1960 - Scotch Surnames

7/29/2019 1960 - Scotch Surnames

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Brigham Young University

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Concerning some Scotch Surnames.


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CONCERNING '^l^,


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PROVO. UTAH


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TO

JAMES MONCREIFF, ESQ., M.P.,Lord Advocate of Scotland^ and Dean of the Faculty of

Advocates.

My Dear Lord Advocate^This trifle nvas written at your desire,

and you did me the honour to read it to an assembly of ScotchNotables at " Ulbster Hall,' ivhen I nvas myself unable toattend.

Having thus stood godfather to the young stranger, youwill not object to your gossip sending it into the ivorld underthe protection of your name. If my production is a fault, Ihave at least the poor Frenchwoman s excuse, that it is a verylittle one.

I have the honour to be,

Very faithfully yours,

C. L


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Concerning

Some Scotch Surnames,

OW that we all have Surnames, we are^^ ^ apt to forget that it was not always so.

^ggggjggg^ We cannot easily realise the time whenJohn, Thomas and Andrew, Mary and Abigail, wereeach satisfied with a single name, nor reflect thatthe use of two is not a refinement dating from anobscure and unknown antiquity, but quite withinthe reach of record and history.

The Normans are thought to have been the firstto introduce the practice of fixed surnames amongus ; and certainly a little while before the Conquest,some of those adventurers had taken family namesfrom their chateaux in Normandy. " Neither isthere any village in Normandy," says Camden, "that

Family Namesill general.


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Used in FranceA. D. looo ; inEngland, a.d.1060; here, C.1 100.

gave not denomination to some family in England."But that these Norman surnames had not been oflong standing is very certain, for at the Conquestit was only 1 60 years since the first band of North-men rowed up the Seine, under their leader Hrolf,whom our history books honour with the theatricalname of Rollo, but who was known among his peopleas " Hrolf the Ganger."

But whether in imitation of the Norman lords,or from the great convenience of the distinction, theuse of fixed surnames arose in France about theyear 1000, came into England sixty years later, orwith the Norman Conquest, and reached us in Scot-land, speaking roundly, about the year 1 1 00.

The first examples of fixed surnames in anynumber in England, are to be found in the Con-queror's Valuation Book called Domesday. " Yetin England," again to quote the judicious MasterCamden, " certain it is, that as the better sort, evenfrom the Conquest, by little and little took surnames,so they were not settled among the common peoplefully until about the time of Edward the Second."

We had our share of those dashing Normanadventurers who introduced among us the customsof chivalry and the surnames they had adopted


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When Introduced.from their paternal castles across the Channel.They made a rage for knighthood in both endsof our island, and turned the ladies' heads. AnEnglish princess declined to marry a suitor who"had not two names ;"* and here in Scotland theybecame the favourites and companions of our sove-reigns ; witness the courtiers who surrounded DavidI. and his grand -sons, whose names Briis, andBalliol, De Morevil, De UmpJiravil, De Berkelai, DeQuinci, De Vipont, De Vaux, and a hundred othersstill thrill on our tongues, and bring up stories ofknightly feats of arms, of the battle-field, and thetilting-ground.

On the Continent, especially in France, thisstyle of surname, showing its territorial originespecially where marked by the De, so much valued

TerritorialSur-names.

* Henry I. wished to marry his natural son Robert to Mabel,one of the heiresses of FItz-Hamon. The lady demurred,

" It were to me a great shameTo have a lord withouten his twa name."

Robert of Gloster." Whereupon," says Camden, " the King, his father, gave him thename of Fitzroy, who after was Earl of Glocester, and the onlyworthy of his age in England." Our Countess of Carrick, who laidviolent hands on Sir Robert de Bruce, and married him, must havebeen of the same mind with Mabel Fitz-Hamon.


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Scotch Surnames.

TheirErafixed.

I

by our neighbours is considered as almost theabsolute test oi gentry ; and many a pretty French-woman has given herself and her fortune in exchangefor little more than the empty sound of the aristo-cratic prefix. With us it has never been so ; andour difference is not merely of language. We havenever recognized the principle of raising these terri-torial names into an aristocracy of gentrytop cream of society. We have no higher names inEnglandnot even De Vere, Clifford, or Nevilthan our Spensers, Fitzgeralds, Stuarts, Butlers,names which cannot have a territorial origin.

The era of fixed surnames does not rest onlyon the authority of Camden. It can be proved by athousand records, English and Scotch. It seems tome it is almost sufficiently proved, when we canshow the race of Stuartalready first of Scotchfamilies in opulence and powerdistinguished byno surnames for several generations after the Nor-man conquest.* Much later, the ancestors of theprincely line of Hamilton were known as Walter

* Alanus dapifer, whom we now know (thanks to GeorgeChalmers) to have been a son of the great Norman family of Fitz-Alan, was content to distinguish himself in Scotland by the additionof his office alone. His son styled himself Walter Fitz-Alan, andWalter's son was called Alan Fitz- Walter, with the addition of


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Whence Derived. 5Fitz-Gilbert, and Gilbert Fitz-Walter, before it oc-curred to them to assume the name their kinsmenhad borne in England. But you must allow mehere, and for the present, to rest it on my mere as-sertion, that surnames were first used among us inthe twelfth century, and came into general use inthe following one. It disposes of a host of fablesin which our forefathers delighted, and some ofwhich were not unworthy of the first decade of Livy.

And so much for the Time.As to the derivation of surnames, I beg you to

remember, that places were named before families.You have only to examine any of those names whichserve for lands and also for persons, to see thisplainly. If you found the name of CriiicksJianks, orPrettyinan, Black-viaiitle, or Great-head, you wouldnot hesitate. These are evidently coined for persons,

Lands namedbefore Persons.

SenescaUus ScotiaSteivardStuartfrom their hereditary office,which soon became the fixed surname of their descendants.

In like manner, when they complied with the fashion of armorialbearings, which was not till two generations after their settlement inScotland, they adopted the fess chequee (the checquer^ used for com-puting, before the introduction of Arabic numerals), in allusion totheir office at the Exchequer table.


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Scotch Surnames.

Some Fablesdisposed of.

and you find no such names of land, or for thedouble purpose. But then you can have as littledoubt that names like Church-hill, Green-hill, Hazel-wood, Sandilands, were first given to places ; andwhen you find them borne both by lands and persons,you will conclude the persons took them from the terri-tories. In general, then, when a place and a familyhave the same name, it is the place that gives nameto the people, not the family to the place. This rule,which will not be disputed by any one who hasbestowed some study or thought on the subject, hasvery few exceptions. I may point out some of theseafterwards. In the meantime, this enables you tobanish, without hesitation, another class of fables, theinvention of a set of bungling genealogists, who, bya process like that which heralds call cafitittgcatching at a soundpretend that the Douglaseshad their name from a Gaelic word, said to mean adark grey man, but which never could be descriptiveof a man at allThat the Forbeses were at firstcalled For beast, because they killed a great bearThat Dalyellxs from a Gaelic word, meaning, " I dare"That the Guthries were so called from the homelyorigin of gutting three haddocks for King Davidthe Second's entertainment, when he landed very


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hungry on the Brae of Bervie from his French voy-age * These clumsy inventions of a late age, if theywere really meant to be seriously credited, disap-pear when we find from record that there were veryancient territories, and even parishes, of Douglas,Forbes, Dalyell, and Guthrie, long before the namescame into use as family surnames. i*

* In honour of the loyal hospitality of his entertainer, the mon-arch became poetical, and pronounced

" Gut threeThy name shall be!"J-j- Hector Boece is answerable for many of these fables. It is ht

who invented the Forbes etymology and the story of the bear. ItLs he who brought the homo agrestis with his two sons and theirplough-yokes to stay the rout at Luncarty, and gave them the nameof Hay, a century or two before our great nobles had surnames.Later authors, with whom goes honest Nisbet, take a bit of Hector'sfable and add a circumstance :The old countiyman, after the battleof Luncarty, lying on the ground, wounded and fatigued, criedHay I Hay ! " which word became a surname to his posterity."

