Clan Livingstone

The Clan Livingstone, also known as Clan MacLea, is a Highland Scottish clan, which was traditionally located in the district of Lorn in Argyll, Scotland, and is seated on the Isle of Lismore. There is a tradition of some MacLeas Anglicising their names to Livingstone, thus the Clan Livingstone Society's website also refers to the clan as the Highland Livingstones. The current chief of Clan Livingstone was recognised by Lord Lyon as the "Coarb of Saint Moluag" and the "Hereditable Keeper of the Great Staff of Saint Moluag".

There are conflicting theories of the etymology of MacLea, MacLay and similar surnames, and they could have multiple origins. The name may be an Anglicisation of Mac an Léigh (Scottish Gaelic), meaning son of the physician. In addition to MacLea, the Gaelic language surname Mac an Léigh is also anglicized to McKinley (surname) and MacNulty. The leading theory today, however,^{[from whom?]} is that the name MacLea was adopted from the patronymic Mac Duinnshleibhe, meaning son of Donn Sléibhe (son of + the brown haired, or chieftain + of the mountain). In 1910 Niall Campbell, 10th Duke of Argyll maintained that the surname MacLea evolved from the name Maconlea, which was originally Mac Dhunnshleibhe. By the eighteenth century the standard form of the name had become MacLea or other forms with similar spellings (MacLeay, McClay, etc.). This is largely a distinction without significance, though, as Mac an Léigh is a nickname surname which was given to the Mac Dhunnshleibhe by the indigenous populations in both Ulster and the Scottish Highlands and which was, eventually, adopted as a substitute surname by the Mac Dhunnshleibhe themselves. The Mac Dhunnshleibhe royals were also one of Ireland's ancient hereditary medical families.

The surname Livingstone/Livingston is derived from the placename, modern Livingston, which is in West Lothian, Scotland. Livingston was in turn named after an individual named Leving who appears in the early twelfth century in the charters of David I of Scotland. This Leving was the progenitor of the powerful aristocratic Livingston family. There are multiple theories of the origin of Leving (Anglo-Saxon, Fleming, Frank, Norman, and even Hungarian).

In the mid seventeenth century James Livingston of Skirling, who was of a branch of these Lowland Livingstons, was granted a nineteen-year lease of the Bishoprics of Argyll and the Isles. Sometime before 1648, James Livingston seems to have stayed at Achanduin Castle on Lismore, and it is thought that around this time that the surname Livingstone would have been adopted by MacLeas on the island.

The Duke of Argyll wrote that it was possible that the eponymic progenitor of all the Mac(Duns)leves, (MacLeas, highland Livingstones, etc.), of Lismore may be Dunshleibe son of Aedh Alain O'Neill. Aed Alain was the son of the Irish prince Anrothan O'Neill, who traditionally is said to have married a Princess of Dál Riata, inheriting her lands of Cowal and Knapdale. Anrothan in turn was a son of Aodh O'Neill, King of Ailech (r.1030-1033). From him the family would ultimately descend from Niall of the Nine Hostages, High King of Ireland, who reigned in the fifth century, although the O'Neill dynasty actually take their name from his descendant Niall Glúndub, a High King of Ireland living five centuries later. Dunshleibe is also thought to have been the common ancestor of clans in western Argyll including the Lamonts, the MacEwens of Otter, the Maclachlans, the MacNeils of Barra, and the MacSweens.

An alternative and the modernly accepted theory, however, is that the MacLea are descended of Ruaidhri Mac Duinnsleibhe, the 54th Christian and last king of Ulidia.

The Coarbs of Saint Moluag are proposed to be closely related to the rigdamnai or Royal Family of Ulster and their use of the name Mac Duinnshleibhe to be a proud reminder and declaration of that fact.

According to Byrne the Ulaid rigdamnai alone used the name Mac Duinnshleibhe