Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maclellan, Robert
MACLELLAN, Sir ROBERT, of Bombie, first Lord Kirkcudbright (d. 1641), was the son of Thomas Maclellan of Bombie, Kirkcudbrightshire, by Grizel Maxwell, daughter of John, fifth lord Herries. The Maclellans are supposed to have been originally of Irish descent, but had settled in Galloway in the beginning of .the thirteenth century, and a Maclellan of Bombie. accompanied Sir William Wallace into France after his defeat at Falkirk in 1298. From an early period they were hereditary sheriffs of Galloway. About 1452 Sir Patrick Maclellan, tutor of Bombie and sheriff of Galloway, was carried by William, eighth earl of Douglas [q. v.], to Thrieve Castle, where, on his refusing to join the confederacy against the king, he was put to death by Douglas. According to tradition the cannon named Mens Meg, now at Edinburgh Castle, was presented by the Maclellans to James II, to aid him in battering down Thrieve Castle in 1465, and it was probably on this account that the family used as a crest a mortar-piece with the motto 'Superba frango.'
Robert Maclellan was, on 5 June 1597, recognised as heir-apparent of his father when he was granted by charter the barony of Bombie (Reg. Mag. Sig. 1593-1608, entry 566). His father died on the 5th of the succeeding July, but Robert was not served heir till 5 July 1608. On 16 Feb. 1607-8 a decree was issued against him as provost of Kirkcudbright, for not detaining certain debtors (Reg. P. C. Scotl. viii. 50). The old feud with the Gordons of Lochinvar, one of whom killed Thomas Maclellan of Bombie at the door of St. Giles's Church, Edinburgh, on 11 July 1526, was still alive, and on 26 Feb. Maclellan and Sir Robert Gordon were on this account summoned before the council (ib. p. 57), both having finally to find caution in 1,000l. to keep the peace (ib. p. 84). Various other entries in the Register of the Privy Council 'bear witness to the turbulent and lawless life of Maclellan.'
Maclellan was gentleman of the bed-chamber both to James I and Charles I. Crawfurd states that he was knighted by James I, and by Charles I created a baronet (Peerage of Scotland, p. 239). On the occasion of the coronation of Charles I at Edinburgh in 1633, he was on 25 May created a peer of Scotland by the title Lord Kirkcudbright to him and his heirs male bearing the name and arms of Maclellan. Kirkcudbright was a representative elder to the general assembly in 1638, and during the discussion on the king's 'large declaration' advised that those who had been guilty of so gross an outrage in the king's name should 'have their heads cut off for their paines' (Gordon, Scots Affairs, iii. 52). He died in 1641. By his first wife, Margaret, sixth daughter of Sir Matthew Campbell of Loudoun, he had a daughter, Anne, married to Sir Robert Maxwell of Orchardtoun. By his second wife, Mary Montgomery, daughter of Hugh, viscount Airds, he left no issue. He was succeeded in the baronage by his nephew, Thomas, son of his younger brother, William. On the death of the ninth Lord Kirkcudbright, on 19 April 1832, the title became extinct.
[Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot, passim; Reg. P. C. Scotl. passim; Mackerlie's Lands and their Owners in Galloway; Douglas's Scottish Peerage (Wood), ii. 61.]