Clan Makgill

Clan Makgill
Crest: A phoenix in flames Proper
Motto	Sine Fine (Without end)
Profile
Region	Lowland
Chief
Ian Arthur Alexander Makgill
14th Viscount of Oxfuird

Clan Makgill is a Lowland Scottish clan.

The historian George Fraser Black suggested in his work Surnames of Scotland that the surname Makgill is derived from Mac an ghoill which means son of the lowlander or son of the stranger. The name was established in Galloway before the thirteenth century. In 1231 Maurice Macgeil witnessed a charter of Maldouen, Earl of Lennox to the church of St Thomas the Martyr of Arbroath.

During the reign of James V of Scotland, James Makgill, a descendant of the Galloway family was a prominent Edinburgh merchant and later became Provost of Edinburgh. He supported the reformed religion and the eldest of his two sons, Sir James Makgill, purchased the estate of Nether Rankeillour in Fife. James studied law at Edinburgh and was recognised as an able scholar. He became a member of the College of Justice in June 1554, and in August of the same year he became a Lord of Session. James Makgill took the judicial title "Lord Rankeillor" and became a friend and supporter of the religious reformer, John Knox. In 1561 when Mary, Queen of Scots returned to Scotland from widowhood in France, Makgill became one of her Privy Councillors. However he was also heavily implicated in the murder of the queen's secretary David Rizzio and as a result was deprived of his judicial rank and was forced to flee from Edinburgh. He was later pardoned but was ordered to stay north of the River Tay. In December 1567, through the influence of the Regent Moray, Makgill was restored to his offices. He later attended as one of the regent's commissioners who attended the regent on his journey to York to present accusations of the queen who was then in exile. He was also later an ambassador to the court of Elizabeth I of England in 1571 and 1572, however while he was absent his house in Edinburgh was attacked by supporters of Queen Mary and his wife was killed. He died in 1579 and was succeeded by his younger brother who held the lands of Cranston-Riddell and who had been appointed to the Court of Session in 1582. He took the title "Lord Cranston-Riddell" and was succeeded in 1594 by his son, David, who followed him onto the Bench.