWalter local family name in Luss parish

Pickens

Potter

Qulchone variation of Colquhoun

Smith an occupational name found in many areas

Smollett family associated with Dumbartonshire

Walker occupational name found in many areas

Please note, this list is not exclusive but covers the most common forms of the names.

Since the very earliest records that have come down to us, the deer-haunted hills and wooded glens and lochside lands of Luss have belonged to the ancestors of the present chief of the Clan, Sir Malcolm Colquhoun, 33rd of Luss.

His remote forefathers who lived here nearly eight hundred years ago were most likely a branch of the ancient rulers of the Lennox, and they used the surname of Luss, taken from the name of their lands. They were a sacred family, Celtic priests and hereditary guardians of the bachuil or crozier of St Kessog, the martyr who dwelt in Glen Luss or on Inchtavannach, the 'monk's isle' in Loch Lomond. So it is possible they were also related to the Saint himself, as was often the case with hereditary guardians of saintly relics in the old Celtic Church. Indeed, the place name 'Luss' itself is probably derived from an old word meaning the bounds of a sanctuary, for Robert Bruce confirmed by Royal Charter that all the grounds within a 'girth' of three miles around the church of Luss was a hoy place of refuge.

The present chief’s forebear Malduin of Luss was Dean of the Lennox in 1202, and three generations later his then ancestor, Sir Ian of Luss, appears on record as still guarding their family saint’s bachuil. The heiress of the ancient Celtic line was the Fair Maid of Luss. Who by 1368 had married Sir Robert Colquhoun of that Ilk, chief of a clan that had fought for King Robert Bruce in the War of Scottish Independence and whose strong castle of Dunglass lay some miles away to the south on the river Clyde at Colquhoun near Dunbarton.

The Fair Maid’s grandson John Colquhoun, 10^th of Luss had to be called upon in 1411 by Duncan, Earl of the Lennox to implement his solemn contract and oath to marry the earl’s daughter, Lady Margaret. In 1424, when James 1 returned from his long captivity in England and destroyed the Lennox family whom he regarded as his personal enemies, this Colquhoun of Luss was chosen by the King for the key post of Governor of Dumbarton Castle, the royal fortress that dominated the Lennox. This was possibly the origin of the traditional story explaining the Colquhoun heraldic supporters of two deerhounds, together with their crest of a stag’s head and motto “Si Je Puis” (the coat of Arms, the black engraved saltire on a silver shield, is obviously derived from the saltire of the Earls of Lennox, itself probably related to the Arms of a groups of powerful Northumbrian families at the dawn of heraldry). The tale runs that the king asked the Colquhoun chief to recover Dumbarton Castle from his enemies; that Luss replied “si je puis” (If I Can), and then pursued a stag with hounds past the castle until the garrison joined in the chase, whereupon the clansmen rushed the castle and captured it for the king. This Sir John was later slain with 120 of his men by a band of marauding Western islesmen, led by the robber chief Lachlan Maclean of Duart, whilst making a gallant last stand on the Isle of Inchmurrin in Loch Lomond on 24 September 1439.

His son Malcolm having predeceased him, he was succeeded by his capable grandson, another Sir John Colquhoun, 11^th of Luss. One of the greatest of his canny line, he had his lands erected into the free barony of Luss by King James II in 1457, with the right of “pit and gallows”, which meant a local jurisdiction including the powers of life and death (held by the Colquhoun chiefs until 1747). The Gallowshill across the main road from Rossdhu still marks the site of the Colquhoun “dule-tree”. Sir John, who was Comptroller of the Exchequer from 1465 to 1469, Great Chamberlain of Scotland and joint Ambassador to England, was the chief who built the old castle of Rossdhu (the “black headland”) that forms a peninsula in Loch Lomond, as well as the architecturally interesting private chapel of St Mary of Rossdhu, dedicated in 1469. This mediaeval chapel’s beautiful contemporary illuminated Book of Hours his to be found in among the public treasures of New Zealand, at the other end of the world – a place undreamt of by the holy man who wrote it. But Sir John’s younger son Robert Colquhoun, Bishop of Argyll, had previously been rector of St Kessogs Church in the village of Luss itself (the church of the family saint) and so his mediaeval tomb effigy is still to be seen there. Sir John was killed in 1478 by a cannon ball (no longer a military novelty) which also killed two other distinguished knightly lairds, whilst taking part in the siege of Dunbar Castle.

He was succeeded by his son, Sir Humphrey, 12^th Laird of Luss, who died in 1493. He was succeeded in his turn by his son, Sir John, who was knighted by King James IV and died in 1535.

A century later, in 1592, Sir Humphrey Colquhoun, 16^th of Luss, had a love affair with the wife of the Macfarlane Chief. The enraged Macfarlanes surprised him at his dalliance and pursued him past Rossdhu to another of his castles at Bannachra, where they tried to smoke him out. In the ensuing confusion, Sir Humphrey was slain by an arrow, some say by his greedy younger brother John, his heir presumptive, who was afterwards executed at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh for the crime.

When the Colquhouns went to war, their chief dipped a charred wooden cross in goat’s blood and sent this reminder of fire and sword by relays throughout the entire district of Luss. The bearer, usually mounted on a garron-pony shouted out the name of the mustering place as he passed. Such was the Fiery Cross or “crois taraidh” the Scots successor to the old pagan Norse “fire Arrow”. The Colquhoun mustering place was most often at Cnoc Ealachainn, the armoury hillock near Rossdhu. Here the clansmen paraded for war, wearing badges of hazel, the lucky plant of their name.

