He was a good and prudent man, of a solid judgment and excellent temper.
He was slow in action, and on account of this weakness contrived to associate with him Lachlan Og MacLean, 1st Laird of Torloisk, a man full of spirit and activity.
He was appointed tutor to Sir John Maclean, 4th Baronet, and associated Torloisk with him in the management of the estates, and kept Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll from getting any solid footing in the estates of MacLean, till Argyle was glad to take Tiree in compensation for his whole claim.
He was member in parliament for the shire when James II of England was commissioner for Scotland, and though he was much caressed by James, who desired to reconcile Brolas to his celebrated measures for abrogating the penal statutes, but refusing to vote against what he believed to be his duty, he absented himself from parliament when those measures were being discussed.
[1] This article incorporates text from A history of the clan Mac Lean from its first settlement at Duard Castle, in the Isle of Mull, to the present period: including a genealogical account of some of the principal families together with their heraldry, legends, superstitions, etc, by John Patterson MacLean, a publication from 1889, now in the public domain in the United States.