The old fabler is careful to hang his narratives on popular pegsand be sure, whenever he makes some prodigious assertion, hequotes " the annals " ostentatiously. Thus, when his visionaryDane King Camus is to be disposed of, he provides him an honour-able burial, with the sculptured stones of Aberlemno for a monu-ment. To that local association, he adds the personal one of theorigin of one of our most distinguished families. He makes thehero of the field, a gallant youth named Keth, egregius adolescensKeth nomine, ut ab annalibus traditur ; and he then and


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SurnajiiesfromNormandy.

But passing from these vulgar fables, it cannot bedoubted that the great majority of our gentle namesare territorial and local. Of those now extant onlya few are the surnames imported from Normandy.The names of Bruce and Barclay, Lindsay andSinclair, indeed, if not so great as they once were,still mark houses of ancestral nobility. But howmany have gone down the stream and left notrace ! Take the single district of the Border.The De Vescis, the De Morevils, the De Viponts,De Normanvils, the Avoids, the Randolphsgreater than all, the De Balliols, are names nowunknown, even in the traditions of Tweedside,where their forefathers ruled as princes. I fear it isagainst Mr. Aytoun's theory of the high antiquity of

there bestows on him the lands in Lothian, which did, in truth, somecenturies later, give name to the family of Keith Marischal. In thesame way he plays with the name of Scrimgenur; and invents a fancypedigree for the Stuarts. The story of Graimus (the ancestor of theGrahains) breaking through the Roman wall, he gives on the autho-rity of his great ally Veremund UTi Veremundus prodidit.It is the same with places and whole countries, as Buchan, where hedeals in Gaelic etymonsRoss, which he derives from certain Irishsoldiers called Rosii, who helped to resist the RomansCaithness,from Cathus, insignis populi dux of the same ageall without foun-dation in chronicle or tradition, and contrary to probability andreason.


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From Scotch Places.our extant ballads, that these names are not foundin them. Only the De Suits s have had the fortune ofbeing sung in Border minstrelsy, where they are notrepresented amiably, being of the unpopular, indeed,unpatriotic faction. The other names have either dis-appeared, or have suffered a change of a curious kind.The grand old Norman name of De Vesci is nowVeitch. De Vere, once still greater, is with us Weir.De Montealto has come through several steps, till ithas rested in the respectable but not illustriousnamt of Mowat. De Monte-fixo is Musc/ict. DeVallibusDe VauxDe Vausby the simpleblunder of taming a letter upside down, has assumedthe shape of Vans ; while De Belassize, carrying usback to the times of the Crusades, has in our homelymouths degenerated into the less euphonious nameof Belsches.

It would seem as if the surnames taken fromplaces at home were of a hardier growth than thoseNorman appellations which tried a Scotchman'stongue. Our own local names have changed lessindeed hardly at allfrom the places that gavethem birth. The Morays, Crawfurds, and Cujining-hames, the Dtinbars, Homes, and Dimdases, theWemysss and Moncrieffs, can still point, without

Scotch LocalNames.


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lO Scotch Surnames,

Habitats ofNames.

hesitation, to the castles or lordships from whencethey had their surnames*

It would be useful, but beyond my present pur-pose, to give the localities of our more noted names.You must not hope to find them confined to thedistrict where they took their birth. The Campbells,to be sure, who first settled in Argyll, still predomi-nate there; but a name almost as great, that ofGordon, has left no trace in their native Merse,while they have colonized the northern shire ofAberdeen, rising upon the ruins of the ancient raceof StratJibolgy. The De Moravias {Murrays), atone time the great lords of Moray, have scatteredinto Sutherland and Perthshire, and left no landedman of their name in the province where they onceruled ; and so with many others. The Suiclairs arestill in Caithness, their ancient Earldom ; the Rossesin the county which gave them their name ; but theBurnetts and Irvines on Dee-side, the Erasers in theAird, and the Chisholmes, their neighbours, all trans-planted from the south, have thriven more vigorouslyin their beautiful northern glens. Scott has givenus a rhyme that assigns wide bounds for the Kenne-

* See some lists of territorial surnames of Scotch families in theAppendix.


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Not Stationary. 1

dies,^ who, I think, were at first bailies of the greatEarls of Carrie. The Grahams of the DebateableLand, the Annandale Johnstons, the Elliots andArmstrongs on the East Marches, the Scotts, andthe Kerrs, have only changed their peel towers offence into palaces, and cultivate the valleys wheretheir moss-trooping fathers lived on

** the good old planThat they should take that have the power.And they should keep who can."

I am not sure but the middle and lower classesof the agricultural population are more stationary inor about their hereditary settlements than the lordsof the soil ; but we have not so good means oftesting the permanency of their names, f

Though the majority of our ancient family namesare territorial, we have many large classes of excep-

* Scott's memory had played him somewhat false. The distichin the earliest shape we have it, and which was undoubtedly hisoriginal, runs

'Twixt Wigtoune and the town of Aire,And laigh down by the cruives of Cree ;You shall not get a lodging there.Except ye court wi' Kennedy.

f A list of all the parishioners of the parish of Leochel on Don-side, who voted in the election of a parish clerk in 1524, is presei-ved.The minister finds all their names still in the parish in i860, except-ing one or two only. Teste Jos. Robertson.


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12 Scotch Surnames.

Scotch Burgh ofthe thirteenthcentury.

tions, and the origin of most of them is not doubtful.I have said that surnames came into pretty generaluse among us in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.I wish you would turn back with me through the fewintervening centuries, and fancy yourselves dwellingin a Scotch town in the time of King William theLion, or his son Alexander II. The place to whichyou will be pleased to bear me company is a littleburgh by the sea-shore, and where a river's mouthgives shelter to a few rude fishing boats, and oneor two barks of larger size, whose decks and tallermasts shew them to be seagoing craft, native busses,or farcosts of Bruges or Antwerp, unloading wineand fine cloths, and waiting for a return cargo ofScotch wool and hides, with some barrels of salmon.Our fancy burgh consists but of one straggling street,leading from the little haven up to the ditch anddrawbridge of a turreted castle, which the King hasbuilt for the protection of his burgesses, whom hegreatly cherishes. The houses of the burghers arelow, but built of stone, with tall gables to the street,thatched and warm.

Half way up the street, and with a little spacearound it, stands the small squat church which hasbeen lately built, of stone, after the new fashion.


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Burgh of the Middle Ages. 1Not far from the church is the town hall, where theburghers meet to take counsel ; the cross, for royaland burghal solemnities ; the tron, or weigh-house ;the tolbooth, where toll and custom dues are taken;the jail and stocks, for repressing the contumaciousrather than for punishment, which was summary.Beside the river stand mills of more than one kind,some for corn, others for dressing cloth and skins,driven by the stream by means of a simple ma-chinery.

