Career
He was raised to the Jacobite Peerage of Scotland as Lord Maclean on 17 December 1716, a title to pass on his male heirs. He was the son of Sir John Maclean, 4th Baronet and Mary, daughter of Sir Aeneas Macpherson of Invereshie. He succeeded Sir John when he died in 1716.
In June 1745 he was in Edinburgh, and he was immediately arrested, together with his servant, on the charge of being in the French service and of enlisting men for lieutenant
He was sent to the Tower of London, where he remained until liberated by the Indemnity Acting of 1747.