Donald Cameron of Lochiel

Donald Cameron of Lochiel (c.1700 – October 1748), was an influential Highland Chief known for his magnanimous and gallant nature. He was the hereditary leader of Clan Cameron, traditionally loyal to the exiled House of Stuart, whose leaders had once been tasked with enforcing the King of Scotland's will, especially in the Lowlands. In the early eighteenth century the Camerons' supremacy was being overtaken by the rival Campbells. Lochiel's support for Bonnie Prince Charlie was pivotal to the Jacobite Rising of 1745, and was uncertain. However, he was effectively pushed into a corner by the issue of a warrant for his arrest for conspiring with the Stuarts.

Donald Cameron of Lochiel the "Gentle Lochiel" of Scottish folklore, was the grandson of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel and the eldest son of the 18th Chief, Lord Lochiel. After his father, a key participant in the Jacobite Rising of 1715, fled into permanent exile in France, Donald Cameron assumed the role of acting Clan Chief at a time when the old customs were rapidly changing. The Highlands had historically been a society of contending groups each dominated by an elite which valued fearlessnes and daring above all things; held wealth as cattle; used ostentatious ornamentation; and spent much time in drinking feasts where bards relayed great clan exploits. It was a way of life that Lowlanders had not known for generations and although some aspects of it survived well into the 18th century; by Lochiel's time measures such as the Statutes of Iona had obliged chieftains to spend more time in Edinburgh. Being extremely status conscious, they attempted to cut a dash by purchasing clothes in the latest French fashion, elaborate homes, imported furniture, fine wines and other trappings of gentility rather than patronizing Gaelic bards, pipers and harpists as was the traditional way to distinction for a Chief. The expenditure strained their finances as the Highlands were among the poorest lands in Europe (some tenants have been described as much poorer than Plains Indians ) and clan chiefs sought to raise income from their territories. As loyal supporters of the Royal House of Stuart the Camerons had a formidable enemy in the huge Clan Campbell which was firmly allied with the British government. At Sheriffmuir in 1715, John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll had halted a run of successes for the Jacobite clans and their commander John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar. However, in 1737 Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll decreed that tacks were to be let out to the highest bidder rather than being given to a tacksman with family connections, consequently many of the older sort of tacksmen were dispossessed. Because they mustered the tenants, acted as officers and functioned as shock troops in time of war, Argyll had inadvertently made himself militarily weaker through breaking the traditional bond with tacksmen.

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