Well, we must not pause longer upon the build-ings. Who dwell in this little Scotch " Fair-portof the thirteenth century? I don't ask their pedi-gree. It is mixed enough ; but all show the stalwartlimbs, fair complexion, open countenance of thenorthern peoples. There are Scots and Picts, Britonsand Saxons, Angles and Danes, now mixed together,and rapidly adopting a common tongue, which is oneday to speak good sense, not without some music, overhalf the world. What are they doing, these burghers ?Much to the same purpose as their descendants ofour times. They plough, and sow, and reap, andbake, and brew. They spin, with rock and distaff,it is true, not with the spinning-jenny, and weave,and stitch their coarse cloth into coarse clothes.


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14 Scotch Surnames.

Inhabitants,how named.

They buy and sell, too, though in a small way. De-pend upon it, they love and hate, and marry, andfight, and die and are buried, just like ourselves.

Now, in all these acts and events of their littlelives, how are our burghers distinguished from eachother ? Remember, at the time of our visit, fixedsurnames^what we call family namesdo not yetexist. Each man and woman has only the namegiven at baptism, and these are not numerous enoughto serve the purpose of a growing society. Theapostles' and New Testament names, and those ofthe favourite personages of the Old, are soon ex-hausted. The known saints and martyrs of theChurch come to an end too. The men of the northhave a hankering after their old heathenism, andhave named their boys and girls after the heroesand heroic ladies of their mythology. Still, popula-tion and transactions increase rapidly ; and num-bers bearing the names of John and James, Andrewand Thomas, Thor, Oggu, and Leysing, Orm, Grim,and Grimketil^jostle each other most inconveniently,and compel the adoption of a remedy. What is it tobe? The territorial fashion of the Norman and Saxonlords, who form the rural gentry around them, doesnot suit them, for they have not much concern with


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From Personal dualities. 15landat least not as proprietors. But numerousmethods offer, when the necessity of the thing be-comes manifest

Among the foremost of our townsmen are for-eigners or travelled Scots. These take the namesof English, now written Inglis, Fleming, French,Welsh (an epithet which is recognized in its Latinshape of Wallensis, and gives rise to the illustriousname of Wallace). Some bear the surname of Ire-land, and even of Cornwall. Oddly, some of ourpeople who have wandered into England, returnamong us bearing the name of Scott, which hadbeen given them there. Most of these are moss-troopers on the Border, not addicted to letters ; butone has already gone beyond his age in science, andearned the reputation of a warlock. In after yearsthey are to produce a greater wizard.*

Next, there is the distinction of sizeJohn Mickle,and John Little, or John Small; More and Beg inGaelic, but I presume only personal appellations, notfamily names, till some Highlander so distinguishedfor personal qualities came to settle among the sur-

* Michael Scott, the wizard of Bahvearie, was knighted by-Alexander III. five hundred years and more before the Lay of theLast Minstrel was published.

From Country.

Personal Quali-tiessize.


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i6 Scotch Surnames.

Colours.

named Saxons, and left his name to descendants notall of his own stature. Need I tell you that we havestill Micklejohns of the size of ordinary mortals ; andthat Littlejohn, who once hunted with Robin Hoodin Sherwood Forest, now bakes excellent pies inLeith Street. A Northman who was the first colo-nizer of Ednam in the Merse, was named Thor.His seal, to be seen in Mr. H. Laing's shop, repre-sents Thor himself seated, with his good sword onhis knees, and, lest the likeness should be doubted,the legend around is Thor me mittit amico. Butanother Thor had the lands of Tranent in this shire.So to distinguish himself, the Merse man calls him-selfeven in charters and most formal writsThorLongus,Thor the Lo7tg. The Longs were goodmen in England, as you may read in Clarendon, butnot better than the Langs and Laings of Scotland.

Then we have the coloursthe families of Blacksand Blackies, Whites, and Whytocks {Dow or Dtiffand Bam, in Gaelic), Greys, Browns, Reds {Reids,Ruddimans), Greens. Blue is rare, and no manchooses to be yellow.

Stark, and Stout, and Strong, and Strang,* and* The Strangs of Balcaskie, in Fife, had sent an offshoot into

Orkney, which produced our first Scotch engraver. He thought fitto do his name into English, and became Sir Robert Strange.


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From Personal ^alities. 17yolly, tell their own history, and we have no diffi-culty in understanding how they become hereditary.Some names expressing disagreeable qualities aremore difficult to understand, since at the period ofassuming fixed surnames, the individual ought tohave had a vote in applying his own appellation *

* Our east coast fisher-towns are dependent upon to-names(agnomina) for distinguishing individuals. A very curious paper inBlackwood's Magazine (March 1 842 why are there no suchpapers now ?) among other peculiarities of the " Fisher folk," givesthe following :

" The fishers are generally in want of surnames . . . Thereare seldom more than two or three surnames in a fish-town. Thereare twenty-five George Cowies in Buckie [Cowie is the name of anancient fishing-village]. The grocers in 'booking' their fishercustomers, invariably insert the nick-name or tee-nzmty and, in thecase of married men, write down the wife's along with the husband'sname. Unmarried debtors have the names of their parents insertedwith their own. In the town-register of Peterhead these signaturesoccur :Elizabeth Taylor, spouse to John Thomson, SouplesAgnes Farquhar, spouse to W. Findlater, Stouttie.

. . . . " It is amusing enough to turn over the leaves of agrocer's ledger and see the tee-na.mes as they come up : Buckie,Beauty, Bam, BiggeJugs, Collop, Helldom, the King, the Pro'vost,Rochie, Stoattie, Sillerton, the Smack, Snipe, Snuffers, Toothie, Tod-lonvrie. Ladies are occasionally found who are gallantly and exqui-sitely called the Cutter, the Bear, etc. Among the twenty-fiveGeorge Cowies in Buckie there are George Cowie, doodle, GeorgeCowie, carrot, and George Cowie, neep.

** A stranger had occasion to call on a fisherman in one of the

Fisher to-fiatnes.


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1 Scotch Surnames.

The first Wiseman must have stood as high inhis own esteem as his eminent namesake of West-minster. Goodman and Goodall (perhaps Good-ale)are also self-complacent names.

I do not find our ancestors named after the SaintsBuchan fishing-villages of the name of Alexander White. Meetinga girl, he asked

" Could you tell me fa'r Sanny Fite lives ?" Filk Sanny Fite?"" Muckle Sanny Fite,"" Filk muckle Sanny Fite ?"" Muckle lang Sanny Fite."" Filk muckle lang Sanny Fite."" Muckle lang gleyed Sanny Fite"shouted the stranger." Oh! it's * Goup-the-Lift'' ye're seeking," cried the girl, "and

fat the deevil for, dinna ye speer for the man by his richt name atance ?

Mr. Forbes Irvine, who directed my attention to this very curiouspaper, has also supplied the follovsring note from the records ofJusticiary. At the Spring Circuit, Aberdeen, in 1844, John Geddes,alias " Jock Jack," was indicted for assaulting John Cowie, ** Punt"

The locus delicti was near the villages of Port-Gordon andBuckie, on the Banffshire coast.

Some of the witnesses wereMargaret Cowie, "Pum" (daughter of the person assaulted).John Reid " Joccles."James Green, " Rovie."John Geddes, " Jack son."Alexander Geddes, " Duke."John Reid, " Dey"all described as fishermen.


