(Mac)Gibbon /Gibson

MacGibbon, along with Gibbon/Gibson, were among the names "sept-napped" by William Buchanan of Auchmar in the early 18th century when he invented a man called "Methlan Buchanan" to be the namefather of the MacMillans - who he claimed were really "MacMethlans". The progenitor of the MacGibbons was a son of Can or Cahan mac Dugald, a prominent Galloway noble who was a great-grandson of Gilchrist mac Gillemaol / Maolan, the real eponymous of the MacMillans. Gibbon fitz Kan appears on the record in the years 1298-1303 and was a contemporary of the first "McMillan" as such to be documented in Galloway (Gylebricht McMalene who was a baron in the Glenkens until deprived by Robert the Bruce in about 1308-12). Though there were not many McGibbons to be found in Galloway, one Donaldum Gibbonesoun does appear in 1486 when he was fined along with the then McMillan chieftain, Johannem Macmwlane, for obstructing the Chamberlain of Galloway in the collection of the royal rents.

The most prominent of Gibbon mac Cahan's descendants to bear his name were lairds in Cowal alongside a kindred who were called MacChannanich after Gibbon's father. The seat of these MacGibbons was in Glendaruel at a place called Auchnagarron (OS Landranger 55, 006824), and it was held of the crown in 1508 by Dungall Gibbonsoun (i.e. Dugald MacGibbon). Though the feudal superiority of this estate was granted to the Campbells in 1513 - like most of the lands in Argyll held by the MacMillans and their septs - the old lairds remained in actual possession; and amongst those subsequently recorded are Duncan M'Gybbon of Auchnegarryn in 1525, and Jo. M'Gibbon de Auchingarane in 1588. Duncan MacGibbon of Achnagarn/Achingarren was Commissioner for Supply in Argyll and Surveyor of His Majesty's Customs at Glasgow in the middle of the 18th century, and is probably the "Baron McGibbon" who sold Ormidale in 1728, and Lephinkill, with some other lands, in 1740. [Archibald Brown, History of Cowal, 83, 85, 93, 162]

The fate of Baron McGibbon's descendants is presently unknown, and it's probable that some of them changed their name to Campbell - because that was the surname of their feudal superiors - whilst others went along with the claims of Auchmar and adopted his surname. The existence of a township called Balgibbon on the Leny estates near Callander - again alongside a kindred named for Can/Cahan (in this case generally being recorded as "MacCanes") - and of an Arngibbon to the south of Arnprior in Menteith, shows that Gibbon mac Can's descendants were not confined to Argyll. Some of these MacGibbons appear to have acknowledged the chiefship of the Grahams, who as the Earls of Menteith were at onetime the feudal superiors of the Lennies and their successors the Buchanans of Leny for some of their estates in Perthshire and Stirlingshire.