Images of Hebridean Lordship in the Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries: The Seal of Raonall Mac Sorley

Abstract

The register of Paisley Abbey provides a wealth of information on the western Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the central and later Middle Ages. Among the grants that it records from the descendants of the great Somerled of Argyll (d. 1164) and from other prominent west-coast families, there is preserved one by Raonall (Reginald, Ranald), son of Somerled, who died some time in the first quarter of the thirteenth century.1 In this, Raonall granted Paisley Abbey eight oxen, two pence from every house in his lands from which smoke issued, and one penny per house per year thereafter, while his wife granted the abbey one tenth of all her possessions. One clause in the charter orders Raonall's 'friends and people' to aid the monks, with the certain knowledge that by St Columba if any of my heirs does harm to them, he shall have my malediction; or if peradven ture any evil should be done unto them or theirs by my people, or by any others whom it is in my power to bring to account, they shall suffer the punishment of death. The register actually contains two versions of this charter: one in late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century form, the other as it was copied in a notarial instrument dating from 1426.3 Appended to the 1 Although the date of Raonall's death is traditionally given as 1207, it has been demonstrated that this results from a misreading of the Book of Clanranald, and that the actual date could be as late as 1227: A. B. McEwen, 'The death of Regi nald son of Somerled', West Highland Notes and Queries, 2nd ser., vi (1990). 2 Paisley Registrum, 125, 148; translation based on I. F. Grant, The Lordship of the Isles (Edinburgh, 1935, repr. 1982), 331. 3 The initial charter cannot be dated with accuracy. I. F. Grant placed it around 1180, while A. A. M. Duncan and A. L. Brown suggest that it may be later than