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Patronymics, 19

of their birth-days (as in France), but many havenames from the season of birth, as Spring, Summer,Winter, Yule,

Another class of distinctive names is the patro-nymic. Of two Johns one is the Son of John, theother of Thomas, the one becomes John jfo/inson,the other John Thomason or Thomson, For a timethey fluctuate. Alan the son of Walter had a sonWalter, who called himself Walter Alanson, just as, Ibeheve, they do in Shetland to this day.* But gra-dually the race find it convenient to take a fixedsurname from one well-known ancestor. This pro-cess gives rise to a large class of surnames, and nodoubt very ancient, though the manner of it de-stroys the proof of sameness of lineage arising fromidentity of name, as it is evident several Johnsand Thomases might give rise to different familiesbearing the same name. The Norman fashion wasto place Fitz (or filius) before the ancestral name, and

* I am informed by Lord Neaves, who was formerly Sheriff ofShetland, that within a few years patronymics were very commonin those islands, and varied every generation. Thus he used to seeproduced in the Registration Court titles in favour of Magnus John-son, whose father was called John Magnus' son (the original ofManson), and so alternately for many descents. The women inthose families were known only as Mary, John's daughter, etc.

Patronymics.

A tfirstfluctu-ating.

Fitz = son.


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20 Scotch Surnames.

some great families in England and Ireland retainthis form, which is also approved for the name of thehero in sentimental novels. But with us, the Normanfashions, like the French language, were of short pre-valence. We preferred indicating the descent by themark of the genitive case, or the affix of the word Sofi.Thus, Adamson, Adams, Adie, all mean the same.Anderson is the same as Andrews. Richardson,Richards, Dickson, Dickenson, Dick, Dickens, Dickie,are different ways of expressing the descendants ofRichard, whom his friends called affectionatelyDick.* So Johnson, Jones, Jack, Jackson. SoDavidson, and Davy; Rodgers, and Hodges, andHodson ; Sim, and Simson, and so through the wholecatalogue of names formed upon this principle, which

* It is curious how many of these patronymics are derived fromaffectionate diminutives as Dickson, Wilson, Watson, Robson,Jackson, Tomson. Is it connected with the practice which, were itnot so common, would seem affected, of writing the Christian namesin diminutive shape, even in deeds and papers of importance, whichwas in use chiefly I think about the time when such writings beganto be drawn in the vernacular ? Wyntoun speaks of " Schir Davyde Lindesay," and of " oure kyng Dawy," but that was perhaps thereceived shape of the name in our speech. So perhaps we must notjudge of the common fashion from the familiar nicknames given inour old family histories, as Wylie Wat, and Christell for Christopher,but we cannot, in such a matter, refuse the authority of the records


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(

Celtic Patronymics. 2

are very numerous. Other patronymics are not soobvious in their origin. Pray notice, Lawson is notthe son of law, or of the lawyer, but of Lawrence, justas the son of Magnus in our northern isles becomesManson. Laurie is another shape of Laurenceson,Kennedy of Kennethson or M'Kenzie.

Of this family, though of later origin, are theHighland patronymicsthose which marked descentby the prefix Mac, expressing son, which continuedfluctuating much longer than the Sons of the low-lands, and most of which were only fixed into un-changing surnames in the last century. It is under-stood, I believe, that they assert the descent fromsome heroic or famous ancestora plain advantageover the unpretending Sons of Tom, Dick, and Jenkin.The O of the Irish, literally grandson, and the Apof the Welsh, in like manner, express abstractlydescent.

of Parliament, which give us {temp. Jac. III.) " Robin Balmanno,"" Sanders Chalmers," etc. ; and, in the same reign, we have a pro-cess of treason against the Homes and other followers of AlexanderDuke of Albany, where the persons indicted under the names" Symonem Salman," and so forth, are cited by their ordinary re-cognized names of Sym Salmon, Will of Leirmont, Pait Diksone" the laird," Dik of Rowlis, Dik of Ethingtonison, Ringan ofWranghanie, etc.


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22 Scotch Surnames.

Change to FixedSurnames.Irish.

Welsh.

In 1465, an Act of the Parliament of Irelandordained " that every Irishman dwelling betwixt oramong Englishmen, in the counties of Dublin, Myeth,Uriel, and Kildare, should go like to one Englishmanin apparel, and shaving of his beard above the mouth,should swear allegiance, and should take to him anEnglish surname of a town, as Sutton, Chester,Trym, Skryne, Corke, Kinsale ; or colour, as White,Blacke ; or arte or science, as Smith or Carpenter; oroffice, as Cooke or Butler, and that he and his issueshould use the same."

As to a similar change in Wales, I will takeleave to quote Master Camden once more. " In lateyears, in the time of King Henry VIIL, an ancientworshipful gentleman of Wales being called at thepannell of a jury by the name of Thomas Ap Wil-liam Ap Thomas Ap Richard Ap Hoel Ap EvanVaghan, etc., was advised by the judge to leave thatold manner ; whereupon he afterwards called himselfMoston, according to the name of his principal house,and left that surname to his posteritie." That wasthe exception, however; and a more common practiceamong Welsh families is to take one of their manyancestral names, with a prefix of Ap. The Ap issometimes absorbed oddly into the ancestral name


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Highland and Island 'Tribes. 23

thus Ap Rice becomes Price ; Ap Richard, Prit-chard ; Ap Owen, Bowen ; Ap Hugh, Pugh.Though our Highlanders in their names gene-rally put forward descent of the clan from someheroic or even mythical personage, some tribes havea different manner of surname. The M'Nads (sonsof the abbot) seem to have their ancient name asrepresenting the old Abbots of Strathfillan or Glen-dochart, who had become secularized, and appropri-ated the lands which belonged to the monastery.Some such descent may be expressed in the nameof M'Phersoii, which means the sons of the parson,M' Vicar, and other clerical surnames, as well as inM'Intosh, the sons of the chief, and others ; whilesome of the greatest septs, not content with thename recognized among Celts, have another by whichthey pass in the outer world, as Cameron, Eraser,Campbell.

I must leave to more competent hands thecurious subject of our Highland and Island sur-names, and the endless variety of shapes they assume.I would submit only one or two observations :

I. The greatest clans were not the earliest toassume uniform fixed surnames, instead of fluctuat-ing patronymics. The Macdonalds and others had

Highland.


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24 Scotch Surnames.

Adoption ofChiefs Name.

no recognized general surname till almost within thelast century. The earliest fixed Macs I have metwith in record and charter are M'Gilleane (M'Lean),M'Leod, M'Intosh, M'Neill, Mackenzie, M'Dowal,M'Nachtan.

2. Where the settlement of a powerful southernfamily within the Highland border is followed bythe sudden spread of their name through the neigh-bouring glens, we may presumenot that the formerinhabitants were extirpated, but that the nativepopulation (having in truth no surnames) readilyadopted that of their new lords. Even after sur-names had become common in the Highlands, wefind the adoption taking place by written compactI have seen petitions of some small clans of theBraes of Angus, to be allowed to take the name ofLyon, and to be counted clansmen of the Strath-mores, Many families and small tribes of Breadal-bane in the sixteenth century renounced their naturalheads, and took Glenurchy for their chief. Manymore, in Argyll and the Isles, must have suffered achange from awe of Maccallummore. The Gordonsare hardly settled in the "aucht and forty dauch"of Strathbolgy when the whole country round is fullof men calling themselves Gordon.


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From Callings.But this is digression ; and I must pray you

once more to return to our thriving Scotch burgh ofthe thirteenth century.

