He was the son of David Makeléer, the first governor of Älvsborg County in Sweden.[2] He studied in England.[3]
He married Vilhelmina Eleonora Coyet, who was 30 years younger than him, and they had at least four children:[4]
"Rutger Macklean". Svaneholm. Archived from the original on 17 August 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2009. Rutgers family name was Mackleir until 1783, one year after he had taken over Svaneholm Castle from his uncle Gustaf Adolf Coyet. His grandmother was a daughter of Rutger von Ascheberg, one of king Carl XI's kinsmen, who owned the Ström mansion. His father Rutger Mackleir was one of King Karl XII's warriors from Holofzin, Poltava and Tobolsk. His mother's name was Vilhelmina Eleonora Coyet. At this time the family name was Mackeleir, but when they were ennobled it was changed to Macklier. During the Anglo-Saxon pre-romantic era it was changed again, this time to Macklean. Earlier theories that the family first came from Scotland are false [sic]. Rutgers family name was Mackleir until 1783, one year after he had taken over Svaneholm Castle from his uncle Gustaf Adolf Coyet. ... Three years later, after the king was murdered, Rutgers brother Gustaf hid one of the murderers at his farm Brodda, nearby Svaneholm. It is not known if Rutger Macklean was involved in the conspiracy.
Horace Marryat (1862). One year in Sweden: including a visit to the Isle of Götland. Forty-third in lineal descent from Inghis tuir le Amhir, younger son of an Irish king, came Gilleon, who lived a hundred years before Christ. From him in unbroken genealogy is traced John Maclean (son of the Laird of Dowat), who came to Sweden in 1639 [sic], and, settling in Goteborg, greatly aided in the building of that town. Having rendered some service to the house of Stuart, he was created an English baronet by King Charles II in 1050, during his exile, and ennobled by Queen Christina under the name of Makeleer, with a grant of arms differing from those borne by his ancestors, neither of which were used by his descendants. Allusion has already been made to the noble conduct of his grandson Roger [sic], second Baron Maclean, who as a youth studied in England. In after life he became minister of state under Charles XIII; and although historians pretend the arm of that monarch to have been paralyzed by the frequent dubbing of knights, Roger [sic] Maclean never even received the Wasa order. Reformers seldom meet with gratitude while living, and Maclean did not fare better than his neighbors. In 1811 a band of several hundred drunken Skane peasants – the very men whose rights he was protecting — mobbed Svaneholm, and, threatening his life, demanded, with loud cries and menaces, that no division of his estate should take place. The baron, sitting calmly in his chair, replied, 'Plunder my barns, do what you will, I shall stick to my duty.' The insurgents carried off his servants by force to augment the band: among them was his old valet Jacob. Suddenly one of the party exclaimed, 'But, if we carry the valet off, how will the baron ever dress for dinner?' The argument was undeniable, and Jacob forthwith released. Baron Maclean dying childless in 1816, the weapon of Gilleon and of the Irish king were broken by the heralds over the grave of the last of their descendants in Sweden. An engraved portrait of Roger Maclean, after Lundberg, is not prepossessing
Bruce A. McAndrew (2006). Scotland's historic heraldry. ISBN1-84383-261-5. ... continued the line of baronets, his male descendants expiring in 1775, when the baronetcy passed to Baron Rutger ...
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