John in possession thereof as effeirs and continues to remanent points contained in the said summons in form, as they are now, unto the 20th day of July next to come, with continuation of days, and ordains that letters be written in form of commission to the Sheriff of Inverness and his deputies to summon witnesses and take probations thereupon and to summon the party to heir them sworn and thereafter send their depositions closed to the Lords again, the said day, under the said Sheriffs or his Deputy's seal, that thereafter justice may be ministered thereuntill." Whatever truth there may be in the accounts given by the family historians, Hector Roy was undoubtedly at this period possessed of considerable estates of his own; for, we find a "protocol," by John Vass, "Burges of Dygvayll, and Shireff in this pairt," by which he makes known that, by the command of his sovereign lord, letters and process was directed to him as Sheriff granting him to give Hector Mackenzie heritable state and possession "of all and syndri the landis off Gerloch with thar pertinens, after the forme and tenor off our souerane lordis chartyr maide to the forsaide Hector," lying between the waters called Inverew and Torridon. The letter is dated "At Alydyll (?Talladale) the xth of the moneth off December the zher off Gode ane thousande four hundreth nynte an four zheris." It is clear that Hector did not long continue under a cloud; for in 1508 the King directed a mandate to the Chamberlain of Ross requesting him to enter Hector Roy Mackenzie in the "males and proffitis of our landis of Braane and Moy, with ariage, cariage and vther pertinence thareof ... for his gude and thankfull service done and to be done to us ... and this on na wise ye leif vndone, as ye will incur our indignatioun and displesour. This our letrez ... efter the forme of our said vther letres past obefor, given vnder our signet at Edinburgh the fift day of Marche and of Regne the twenty yere. - (Signed) James R." In 1513 he received a charter under the great seal of the lands of Gairloch formerly granted him, with Glasletter and Coruguellen, with their pertinents. [The original charter; the "protocol" from John Vass; the mandate to the Chamberlain of Ross, for copies of which we are indebted to Sir Kenneth S. Mackenzie, Baronet, are in the Gaitloch Charter Chest, and the latter two will be found in extenso in the account of the Gairloch family later on.] Hector Roy's conduct towards John has been unfavourably criticised, but if it is kept in mind that no regular marriage ever took place between Kenneth a Bhlair and John's mother, Agnes of Lovat that their union was not recognised by the Church until 1491, if then, the same year in which Kenneth died it can easily be understood why Hector should conscientiously do what he probably held to be his duty-oppose John of Killin in the interest of those whom he considered the legitimate successors