The church, with its establishment, has originatedseveral of our names. Men merely dwelling thereare called at Church or of Kirkshortening, by thecommon process, into the surnames of Church andKirk. Clerks, so called from their learning, howeverthey spell their name, are not necessarily in orders,and will leave honourable families descended ofthem. Bishop and Parsoji, Friar and Monk, aresurnames, perhaps marking patronage. Proctor is achurch officer. JoreDewarDeiichar, is curiouslyconnected with the custody of relics. In the choirare Singers, Sangsters (shortened into Sang). Ofthis class I suppose is the name of St. Michael,Michel, Mitchell, and, of it too, perhaps of theCeltic section of the inhabitants, are men who takethe fine names of Gillies (servant of Jesus), and Gil-christ (Christ's servant) Gilmichael, Gilmory, or Gil-mour (servants of St. Michael and Mary), Gillecalumand Malcolm (servant of Columba), as well as Gilles-cop and Gillespie (the Bishop's servant).

The medical profession is represented already.John Barber not only trims the beard but breathes

NamesfromCalling.Church.

Medicine.


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26 Scotch Surnames.

Trades.

a vein, draws a tooth, and performs other surgicaloffices. His descendant, bearing his name, is to singthe glorious career of Brucethe Scotch Odyssey.Another practitioner (I suppose he would now becalled physician), is the Leech. He holds landsand gives service as Mediciis Regis, the King's Leech,and the surname of him and his family has becomefixed as Leech; kindred to which is probably thename of Leechman.

The Merchant Guild has many members. Theyare in truth the capitalists of our burgh, and , havefixed surnames known on the High Street, " wheremerchants most do congregate." Among these areMerchant, Mercer (sometimes Messer), Monypenny,Chapman, Cheape, Seller, Scales, Clinkscales.

Down at the Mills by the river side there is abusy population. John of the Mill has become JohnMill, Another has taken the name of Miller,The unpopular office of gathering in the multures ormill dues gives the name of Multerer, afterwards tobecome Mutter, Walkers are not named from theirpedestrian feats, but from the walking or fulling millwhere cloth is dressed, which affords the good nameof Fuller also. The sturdy burgher who put thesalmon into barrel for exportation, and also barrels


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From Callings, 27our good home-brewed ale, is known as WilliamCooper. His man who hoops the barrels is JohnGirdwood. The English call him Hooper. Theofficer who stamps the barrels (and I would have youknow that the "brand of Aberdeen" passed currentthrough Europe in the fifteenth century), is namedthe Brander. Some of his descendants are peopleof good account round Elgin at the present day.He is sometimes known as John Brand " for short-ness ;" and we have a respectable colony descendedfrom him, and using that surname, on the coast ofForfarshire.

Beside these worthies in the cooperage is anotherimportant trade, that of curing and dressing theskins of our cattle. Here we have people bearingwith good right the names of Barker, Tanner, Currier(sometimes shortened into Ctirry), and Skinner.

You will not doubt that there are, in our thriv-ing community, several Butchers, whose name isgenerally written as well as spoken, BiitchardBakers in plenty, whom we call Baxters; makersof ale of both sexes, who think their Scotch nameof Brewster quite as good as the southern Brewershoemakers and weavers, in the vernacular, Stitersand Websters. The dyer is with us a Litster. The


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28 Scotch Surnames.

Smith.

Southrons have borrowed the name (making it Lister)without knowing its meaning. We have in our village,Cooks, Kitchens and Kitcheners, Tailors] Turners,Saddlers, Lorimers {i.e., bridle makers), Glovers. Ofworkers in wood we have Wrights (whom the Englishcall Carpejiter), Cart-wrights, Sievewrights, Joiners,Sawers. The old trade-name of Glasenwright is todie out, but we have numerous Masons, Sclaters,Plumbers, all affording respectable and enduringsurnames.

Two important handicrafts at the time of ourimaginary visit are soon to disappear, leaving onlytheir names to their posterity. The maker of bows,the chief arm of war, is called Bowyer and sometimesBowmaker (one of that family is to be known acentury later as Abbot of the Monastery of Inch-colme, and continuator of John of Fordun's ScotchChronicles). The arrow-makers (whom the Frenchname Flechier from fleche), are with us known asFletchers, a name that is to survive and flourishlong after their good weapons have given way be-fore "the villanous Saltpetre."

The chief artisan of the community is the Smith,a stalwart man, whose descendants are to increaseand multiply till they replenish the earth. We must


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Smiths and Smyths. 29not quite take our idea of him from the modernattendant of the forge and anvil, nor even fromLongfellow's fine portrait of the village blacksmith

" Under a spreading chestnut tree,The village smithy stands ;

The smith, a mighty man is he,With large and sinevvy hands jAnd the muscles of his brawny armsAre strong as Iron bands.

" Toilingrejoicingsorrowing,Onward through life he goes ;

Each morning sees some task begun.Each evening sees it close ;

Something attempted, something done.Has earned a night's repose."

Among our forefathers, as among the ancient Greeks,the Smith's was a craft of mystery, if not of magic.Remember, he forged the armour that guarded theheads of warriors, and welded the sword of suchtemper that it scorned enchantment, cut throughiron and brass, and yet severed a hair upon water.In the ancient laws of England, the Smith's personwas protected by a double penalty. In Wales he wasone of the great officers who sat in the hall with theKing and Queen. In our own Highland glens I haveheard more legends of supernatural smith-work than


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30 Scotch Surnames.

ever I could gather of Ossian. We must not won-der, then, that the family of Smith is large, nor thatit assumes many forms of spelling in our low coun-try talk, as well as the shape of Gow, and probablyCowan, among those whose mother tongue is Gaelic *

Minstrels. Amidst some business and bustle, there is stillmuch leisure in our infant society; and how can thelong evenings by the winter fire be better whiledawaywhen the wine gets sour, and chess and tablestediousthan in rehearsing the deeds of valiant an-cestors or the adventures of a pilgrimage or crusade !He who has composed the romance or lay, does notalways sing it. The Bard and the Harper are alikehonoured; and both are to leave descendants, thoughthe former may change their spelling for the worse,and both may, I fear, depart from the calling thatgave them their surnames.^

* The punctilio of orthography is of very modern date. Ourgrandfathers, and still more, our grandmothers,used wonderful license,not only with their neighbours' names, but with their own. In thesixteenth century, when writing had become a common accomplish-ment, a man often spelt his own name six or seven different ways ina single letter. The surname of the Stirlings (of Keir) is found intheir family papers, spelt in sixty-four different manners. No wonderthat the name of Smith should nm through the shapes of Smith,Smyth, Smythe.

f The historian of an extant family of the ancient name of Baird,


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From Signs. 31The necessity of some distinction before surnames

are common, gives rise to a curious custom in ourburgh. Men distinguish themselves and their dwell-ings by signs or cognizances. It is not only inns andshops or booths that exhibit these emblems; burghersand gentry of all classes do the same. This givesus a class of names common to France, England, andScotland. John at the Bell becomes John Bell,and the Lamb, a favourite cognizance, in connec-tion with the symbol of Saint John, originates thefamily of Lamb, and its affectionate diminutiveLamhy a name once of good repute as a nativename in Angus, though those who bear it in moderntimes have sought a French origin, and spell itL'Ami. The same custom gave rise among ourneighbours in the south, to the name of Angel, andeven the strange one of Devil, neither of which wehave affected. But we have Kittgs and Bishops, andeven a few Popes in our Presbyterian Scotlandnames probably to be traced to a similar origin. A

NamesfromSigns.

not satisfied with such a probable connection with the Muses,claims for them, kindred with Boiardo the Italian poet. Butwe had Bairds or Bards, landed men, much earlier than suits thatpoetic origin. A more tempting etymon from Bayard, the cheva-Uer sans peur et sans reproehe, had not occurred to the Auchmeddenhistorian.


