Thomas Maclellan 2nd Lord Kirkcudbright died in 1647, and was succeeded by John, 3rd Lord Lord Kirkcudbright, another ardent Covenanter, who and raised levies with which he joined the raid on Whigamore in 1648.
A zealous Royalist, John Maclellan insisted his vassals take up arms in the cause of the King, during the course of which from 1640 the villages of Dunrod and Galtway were ruined.
It was this Lord Kirkcudbright, who along with Major General James Holburn, was appointed as a deputation from the Committee of Estates to meet with Oliver Cromwell at Seaton and accompany him to Edinburgh.
Lord Kirkcudbright's regiment, which had been sent to Ireland, was on 6th December attacked by the English Parliamentary forces, nearly being cut to pieces.
Undaunted the Earl returned to his native town where he at once set about raising another regiment and returned to Ireland. Few, if any, of his servants were ever to return home.
The lands to which this Lord Kirkcudbright succeeded were extensive, but his loyalty in raising and furnishing forces during the civil war, for which he, like so many other royalists received no remuneration, impoverishing his estate.
"In 1663 we find him objecting to the introduction of a emirate to the church of Kirkcudbright, for which he was mulcted in fines which altogether ruined him".
John the 3rd Lord died in 1664 leaving his wife, Ann, daughter of Sir Robert Maxwell of Orchardton, and a son:
William, fourth Lord Kirkcudbright.
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