Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/215

 collection of pictures and sculpture, with the buildings and other heritable property in or near Sauchiehall Street. Nevertheless, the fine collection remained unnoticed and sadly neglected for about thirty years, until it was in danger of being dispersed; attention was then drawn to it, and it was placed under competent guardians. It now forms the chief nucleus of the remarkable collection of works of art in the Corporation Galleries of Art at Glasgow. The collection is a great tribute to McLellan's taste and power of selection at a time when critical knowledge of works of art was very rare.

 MACLELLAN, JOHN (1609?–1651), of Kirkcudbright, covenanting minister, was the son of Michael Maclellan, a burgess of Kirkcudbright. He was educated at the university of Glasgow, where he graduated M.A. in 1629. Shortly afterwards he was appointed schoolmaster at Newtownards, co. Down, where he had also several pupils, whom he prepared for the university. Ultimately he obtained license to preach from the ministers of county Down, but for his 'adherence to the purity of church discipline,' and for refusal to conform to the ceremonial of the church (, Scots Affairs, ii. 28), he was excommunicated by the bishop. Nevertheless he continued for some time to preach privately in the counties of Down, Tyrone, and Donegal until 1638, when on receiving a call from the congregation of his native town, Kirkcudbright, he returned to Scotland. He was a member of the general assembly of that year; and in reference to a desire of the king that certain assessors named by himself should have a vote, he in a sermon shortly afterwards 'stated that the king had no more to do with their general assemblies then they had to do with his parliament' (ib. i. 145). Livingstone mentions that 'it was thought by many that he had somewhat of the spirit of Prophecy' (Characters in vol. i. of the Wodrow Society's Select Biographies, p. 331). The opportunity having fallen to him to preach before, first duke of Hamilton [q. v.], on the eve of the expedition to England in 1648, he took upon himself to predict that the enterprise would result in disaster, affirming that 'in a short time after going to England they should be affrayed at the shaking of the leaf of a tree.' This prophecy was reported to have been literally fulfilled, owing to the fact that it was by the sudden rustling of some trees at Preston, caused by a strong gust of wind, that the Scottish cavalry took fright, and, galloping from the field, carried confusion also among the infantry. Maclellan was a member of the assemblies' commissions of 1642, 1645, and 1649. By the assembly of 1642 he was appointed for four months on a mission to Ireland, and by that of 1643 for three months. Maclellan's strictness as a disciplinarian led one of his parishioners to fire a gun at him, but the shot miscarried. He died early in 1651, according to Livingstone 'not without suspicion of being wronged by a witch' (ib.) He was married to Marion, daughter of Bartholomew Fleming, merchant, Edinburgh, and a younger sister of the wife of [q. v.] To Bleau's 'Atlas Scotiæ' he contributed the 'Description of Galloway.'

 MACLELLAN, ROBERT, of Bombie, first  (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, 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