In 1602, in the time of Alexander Colquhoun, 17^th of Luss, the wild clan Gregor made a ferocious raid into Luss, killing a number of Colquhoun clansmen in the process. The canny Colquhoun women went to Edinburgh and paraded the torn and bloody shirts of their menfolk in front of King James IV (some say a few extra shirts were added dyed in sheep’s blood); the king, his sympathy aroused, reacted by proscribing the name of MacGregor. And so when, two months later, in February 1603, the MacGregor chief himself raided Luss at the head of 400 clansmen, and defeated the Colquhouns (by now invested with Royal authority) at the famous clan battle of Glen Fruin with the loss of over 100 of their men, a special Act of Council was passed, outlawing the whole Clan Gregor and forbidding anyone, on pain of death, even to bear the dreaded surname of MacGregor. Thus began a blood feud between the two clans that was only finally settled by a handshake on the site of the battle between the two clan chiefs almost three hundred years later.

The next Chief of Clan Colquhoun was Sir John Colquhoun, 18^th of Luss, who was made a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1625, when this title was first introduced into Scotland. He married Lillias Graham, the sister of James Graham, the 1st Marquess of Montrose. They had six children and in later years John began a romantic with Lillias's sister Lady Catherine Graham. In 1631 they fled Rossdhu and went to London. It was rumored that they later traveled on to the continent. And for all of this John was charged incest, lost his life-rent and properties, and was excommunicated. ( A sexual relationship with a spouse's sibling was considered to be incest, which was a capitol crime, punishable by death.) Many years later, with the changing politics, he was able to return  home and reconciled with his family. Unfortunatley, nothing further is known about Catherine. 

His haughty grandson Sir James Colquhoun 20^th of Luss, of whom there is an interesting portrait at Rossdhu in his red baronial robes edged with white fur, was known throughout Scotland as the “Black-Cock of the West, just as the Gordon Chief, Lord Huntly, is still know as the “Black-Cock of the North”

Sir Humphrey Colquhoun, seventeenth Laird of Luss, was a member of the Union Parliament, and married a daughter of Houston of that Ilk, by whom he had only a daughter, Anne, Heiress of Luss who, in 1709, married James Grant of Pluscardine, second son of Grant of that Ilk. Sir Humphrey desired that the young couple should succeed him and so in 1704 resigned his baronetcy to the Crown so that his whole estate and honours could be passed down through the female line. He obtained a new grant – to himself in life-rent, to his daughter and son-in-law in fee, with the proviso, first, that their heirs should adopt the name and arms of Colquhoun, and second that the estates of Grant and Luss should never be conjoined. On Sir Humphrey’s death in 1715, his son-in-law succeeded as Sir James Colquhoun; but unfortunately his elder brother died childless in 1719, so Sir James succeeded to the estates of Grant and had to resume that name. He was thus succeeded in the Colquhoun baronetcy by his second son, who became Sir Ludovick; once again however, Sir Ludovick’s elder brother died unmarried, leaving him to succeed to the Grant estates. The estates of Luss therefore went finally to Sir Ludovick’s younger brother James, who was created a baronet of Great Britain in 1786, but who died in that same year. Life in the Highlands had become more peaceful, and so this Sir James, 1^st Baronet and 25^th Chief of Luss, built the present elegant mansion house of Rossdhu between the old mediaeval castle and the beautiful banks of Loch Lomond. His wife, Lady Helen, sister of the 17^th Earl of Sutherland, was somewhat distraught by this; she loved the castle, calling it “a lucky old place”, and its romantic ruins still stand to this day. Sir James also founded the town of Helensburgh in 1777, one of the earliest and best examples of modern town planning; the story has it that he could not think of a name for his creation, referring to it only as “my Lady Helen’s burgh”. The name stuck.

100 years later, in 1873, Sir James’s great grandson, another Sir James Colquhoun, 4^th baronet and 28^th Chief of Luss, MP and Lord Lieutenant of Dumbartonshire, was drowned within earshot of Rossdhu with five of his ghillies (everybody thought the cries were joyous boating cheers) whilst sailing homewards from red deer stalking on the island of Inchlonaig. The present beautiful church in Luss was erected in his memory by his son Sir James, 5^th Baronet, in 1874.

Sir James was the only son of the 4^th Baronet’s marriage with Jane Abercromby, daughter of Sir Robert Abercromby of Birkenbog, who bore him in April 1844, but who sadly died a month afterwards. Sir James had two daughters, but no son, so when he died in 1907 the title and estates passed to his cousin Sir Alan, 6^th Baronet, the son of John Colquhoun who was a famous naturalist of his day, writing “The Moor and the Loch”, still one of the standard texts on Highland sport and nature. Sir Alan died in 1910, and the title passed to his eldest son Sir Iain, 7^th Baronet, a wildly romantic character, much decorated in the first world war, a man of huge energy and achievement who was, until his death in 1948 at the early age of 61, perhaps the most loved and respected man in Scotland. A Knight of the Thistle (Scotland’s highest order of chivalry), a close personal friend of King George VI, Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, his exploits were legendary. As a gentle lover of Highland scenery and the Gaelic way of life, he was co-founder and Chairman of the National Trust for Scotland, and was elected by the students as Lord Rector of Glasgow University.

His son, Sir Ivar, 8^th Baronet and 32^nd of Luss, served in the Middle East and in German during the second world war, and was a captain in the Grenadier Guards and an officer in the elite King’s Company. He was Deputy Lieutenant and Honorary Sheriff Substitute of Dunbartonshire. He died in 2008, after 60 years as chief of the Clan, at the age of 92, and was succeeded by his son Sir Malcolm, 9^th Baronet and 33^rd of Luss