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little clan of these last, pronounced Paip, exists inCaithness and Orkney* I conjecture that the samepractice has given origin to many of our namescommencing with Samt,-\ and probably it is to thiscustom that we owe a large class of names that are nototherwise easily to be accounted forI mean thefamily names derived from names of animals. Evenif we suppose that some accidental relation to theanimals suggested the names of Hare and 2)^^ (whichwe spell absurdly Doig), Brock, our Scotch shape ofBadger, and the well-known names of Swan, Eagle,Heron, Peacock, and Craw, we cannot adopt such anorigin for the surname of Oliphant (the Scotchshape of Elephant), or of Lion, the name of thenoble family of Strathmore, whose family traditiondoes not point to any foreign source, but who canhardly allege an encounter with the royal beast in

* Alexander Pope, whose Christian name smacks of a Scotchdescent, did not repel the advances of his Caithness namesake, Mr.Paip, who claimed him for kindred. Against the theory in thetext, is the fact, that the Norsemen called Christian priests papas ;and some of the islands are named Papey from early settlements ofsuch.

f In a country town of Spain, the booths of the traders aredistinguished by oval medallions of saints swinging in frontSt.James, St. John, St, Andreweach known by his received cogni-zance, but without name inscribed, either of saint or shopkeeper.


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From Rural Situations. 33the forests of Angus. They bore for their coatarmour the Lion of Scotland, and may perhapshave exhibited a lion over their gate, as, we know,they constructed in the shape of a lion that curioussilver cup still preserved at Glammis, and which isthe prototype of the " blessed bear of Bradwardine."*

But now we have set up our burgh with a goodstock of surnames, and we must leave them to in-crease and multiply, or to decay as it may happen,for I have only time to offer you a few observationsupon names which did not originate in burgh ortown.

Where names are seeking, people are naturallycalled by the name of the place where they have beenbom or live. So you cannot wonder that, in our owndear country, we have many Hills and Glens, Craigs,Woods, and Forrests, Mountain is a more Englishform of HilL We have the hills too near, and likethem too well, to give them grand sounding names.

The Moor has given names to families in all the* The affixing of cognizances on their houses by citizens, not

traders, is well known to the French antiquary. It was common inSpain, and seems to have been often used in England. I have notseen evidence of the practice in Scotland, but we were not slow tofollow the fashions of our neighbours in such matters.

Moors.


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34 Scotch Surnames.

Offices.

three kingdoms. With us they have enjoyed ourusual license of spelling, but the origin and sense ofthe word is the same whether it is spelt as the goodSir Thomas More used it, or like the Irish Anacreon,Moore, or our antique Scotch Muir. I have observedthat, in all its shapes, the name connects itself withliterature. One of our best Greek scholars of thelast century was Professor Moor of Glasgow. Ourforemost Grecian now is a Mure.* The author ofZeluco, and his more illustrious son (Sir John Moore)added an e to the name " for a difference," and somesuch cause has produced the various reading, Moir,still distinguished for the strong propensity to litera-ture.

Of names derived from office, first in this coun-trj' comes Stewart, variously spelt, though, as I havealready told you, it was not till after several genera-tions that the^ Fitz-Walters and Fitz.-Alans took thatname destined to become so illustrious, from theiroffice of steward of the royal household.

We have names derived from all other offices of* It must be remembered this was written in 1857. William

Mure of Caldwell, the accomplished historian of Greek, literatureaccomplished in a way so rare among Scotch country gentlemen,died in the spring of i860.


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From Office. 35high and of low degree. The office of keeper of theWardrobe gave name to a family of Wardropers,since shortened into Wardrop, just zs Forrester wascut down into Forrest. The keepers of the Naperybecame Naperers (cut down to Naper).'^ The greatoffice of Ostiar, or Durward, gave name to a powerfulfamily, now extinct or sadly decayed ; but, even yet,the Deeside peasant believes that the church bellof Coul rings of its own accord when a Durwarddies ; and I am inclined to trace another old Angusname to the same source. The Doorward may havebecome Huissier, and Huissier easily took the Scotchshape of Wischart.

I beg you to observe that the dignity of theoffice has no bearing on the grandeur of the familythat adopted it for a name. The name oi Sheriffis by no means higher than that of Dempster,^ though

* Na peernon pareilUis the childish etymology of the genea-logists for the name rendered Illustrious by John Napier of Merchis-ton, and borne by many a gallant man of our own time.

f The Dempsters had their name from their office. Keraldus washereditary Judex (translated Dempster^, first of Angus, then of theCourt of the Kings of Scotland ; and a long line of Dempsters heldthe lands, called from their ancestor Keraldston (now Carriston),in virtue of that office, the duties of which they discharged in Parlia-ment. Judex was perhaps done into 'justice in the South.


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From the Chase. nrower, Tasker, Thrasher, or Thrashie. Bowman wasthe man in charge of the Bow, or cattle ; Husband,he who cultivated the portion of soil which derivedfrom him the name of husband-land, a measureknown in the Merse and Lothian. Granger has hisname from looking after the grange, or homesteadof a farm.

We had naturally many names from huntingand the chase. We had no Grosvenofs, but wehave Tod-hunter, not quite equivalent to a Leices-tershire master of hounds, now shortened into Tod,Hunter and Fischer, Falconer and Fowler. TheFalconers called their domain Halkerston (Hawker'stown), and a family of reputation derived its surnamefrom the town of the Fowler Fullerton. The park-keeper became Parker, and the officer in charge ofthe warren, Warrener, or Warrender, equivalent tothe Norman De Warrenne. The guardian of theforest took many shapes of name Forrester, Forster,Foster, Forrest, and even Forret. We have Archers,and Stalkers, and Spearmans, the last speaking per-haps of more warlike occupations.

I have said that the rule of persons being namedfrom placesnot places from personshas a fewexceptions. The most remarkable is Hamilton. Hamilton.


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Undergoing Changes. 39

Maxwell. Afterwards, his descendants, or at anyrate the holders of his lands, took the territorial styleof De Maxwell. A third step has been taken inthis case, by again adding town to the family nameand producing Maxwellton. Boswell and Freshwellare formed in the same manner.

One word on the confusion occasioned by trans-lating names. From the French Le-fevre and Mare-chal, have come some additions to our own large clanof Smiths, and De Bois has given us many Woods.We made De la Roche and De Rupe into Craig.Two brothers. Frenchmen by descent, but settledin an American town, are even now Mr. De la Rueand Mr. Street. But the change was worse whenour scholars made the pedantic attempt to renderour homely names classical. The Matriculation bookof our Edinburgh University in the seventeenth cen-tury is subscribed by a student whom mortals calledBlyth, but who, aiming at something higher, writeshis own name Hilarius; while another christenedColin Caldwell, subscribes the oaths of admission asColinus a fonte gelido.

This became still more intolerable when theclassical affectation adopted a Greek dress. Wehave almost lost memory of the real name of one of

TrafislatedN^ames.


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Irish instatues.

