Origin of Name MADILL

The Madill tartan is from the Clan MacDougall and is seen below.

Though there have been recordings of the family name of Madill in England, and for that matter the name has also been noted in Ireland, the origin of the name is generally considered as being of Scottish origin. In this country the name is usually styled as ‘Madill of that Ilk’ and is a sept (a clan within a clan) of the Scottish Clan MacDougall.

Clan MacDougall: A celtic family. The gaelic form of this name is MacDhùghaill, which means 'son-of-Dougal'. The Macdougalls of the Argyllshire district of Lorn trace back to the same ancestors as the Macdonald’s, being named from the first Lord of Lorn, Dougall (the eldest son of Somerled), by Raghnhildis (daughter of Olaf the King of Man). But Raghnhildis’ mother Alfrica was already a MacDougall of MacDowall of the still older Galloway branch, Alfrica’s father being Fergus McDubh Gael, the powerful twelfth century Lord of Galloway and founder of several abbeys in that ancient Pictish-Celtic territory.

MacDougall history is mainly coloured by their feud with Robert Bruce, after his hasty slaying of the Red Comyn claimant to the Scottish throne. Alexander, fourth Lord of Lorn, had married Comyn’s sister. After Bruce’s defeat at Methven by the English, he took for a time to the Grampians. At Dalree in Strathfillan his party was set upon by a strong force of MacDougalls, and Bruce himself escaped only be leaving his plaid grasped by a dying MacDougall. Attached to it was the magnificent Celtic ‘Frooch of Lorn’ - still the treasured possession of the clan chief at Dunolly. Eventually Bruce overcame both the English and the MacDougalls, the latter being restored to their Lorn lands only when Alexander’s grandson Ewen married a niece of David II. By Ewen having only heiresses, the lordship of Lorn passed to Stewart hands, whilst the male branch of Dunolly retained the clan chiefship.

To find the Madills in my family tree click here.