This largely Highland name is said to derive from the Gaelic for son
of the judge. The brieve, or brehon, was a Celtic judge who was
trained in the oral customary law of the Celtic polity, and this office
was held in high esteem. The system is said to have broken down by its
becoming hereditary, thus placing great power in the hands of men whose
qualifications would necessarily be of an unequal nature and whose judgments
could not be seen to be free of bias. Eugenius Macbrahin is listed as
a student at the Univer-sity of St Andrews in 1525. Duncan and Archibald
Mcbrain were denounced as rebels in Argyllshire in 1685. Archibald Mcbrain,
who died in 1760, brought to the family the estates of Macnaghtan of
that Ilk and his son, Donald, quartered the Macbrayn lions with the
arms of Macnaghtan around 1773. The family continued to prosper and
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