40 Scotch Surnames.

the great leaders of the Reformation, whose paternalname of Schwartzerdt (black earth) has permanently-merged in its Greek shape of MelanchtJwn; whileanother has gone through the double process oftranslation through Latin into Greek, passing in atone end of the mill as Didier, and coming outErasmus. A well-known instance of our own issimilar. Wisckart, the historian of Montrose, choseto read his name as Wise-heart, and then to Helen-ise it into Sopho-cardius.

Of late years we have changes of a different kind,and from other motives. If you will allow me, Iwill take my examples from our Irish cousins, whosemixed Celtic population, and some other circum-stances not altogether unlike our own, give rise tocurious tricks of transmutation. Irish names aretranslated into English. Thus Shannach is Fox.Mac-Clogh-ree is now Kingstone. But much morecommon is the Irishing of Norman-English names.Thus a known personage, Joscelin de Angelo (firstdone into Nangle), is succeeded by MacGostelin,which in one or two descents becomes Costello,a name now known in literature. Sir Odo the arch-deacon had a son Mac-Odo, now vulgarized into


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Progress of Change. 41

Cody. Sir Waleran Wellesley gave rise to a septof Mac-Falrans.Of another class is the change (whether foundedon evidence it is not for me to pronounce) by whichan Irish gentleman of the name of Morris, living inParis, became De Montmorenci, and persuaded hisIrish relatives to follow his example. They acquiredat least a good name ; but the descendants of thepremiet baron Chretien called a council of the family,and published an Act enumerating all those whomthey recognized as genuine in which the Irishcousins were not included.

One more story from across the channel. ADublin citizen (I think a dealer in snuff and tobacco),about the end of last century, had lived to a goodage and in good repute, under the name of Half-penny. He throve in trade, and his children pre-vailed on him in his latter years to change thename which they thought undignified, and this hedid by simply dropping the last letter. He diedand was buried as Mr. Halpen. The fortune ofthe family did not recede, and the son of ourcitizen thought proper to renounce retail dealing,and at the same time looked about for a euphoniouschange of name. He made no scruple of dropping

De Montmo-rrnci.

M'Alpin.


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42 Scotch Surnames.

the unnecessary h, and that being done, it was easyto go into the Celtic rage, which Sir Walter Scottand the Lady of the Lake had just raised to a greatheight ; and he who had run the streets as littleKenny Halfpenny came out (in full Rob Roytartan, I trust), at the levees of the day as KennethMacAlpift, the descendant of a hundred kings.

Conclusion. But to retum and to conclude. In one sense itmay be true that the age of chivalry is gone. Thehigh-born knight may no longer put on his armourof proof, and ride down the jdcquerie^ unblamed.We look for better things of gentle blood now.But we value it all the more. Without absurd-ly glorifying ourselves, we have some reason to beproud of our Scotch names. Whilst we give upwithout a struggle the antiquity claimed for familiesby our genealogistswhose youngest fable datedfrom Malcolm Canmore, while there were not want-ing some who ascended to Noahwe can boastthat we have among us many still bearing thenames, and descended of the little band of heroesthat fought with Bruce. What is more ; I think wecan say that while we are alive to the interest of a

* Froissart's name for the peasantry, the class composed of the" yacques hon-hommes."''


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Conclusion, 43

long descended line of worthy ancestors, as much asour neighbours, we keep that feeling in our heartsand do not blazon it to the world. It never inter-feres with the transactions and affairs of every-daylife. Above all, there is no exclusion of new blood.I suppose the descendants of a James Watt or aRobert Burns would not change the honour of theirdescent for the highest name of Norman chivalry.


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From Scotch Places. 45Brunton.Buchan.Buchanan.Buntine, Bontlne.Burnett, Burnard,Burton.Bum, BiuTis, Buraes, Burness.Byres.

Calder, Cawdor, Caddell.'Calderwood.Cairncross.Callander.Cameron.Carkettle.Carlisle.Carmichael.Carnegie.Carrick.Carron.

Carruthers.

Carstairs.Carswell.Cathcart.Cheislie.Chisholme.Clapperton.Clayhills.Cleghom.Cleland.Clephane.Cochran.Cockburn.Colquhoun ?Colvil, valgarized Colvin.Copland.Cowie.Craig, Craigie.Crauford.Cranstoun.^

' The northern Cawdors were disguised as Cadells and cUCadella even in our old chroniclers, and they have kept that varietypermanently in the South. So Lincoln^ in Norman French, tookthe shape of Nicolle. There are Napiers, in the North, vulgarlycalled Lepers euphonia causal

' We almost forgive the old condemned canting arms ofovu" heralds, for the sake of the Cranstoun's crest and mottoa crane fishingand " Thou shalt want e're I want."


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From Scotch Places. 47


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From Norman Places. 53


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54 Scotch Surnames.Campbell.'Charteris, de Chartreux, de

domo Carthus'tanorum, Char-ter house.

Cheyne, le Chene.'"'Corbet.^Cumin, Cumming,

Comyn.*This name, now so numerous and powerful, first appears on

record in the end of the thirteenth century. The earlier historyof the family, and the origin of the name, are unknown. It isnot local, at least, not derived from any Scotch locality (forCastle Campbell, formerly the * Castle of Gloom,' took its namefrom the family in virtue of an Act of Parliament), and I am notaware that the peculiar and very ancient heraldic bearing (theG'tron) affords iiny probable theory of connection with Conti-nental or English families. Like all names of families settled inthe Highlands, Campbell is claimed by the Seanachies as Celtic,and an etymology and legend are furnished on demand. Theappearance of the Campbells (already evidently full-blown gentry),at the same time with numerous Norman settlers ; their alliancewith the Norman Bruce ; the sound and spelling of their name,which seems only another shape of Beauchamp, leave little doubtthat it is Norman. It would require some evidence to get overthe presumption.

* Reginald le Chen, father and son (giving between six crosscrosslets a bend chaiged with three figures, perhaps mullets), earlysettlers in the North, seem Normans, but the derivation of theirname is uncertain, perhaps akin to Du chesne,

^ An old name in the South. Their cognisance was a Corbeau.* One of the numerous families ruined by their adherence to

the Balliols and the English party in the wars of the succession andindependence. Fordun says, before their fall, there were thirty-twoknights of that surname in Scotland, including, I presume, the lordsof their three great earldoms, Buchan, Badenoch, and Menteth.


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From Norman Places. 5 5Grant, Graunt, le Grand.^ Lovel.^

Haig. Maule.*Hamilton, de Hambledon.^ Montgomery.^Hay, de la Haye. Mowbray.^

Mortimer, de mortuo mari.Lindsay, de Lindeseye. Mowat, de monte alto.Lyle, De I'isle. Muschet, de monteJlxo.

^ The first who appear on record are Laurence and Robert," called Grant" Dominis Laurentlo et Roberto did'ts Grantwitnesses in the bishop's court a.d. 1258. At a later period theGrants are found settled on the barony of Strathspey as churchvassals, until at the Reformation they acquired it in property.

* The English (Leicester) pedigree of Hamilton is onlyguessed. They had been for three generations settled in Scotlandbefore taking any fixed surname. Their power and consequencewere of comparatively late date, not, I think, before the royalmarriage, by which they acquired the earldom of Arran.

"^ The Lovels were considerable lords in Angus, the North,and on Tweedside, now, I suppose, extinct.

* The Maules, themselves Normans, derived their chief pos-sessions from inheriting, through an heiress, the property of thegreat family of De Valon'i'u, de Valo'ines.

