description of it was handed down by tradition in what is probably the oldest extant specimen of the Scottish historical ballad.
No attempt was made to molest the Lord of the Isles in his retreat, but the Duke of Albany immediately collected a strong force, and marching in person into Ross seized the castle of Dingwall, and compelled Donald to retreat to the Isles, where he took up his winter quarters. The contest was renewed by Albany in the following summer; and ultimately Donald, by a treaty signed at Polgilbe (now Lochgilp) in Knapdale, Argyllshire, agreed to surrender his claims to the earldom of Ross and acknowledge himself a vassal of the Scottish crown. In June 1415 the nun-countess of Ross resigned the earldom to the regent, who reconveyed it to her, with surrender to her maternal uncle John, earl of Buchan, Albany's second son. Donald was, however, still recognised as independent Lord of the Isles by the king of England, and is mentioned as one of his allies in a truce which he concluded with the king of France and his allies, 13 Oct. 1416 (Cal. Documents relating to Scotland, iv. 876). Donald died about 1420, according to the sennachie, John Macdonald, at ‘Ardtornish in Morvern, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and was buried at Icolmkill [Iona]’ (quoted in Mackenzie, Hist. of the Macdonalds, p. 72). He had two sons and one daughter: Alexander, third lord of the Isles [q. v.]; Angus, bishop of the Isles; and Mariot, married to Alexander Sutherland, to whom her father in 1429 gave the lands of Duchall.
[Cal. Documents relating to Scotland; Bower's Continuation of Fordun; Skene's Highlanders and Highland Clans; Gregory's Hist. of the Western Highlands; Mackenzie's Hist. of the Macdonalds.]
MACDONALD, DUNCAN GEORGE FORBES (1823?–1884), agricultural engineer and miscellaneous writer, was the youngest son of John Macdonald (1779–1849) [q. v.], by his second wife, Janet, eldest daughter of Kenneth Mackenzie, esq., of Millbank. He early devoted himself to the study and practice of agriculture on his father's extensive glebe, and in 1848 started business on his own account as an agricultural engineer in London and Dingwall. He also practised as a civil engineer, and became conversant with every department of farming. In 1852 he wrote a pamphlet, ‘What the Farmers may do with the Land,’ and in 1858 was presented with a testimonial ‘by a few friends and masonic brethren’ for his services. About this time he visited British Columbia, where he became a member of the government survey staff and one of the commissioners appointed to adjust the boundary line of British North America. On his return he wrote a book on British Columbia, in which he earnestly deprecated emigration thither under the delusion that its soil was rich and fertile; he also delivered lectures on the subject. After the deposition of Napoleon III Macdonald wrote a pamphlet on ‘Napoleon III, the Empress Eugénie, and the Prince Imperial,’ with all of whom he seems to have had some acquaintance. In this he is said to ‘have successfully proved his majesty the foremost statesman and most sagacious monarch of the world.’ The rest of Macdonald's life was devoted to agricultural and similar interests. He became drainage engineer of improvements under the control of the Enclosure Commissioners for England and Wales, engineer-in-chief to the inspector-general of highland destitution, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., J.P., and LL.D. He died on 6 Jan. 1884. There is a portrait of him prefixed to his ‘Farming and Estate Management,’ engraved by Vincent Brooks.
His works are: 1. ‘What the Farmers may do with the Land,’ 1852. 2. ‘British Columbia and Vancouver's Island,’ 1862. 3. ‘A Lecture on British Columbia and Vancouver's Island,’ 1863. 4. ‘Hints on Farming and Estate Management,’ 3rd edit. 1865. 5. ‘Napoleon III, the Empress Eugénie,’ &c., 1871. 6. ‘Cattle, Sheep, and Deer,’ 1875; this work was patronised by almost every sovereign in Europe. 7. ‘The Highland Crofters: twelve Letters inscribed to the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone,’ 1878. 8. ‘The Grouse Disease, its Causes and Remedies,’ 1883. He also published several pamphlets on various economic and other questions.
[Works in the British Museum; Times, 9 Jan. 1884; information from the Rev. M. G. Watkins.]
MACDONALD, FLORA (1722–1790), Jacobite heroine, born in 1722, was daughter of Ranald Macdonald, tacksman, or farmer, of Milton in South Uist, an island of the Hebrides, by Marion, daughter of the Rev. Angus Macdonald, minister first of the island of Gigha, and afterwards of South Uist. She lost her father in early infancy, and when only six years old she was deprived of the care of her mother, who was abducted and married by Hugh Macdonald of Armadale, Skye. The child remained at Milton with her brother Angus till her thirteenth year, when, in order to receive some instruction from the family governess, she was taken into the mansion of the Clanranalds, of
