Hebridean tradition claims that this was a forced marriage, with the bride seized and the warriors of the Clan MacNicol attacked, with their vessels sunk by the MacLeods off the coast of the island.
By the end of the eighteenth century, the clan would become distinguished by the large number of clergymen within its roll call, present in parishes across the Western Isles and northern Scotland, and the ecclesiastical tradition appears to have been laid down by their Medieval ancestors.
Donald graduated from Edinburgh University in 1659 (as recorded in the Catalogue of students in the faculties of the arts, divinity and law), and it is possible that it was his experience in the south of Scotland that prompted him to Anglicise the clan name as 'Nicolson'.
'The Great Song of Scorrybreac', a Gaelic ballad composed in celebration of the marriage of Donald's son Malcolm to a daughter of MacLeod of Raasay records the affluence and splendour of the Nicolson household, and the success of the young men of the clan in 'wooing maidens' and 'winning wagers'.
The close association of the Nicolsons of Scorrybreac with Skye's leading Jacobite families, the MacDonalds of Sleat and the MacLeods of Rassay, makes it altogether credible to count Donald and Malcolm among the ranks of the Non-Jurors.