Such was the power of the feudal liege lords that the Clan was threatened with mass eviction from its lands on more than one occasion. There is some evidence that the Earl of Huntly had thoughts of this when he recovered his estates from Argyll after the Restoration in 1660. In 1682 there were negotiations with the Marquis of Athole which might have resulted in the entire Clan being forced to move to the Baronies of Comrie and Glenlyon in Perthshire. Fortunately, nothing came of it.

      A more serious crisis occurred in 1723 when there had been a foolish attempt on the life of John Gordon of Glenbucket, the Duke of Gordon's Chamberlain for Badenoch. As a result the Duke threatened to march a private army into Badenoch and drive the Macphersons out by force. Again, fortunately, the exiled King James, the 'Auld Pretender', intervened on behalf of Clan Macpherson but not before negotiations were opened with the Mackintosh. In the following year these negotiations resulted in Cluny being forced to acknowledge the Mackintosh claim to the chiefship of the Clan Chattan. Although this was achieved under the duress of the Duke of Gordon's threat it was softened by the transfer of the estate of Lochlaggan to Cluny.

      Although we are getting ahead of our story it is interesting to appreciate some of the ill-will our ancestors faced from their Government. In 1755, actual extermination was advocated by James Wolfe, the general who defeated Montcalm at the Battle of Quebec four years later and gained Canada for the British crown. Referring to Ewan Macpherson of Cluny who was eluding capture by Wolfe's men at the time while serving the interests of Bonnie Prince Charlie in France, Wolfe stated, "Mr McPherson should have a couple of hundred men in his neighbourhood with orders to massacre the whole clan if they show the least symptom of rebellion; they are a warlike tribe and he is a cunning resolute fellow himself. They should be narrowly watched . . . . They are a people better governed by fear than favour."