Septs of Clan Colquhoun

In the Scottish clan system, a sept is a family or group of families who carried different surnames but historically owed allegiance to a larger clan's chief. For Clan Colquhoun, these connections arose through shared bloodlines, physical proximity, or feudal ties. The major septs of Clan Colquhoun include:

• Calhoun (including Cahoon, Cahoone, Cohoon, Colhoun): These are diaspora variants of the original chiefly surname. As family members migrated to Northern Ireland (Ulster) and eventually to North America, the complex spelling of "Colquhoun" was phonetically simplified. By the eighteenth century, "Calhoun" became the most prevalent form in the American colonies.
• Cowan (including Cowen, Cowing): This sept is a product of linguistic drift. The name Colquhoun was commonly pronounced “ca-HOON”, which easily drifted phonetically into “Cowan”. Crucially, classical genealogists document that branch families of the clan—specifically the Colquhouns of Corstoun and Bohearty in Fife—formally changed their names to Cowan.
• Kilpatrick & Kirkpatrick: These names represent the original ancestral kinship of the clan. Humphrey de Kilpatrick, who received the initial thirteenth-century land charter, was the direct paternal ancestor of the Colquhouns. Modern Y-DNA testing has officially validated this blood tie, proving that individuals bearing the names Colquhoun, Calhoun, Kilpatrick, and Kirkpatrick share a common direct paternal ancestor (belonging to Haplogroup E1b1b1). (Note: Under Scots law, Kirkpatrick is also recognized as an independent Lowland armigerous clan, though they retain this close historical kinship).
• Ingram (including Ingraham): This surname represents a direct blood descent from Ingram de Colquhoun, the thirteenth-century successor to Humphrey who first officially assumed the Colquhoun surname.
• McLintock / McClintock (including MacLinden, MacLintock): A major feudal and territorial sept. The name anglicizes the Gaelic MacGille Fhionndaig ("son of the servant of Saint Finan"). Originally from Argyllshire, they settled around Loch Lomond as tacksmen and tenants of Luss, pledging their swords to the Colquhoun chiefs in exchange for protection.
• MacManus (including McMain, McMains): A localized feudal sept consisting of families who lived on, cultivated, and served the Dunbartonshire estates of the Colquhoun chiefs.
• King: An overlapping feudal sept. Because their lands sat on the geopolitical fault line between the Colquhouns and their fierce rivals, Clan Gregor, families bearing this surname shifted allegiances for safety and protection, resulting in both clans claiming "King" as a sept today.
• Macauslan (including Macausland): An allied sept. Though legally a branch of Clan Buchanan, the Macauslans historically resided in Glen Douglas, intermarried heavily with the Colquhouns, and formed a tight defensive alliance under the Luss banner.
• Pickens: An allied/intermarried sept that gained association during the eighteenth-century Ulster-Scots migration, cemented by the high-profile marriage of General Andrew Pickens, Jr. to Rebecca Calhoun in the American South.
• Gahn (including Cahun, Caun, Kharun): A continental variant. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Colquhouns emigrated to Sweden as mercenary soldiers and industrial ironfounders. Their names were phonetically altered to "Gahn" or "Cahun" to conform to Swedish spelling and speech.

Stories & Legends

The history of Clan Colquhoun is filled with dramatic sieges, fierce blood feuds, and narrow escapes. Two of the most famous legends include:

The Legend of "Si Je Puis" and the Dumbarton Stag Hunt

In 1424, King James I returned to Scotland after eighteen years of English captivity and set out to break the power of the Lennox family, whom he viewed as personal enemies. Seeking a loyal commander, the King appointed Sir John Colquhoun, Tenth of Luss, as Governor of the royal stronghold of Dumbarton Castle. When the King asked if he could successfully recover the heavily fortified castle from the Lennox faction, Sir John confidently replied, "Si Je Puis" (If I Can).

To accomplish this without a costly frontal assault, Sir John devised a clever stratagem. He gathered his followers and initiated a spectacular stag hunt right outside the castle gates, utilizing his finest deerhounds. The sight of the chase proved so thrilling that the defending garrison abandoned their posts and rushed out to join the hunt. Sir John's concealed clansmen immediately slipped inside, securing the fortress for the King. In honor of this victory, the King bestowed the stag's head crest, the "Si Je Puis" motto, and two deerhounds as heraldic supporters onto the Colquhoun arms.

The Massacre of Glen Fruin and the "Bloody Shirts"

Sitting on the Highland Boundary Fault, the fertile Colquhoun lands were highly vulnerable to cattle raiding by Highland clans, most notably the neighboring Clan Gregor. In 1602, a ferocious MacGregor raid on Glen Luss resulted in the deaths of two Colquhoun clansmen and the theft of their livestock. Seeking royal intervention, Alexander Colquhoun, Seventeenth of Luss, led a highly dramatic delegation to King James VI at Stirling Castle. He paraded fifty women carrying the torn, bloodied shirts of the slain men on poles (legend says some shirts were extra-dyed with sheep's blood to maximize the horror). The spectacle worked: the outraged King granted Colquhoun a royal commission to pursue the MacGregors with "fire and sword".

Knowing of this commission, Alasdair MacGregor of Glenstrae marched into Colquhoun territory in February 1603 with over four hundred men. Alexander Colquhoun assembled a government-backed force of five hundred footmen and three hundred horsemen to confront them in Glen Fruin (the "Glen of Sorrow"). However, the MacGregors utilized superior mountain tactics, splitting their forces and launching a surprise attack from the rear. They drove the Colquhoun forces into the Moss of Auchingaich, a peat bog where the cavalry became completely useless. Over one hundred and forty Colquhouns were slaughtered.

The aftermath was catastrophic for the victors; the King officially proscribed the name of MacGregor, banning it under pain of death and legally hunting the clan down. The bitter blood feud between the Colquhouns and MacGregors was only settled nearly three centuries later, when the chiefs of the two clans met and shook hands on the very site of the slaughter in Glen Fruin.

Tartan & Dress

Members of Clan Colquhoun and all associated septs (such as Cowan, Calhoun, Kilpatrick, and McLintock) are fully entitled to wear the clan’s official heraldic dress.

• Clan Tartans: The primary tartans are the Colquhoun Tartan (a classic design of blue, green, and black with white and red accents) and the Colquhoun Dress Tartan (which features a white background ideal for formal wear).
• District Tartans: Due to the clan's historical and territorial ties to the ancient earldom of Lennox, sept members are also entitled to wear the Lennox District Tartan or the Caledonia District Tartan.
• Heraldic Display: Sept members may wear the clansman's crest badge, which features the chief's crest—the hart's head couped Gules, attired Argent—encircled by a strap and buckle inscribed with the historic motto, "Si Je Puis".