He was granted his Baronet title by Charles I and he became the Clan Chief on the death of his brother in 1626.

[3] From his rule onward, all Maclean clan chiefs are successive Baronets of Movern.

He was originally contacted by Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll at the beginning of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1644–1651), but he sided with the Royalists.

When coming home he and the brave Alasdair MacColla defeated a party of Argyle's consisting of seven hundred men at Laggan mor in Lorn, they having but about two hundred, the rest of their men being severed from them by the darkness of the preceding night.

Sometime after Sir David Leslie coming to the Island of Mull with a strong party of horse and foot obliged him to deliver eight Irish gentlemen, who sheltered themselves with him.