Lachlan MacQuarrie, the last chief to live on the island, claimed that his clan had possesd Ulva since the 9th Century; and although the chiefs are not on public record until the mid-15th Century, they can produce a pedigree of sorts going back to the thirteenth. They even claim kinship with Saint Columba. General Lachlan MacQuarrie, the most famous member of the clan, was possibly born at Ormaig on the Mull side after his parents moved there from Ulva. After a military career, he became the first Governor of New South Wales and Australians still make pilgrimages to his mausoleum at Gruline on Mull. He was not the only MacQuarrie to lay down the plough for the sword.