^ The Montgomeries, like so many of the Ayrshire andRenfrewshire families, came as followers of the Stuarts. They hadgrants from them, both in their Lothian territory and in theirgreat western lordships.

^ No doubt a branch of the great English-Norman family,settled early at Barnbougle, and sent a cadet to the opposite Fifecoast.

\

L


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56 Scotch Surnames from Norman 'Places.Muschamps, de Muscamp.' Somervil, Summemlle.

Noi-vel, de Normanvil ? Umphiavil, de Umphraville/ '

Ramsay, de Rameseie. Vans, Vaus, Vaux, de Vaux.Russell. Veitch, de Vescl' (?)Ross, Ros, Rose, de Rods.* Vipont, de vekri ponte.^

Sinclair, de Sancto Clare. Weir, de Vere.

A great name of old in Teviotdale, now, I suppose, extinct.Distinguished from the Scotch Rosses by giving the three

water-budgets for arms, instead of the Lions of the old Earls ofRoss.

' I have set down the name of the great Norman barons, whoheld Redesdale " by the sword," and became Earls of Angiis bymarriage with the heiress of the old Earls and Marmors, amongextant names, because in this, as in so many other instances, thegrand old name may luik unobserved in the misunderstood appel-lation of some peasant's or burgher's family.

* The early seals of the De Vescis, before marshalling armson shields had become common, have a bunch of vetches for acognizance.

* A good old name on the Borders, now, I think, extinct,unless it has taken some humble shape.

/'

?;.


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Index of Surnames.000

Abercrombie, 44.Aberdeen, 44.Abernethy, 44Adams, 20.Adamson, 20.Adie, 20.Ainslie, 44.Alanson, 19.Allardice, 44.'Alves, 44.Anderson, 20.Andrew, 14.Andiews, 20.Angel, 31.AnstiTJther, 44.Ap-Hugh, 23.Ap-Owen, 23.Ap-Rice, 23.Ap-Richard, 23.Arbuthnot, 44.Archer, 37.Armstrong, 1 1Auchinleck, 44.Auchniutie, 44.Avenel, 8.Aytoun, 8, 44.Baillie, 36.

Bain, 16.Balderston, 44.Balfour, 44.Ballantyne, 44.Ballindean, 44.Ballingall, 44.Balliol, 3, 8, 53.Balmanno, 2 i.Balneaves, 44.Balnevis, 44.Balsillie, 44.Bannatyne, 44.Barber, 25.Barclay, 8.Bard, 30.Barker, 27.Barron, 36.Bassinden, 44.Baxter, 27.Beaton, 53.Beg, 15.Belassize, de, 9.Bell, 31.Belsches, 9.Berkelai, de, 3, 53.Berwick, 44.Bethune (Beton), 53.Binning, 44.


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Index of Surnames. 59Carmichael, 45.Carnegie, 45.Carpenter, 22, 28.Carr, 47.Carrick, 45.Carriston, 35.Canon, 45.Carruthers, 45.Carstairs, 45.Carswell, 45.Carter, 36.Cartwright, 28.Cathcart, 45.Cawdor, 45.Chalmers, 36.Chamberleyn, 36.Chambers, 36.Chancellor, 36.Chapman, 26.Charteris, 54.Chartreux, 54.Cheape, 26.Cheislie, 45.Chene, le, 54.Chester, 22.Cheyne, 54.Chisholme, 10, 45.Chretien, 4 1Church, 25.Church-hill, 6.Clapperton, 45.Clayhills, 45.Cleghorn, 45.Cleland, 45.Clephane, 45.Clerk, 25.

Clifford, 4.Clinkscales, 26,Cochran, 45.Cockburn, 45.Cody, 41.Colquhoun, 45.Colvil, 45.Colvin, 45.Comyn, 54.Constable, 36.Cook, 28.Cooke, 22.Cooper, 27.Copland, 45.Corbet, 54.Corke, 22.Cornwall, 15.Costello, 40.Cowan, 30.Cowie, 17, 45.Craig, 33, 39, 45.Craigie, 45.Cranstoun, 45.Crauford, 45.Craw, 32.Crawfurd, 9.Crichtoun, 46,Crombie, 46.Crosbie, 46.Cruickshanks, 5.Cullen, 46.Cumin, 54.Cumming, 54.Cuninghame, 46.Cunninghame, 9.Currier, 27,


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Index of Surnames. 65

Monte-fixo, de, 9.Monteith, 50.Montgomery, 55.Montmoienci, de, 41.Monypenny, 26.Moor, 34.Moore, 34.Moravia, de, 10.Moray, 9, 50.More, 34.More, John, 1 5.Morevil, de, 3, 8.Morris, 41.Mortimer, 55.Morton, 50.Moscrop, 50.Moston, 22.Motherwell, 50.Mountain, 33.Mow, 50.Mowat, 9, 55.Mowbray, 55.Muir, 34.Multerer, 26.Mure, 34,Murray, 10, 50.Muscamp de, 56.Muschamps, 56.Muschet, 9, 55.Mutray, 50.Mutter, 26.MacAlpin, 42.MacClogh-ree, 40.Macdonald, 23.M'Dowal, 24.MacFalran, 41.

M'Gilleane, 24.MacGostelin, 40.M'Intosh, 23, 24.Mackenzie, 21, 24.M'Lean, 24.M'Leod, 24.MacNab, 23.M'Nachtan, 24.M'Neill, 24.MacOdo, 40.M'Pherson, 23.M'Vicar, 23.Nairn, 50.Nangle, 40.Naper, 35.Neaves, 44.Naperers, 35.Nevay, 50.Nevil, 4.Newall, 50.Newbiggin, 50.Newton, 50.Nisbet, 7, 50,Norie, 50.Norman vil, de, 8, 56.Norvel, 56.

Ochiltree, 53.Ochterlony, 50.Oggu. 14-Ogill, 50.Ogilvie, 50.Ogstoun, 50.Oliphant, 32.Orm, 14,


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Ormiston, 38, 50.Orr, 51.Orrock, 5 iOsburn, 5 i

Paip, 32.Papey, 32.Pantoun, 5 1Pargillies, 5 iPark, 5 IParker, 37.Parson, 25.Patullo, 5 IPeacock, 32.Peddie, 51.Peeblis, 51.Pender, 51.Pennycuik, 5 i

.

Pendrich, 5 i.Pentland, 51.Pepdie, 51.Pitblado, 5?.Pitcairn, 5 r,Pittendreich, 51.Plenderleith, 51.Plumber, 28.Polloc, 51.Pont, 51.Pontiff, 44.Pook, 5 IPope, 31.Porter, 36.Porterfield, 51.Preston, 5 i.Prettyman, 5.Price, 23.

Primrose, 51.Pringle, 47.Pritchard, 23.Proctor, 25.Provan, 5 iPugh, 23.Purdic, 51.Purees, 5 1

QuiNCi, DE, 3.

Rait, 51.Ralstoun, 5 I.Rameseie, de, 56.Ramsay, 56.Randell, 51.Randolph, 8.Rankeillor, 5 1

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Rankin, 5 i.Rattray, 5 iRay, 5 IRed, 16.Redpeth, 5 iReid, 16.Reidheuch, 5 1Rentoun, 5 1.Richards, 20.Richardson, 20.Riddell, 5 IRiddoch, 51.

Robson, 20.Rochead, 5 iRodgers, 20.RoUand, 51.Rollo, 2, 51.


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1960 - Scotch Surnames

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