It is well known that the name Smith is so widespread in the English-speaking world as it is the name that was given to so many trades people. In Gaelic Scotland the blacksmith was known as Gobha, from which came the name Gow, and ‘son of the smith’ was Mac gobhann, which became MacGowan. With […]
The Maules descended from a family of de Maules who were land owners in the Seine-et-Oise area of France. Pierre de Maule is associated with in particular since he came over to Britain with the Norman invasion of 1066. Robert de Maule appears to have been the first recoreded in Scotland with this surname, and […]
The erroneous notion that clans are Highland groups and families are Lowland units is very much a Victorian one. In fact, the terms are interchangeable, and many a Lowland laird has held from the Lyon Court the title ‘Chief of the Name and Arms’. This is true of the Woods. William the Lion The Old […]
It is believed that the surname Spens, or Spence, may have derived from the Old French word for ‘custodian’ or ‘dispenser’. The principal line of the Clan Spens family are descendents of one of the ancient Earls of Fife. In the 13th and 14th centuries a number of people with the name Spens were recorded […]
Crosbie is a habitual name from various places in Scotland and England and can also be found in Ireland. There is no single Crosbie Family tree, this name has multiple origins. The actual name Crosbie in Scotland and England comes from Old Norse, kross and byr, which means cross and farm. The cross refers to […]
The name is also found as Arnot (also Arnote, Arnocht, and Arnatt) and derives from the lands of Arnot in the Portmoak Parish, Kinross-shire where the family lived from the middle of the 12th century – there are records dating back to 1105 linking the Arnots to the area. In 1284 the lands are recorded […]
It was thought the the name Grierson was derived from Gregor, or MacGregor however no relationship has been found to support this. The family are first recorded to have settled on the lands of Lag around 1408. Gilbert Grierson was recorded as ‘armour bearer’ to the Earl of Douglas in 1420. He was related to […]
As early as the start of the 1200s a family of Lyles were barons of Duchal in Refrewshire. The name Lyle is part of the same stock as the Northumberland family of ‘de Insula’ (as it is in Latin) ‘Lisle’ (de Lisle, Delisle in French). Ralph de Insula, or Radulphus, is the first of this […]
The Cheyne Clan supposedly takes its name from the Cheyne or Cheyney family of Buckinghamshire, and the name originally derives from Quesney in France. Remains of Inverugie Castle in Aberdeenshire. The original castle was a wooden motte-and-bailey structure built by the Cheyne family in the 1100s 1158-64, Ricardus de Chenai witnessed a gift by Hucredus […]
The ‘Clan of the Cats,’ was not always a single family but a confederation or community of families, some of whom had been related and some who were not. The wildcat in heraldry can often help as a means of distinguishing the families associated. A portrait of then chief Cluny MacPherson from around 1873 Most […]
