at least interesting to find these lands going to and afterwards
remaining in possession of the two sons of Earl Alexander who are
said to have been illegitimate, when all their other enormous
possessions were in 1493 finally forfeited to the Crown. Hugh,
who possessed Sleat during the life of his father and brother,
receives a Crown charter of these lands under the Great Seal two
years after, in 1495, although his brother John, fourth and last
Lord of the Isles, was still alive, his death not having occurred
until 1498, three years later.

Sir Robert Gordon ('Earldom of Scotland,' p. 36) shows that the
Rosses were originally designated O'Beolan and Gillanders
indiscriminately, according to the writer's or speaker's fancy.
He says that -

"From the second son of the Earl of Ross the lairds of Balnagowan
are descended, and had by inheritance the lands of Rariechies and
Coulleigh, where you may observe that the laird of Balnagowan's
surname should not be Ross, seeing that there was never any Earl
of Ross of that surname; but the Earls of Ross were first of the
surname of Beolan, then they were Leslies, and last of all that
earldom fell by inheritance to the Lords of the Isles, who resigned
the same unto king James the Third's bands, in the year of God
1477. So I do think that the lairds of Balnagowan, perceiving the
Earls of Ross decayed, and that earldom, fallen into the Lords of
the Isles' hands, they called themselves Ross thereby to testify
their descent from the Earls of Ross. Besides, all the Rosses in that
province are Unto this day called in the Irish (Gaelic) language
Clan Leandries, which race by their own tradition is sprung from
another stock."