The Campbells of Glenorchy, a cadet branch of the clan Campbell, was one of the most successful and formidable noble families in 16th- and 17th-century Scotland, straddling the Gaelic and lowland worlds and acquiring extensive territories in central Scotland centred on Breadalbane. In 1598, Duncan, 7th laird of Glenorchy, commissioned his servant and his grandsons’ tutor, William Bowie, to write a genealogy of his family, chronicling their remarkable rise. Bowie, who died in 1624, focused on the first seven lairds while another, anonymous, author completed the story down to the year 1649, by which time the fortunes of the family under Robert, the 9th laird, had been much affected by the civil war.
In the Black Book of Taymouth (NRS: GD112/78/2), so called after its black leather binding, Bowie records…
