Torquil, son of Murdoch

Torquil MacLeod (Scottish Gaelic: Torcall mac Murchaidh, and Torcall MacLeòid) (fl. 14th century) was a Hebridean lord and is today considered to be the founder of the MacLeods of Lewis, who are known in Gaelic as Sìol Torcaill ("seed of Torcall"). He was the son of Murdoch MacLeod, and a great-grandson of Leod, eponymous ancestor of the MacLeods.

According to MacLeod tradition, Torquil was a son of Leod, founder of Clan MacLeod. Clan traditions made Torquil the brother of Tormod, and stated that the two brothers founded the main branches of the clan— one branch being: Sìol Tormoid ("seed of Tormod"), the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan; the other branch being: Sìol Torcaill ("seed of Torcall"), the MacLeods of Lewis. This traditional story is no longer taken seriously by historians, and Torquil is now considered to have been the son of Murdoch, who was a grandson of Leod.

The late 20th-century historian William Matheson stated that the name Torquil was not a common one. Matheson noted that it occurs in the old genealogies of the MacNicols. Traditions linked the MacNicols with Lewis, as well as Assynt across the Minch; before being supplanted by the MacLeods who married a MacNicol heiress. Matheson stated that the name was not used by the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan; that the first MacLeod to bear the name was Torquil, son of Murdoch. In consequence, Matheson proposed that it must have been Torquil's father who married a MacNicol heiress and then gave their son the MacNicol name of Torquil. Matheson noted that a 19th-century Lewis senachie recalled a tradition that "the year after Torquil became chief of the Lews, he and the MacNaughtons [MacNicols] were proceeding in their birlins, or large boats, to Stornoway, when MacLeod ran the boat of MacNaughton [MacNicol] down in the Sound of Jaunt [Sound of Shiant], and allowed the whole crew to drown". Matheson speculated that Murdoch married a MacNicol heiress, and that their son, Torquil, became heir to the MacNicol lands after their MacNicol rivals were eliminated in a conflict at sea.

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