He was raised to the Jacobite Peerage of Scotland as Lord Maclean on 17 December 1716, a title to pass on his male heirs.

His territories were said to include the small western isles of Eigg, Muck, Coll and Tiree.

[3] In December 1744, he sent a petition to Charles Edward Stuart on behalf of Jacobite intervention.

[3] Sir Hector had written that some 5,000 officers and men from nearby clans were loyal to the Stuart cause.

[3] In June 1745 he was in Edinburgh, and he was immediately arrested, together with his servant, on the charge of being in the French service and of enlisting men for it.