The family of Skene is thought to be an exceptionally early sept of Clan Donnachaidh, from before it adopted the name Robertson. The Skene clan is known in Gaelic as Siol Sgeine or Clann Donnachaidh Mhar. The traditional origin of the name is found in an eleventh century legend of the Robertsons. It is said […]
This name Primrose is taken from the lands of Primrose in the parish of Dunfermline. It has been suggested that it originally came from the old British, “prenn rhos”: meaning “tree of the moor”. The Primroses were well settled in Fife, around the Abbey of Culross, by the fifteenth century. Henry Primrose had four sons […]
The Dewar’s are known to have first settled in an area to the south east of Edinburgh, Legend has it that they were awarded the lands for killing a wolf who had been terrorising the area. There is also a variation of the name that derives from the Gaelic ‘Deoireach’, meaning ‘pilgrim’. One of five […]
A family of this name lived in Belridge near Dunfermline in Fife. Laurence Ged was juror on an inquest at Peebles in 1304, James Ged was presbyter of St Andrews diocese in 1536, and Jhone Ged was dean of Edinburgh in 1552. In 1562 William Ged was scourged through the streets of Dysart for deceiving […]
William de Abercromby did homage to Edward I of England in 1296 for his lands in the parish of Abercromby, Fife. The lineage of the family passed to the house of Abercromby of Birkenbog in Banffshire in the early seventeenth century. The history of the Abercrombies is intimately connected to religious discord, not only because […]
John MacDonald, the Lord of the Isles, married Amy MacRuari and she bore him three sons. The youngest was Ranald and from him descended the Houses of Clanranald and Glengarry. As the only surviving child Ranald was to inherit the enormous area of lands his mother had brought into the family. Instead he agreed to […]
The name Mackie comes from the Gaelic name MacAodha, meaning ‘son of Aodh’, which is a given name meaning ‘fire’. The name is an old one, particularly in the Stirling area where it can be traced back to the 15th century. In a Scone charter, a William Makke was a charter witness in 1491. The […]
Derived from the name of one who breeds and trains falcons or hawks. Many great houses would have had their own falconer. The principal ‘Falconer’ family claimed to be falconers to the King. The first Scottish Falconer was said to be Ranulph the Falconer, son of Walter of Loutrop, falconer to the William the Lion […]
A branch of the great clan Alpine, the name MacQuarrie derives from the gaelic ‘guaire’ meaning “noble”. According to tradition, Guaire was the brother of Fingon, the progenitor of the MacKinnon clan. Both clans, linked in a common descent, went on to become dependent on the Lords of the Isles. The MacQuarrie chiefs had their […]
In the region of Angus in the North-East of Scotland appear to be where this family took its name. There are a few different ideas regarding the origin of the name. One rather unlikely suggestion was that it came from a Scottish king when a local fisherman ‘gut three’ fish to serve to him. A […]
