The Scottish Clans

Motto:
Origin of Tartan:

Septs of the Clan:

Associated Names (with spelling variations):

History

There are two schools of thought regarding the origin of this name, one asserts the Gaelic origin, the gaelic for ‘little stream’ being ‘dobharach’. The other more convincing is that it comes from the French phrase ‘Du Roi’ , suggesting a Norman origin. There is also a suggestion that they traveled to Scotland with Queen Margaret in 1069.

Early records of the Duries originate from Fife in 1119 and the families reputation rose through their involvement as administrators to Princess Joan, sister of Henry III of England. Other charters from the 13th and 14th centuries originating from Fife also bear the family signatures.

The estate of Craiglus-car, near Leven was granted to them and the house built there remained in the family till the 1900s. The Durie arms can also be seen above the entrance of nearby Burntisland Castle. In 1563 this castle like so many other in Scotland was occupied by Mary, Queen of Scots, however it was part of the estates taken from the family during the reformation. The estates were sold around 1614 to Sir Alexander Gibson who later took the title Lord Durie.

Abbot George Durie (1496–1572) was the last Abbot of Dunfermline (1530–61) before the the Reformation. He was appointed an Extraordinary Lord in 1541 and became a Lord of the Articles and a member of the Governor’s ‘Secret Counsale’ in 1543 and a Lord of Council and Session, and Keeper of the Privy Seal, in 1544. He strongly supported Mary Queen of Scots and became bitterly opposed to reformations of the faith. He later fled to France with the relics of Saint Margaret which were subsequently lost. The Abbots brother who was Bishop of Galway in 1541 was a great enemy of John Knox. The animosity was understandable as the Duries’ strong Catholic beliefs would have been at odds with Knox’s teachings. The Abbots’ sons continued this; both were educated in Paris, John became a Jesuit and was implicated in a plot to depose Queen Elizabeth I and place Mary Queen of Scots on the throne in her place.

George had another son, Henry. He retained the Craigluscar estates. He was married to Margaret McBeth, a herbologist of some repute she attended the birth of many royal children and was responsible for saving the life of the young Charles I.

In later years the Durie’s had a distinguished military career to rival their ecclesiastical one, George Durie was a captain in Louis XIV’s Scots guards and his brothers fought in Flanders. After a spell without a recognised chief Lt Col. Raymond Varley Dewar Durie of Durie was recognised in 1988. His military career spanned 35 years with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders distinguished by his actions during the Chinese civil war and Japans invasion of China.

He died in 1999 aged 93 and the chiefship passed to his son Andrew.

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Motto:
Origin of Tartan:

Septs of the Clan:

Associated Names (with spelling variations):

History

‘Dun deas’ in Gaelic means ‘south fort’. The Dundas family occupied lands on the southern shores of the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh. The family is thought to have descended from Helias, son of Hutred, a younger son of Gospatrick, Prince of Northumberland. The families of Dunbar and Moncreiff also descend from this stock.

Records from the reign of William the Lion mention Serle de Dundas, Serle and Robertus de Dundas both signed Edward I’s Ragman Roll. However Sir Hugh Dundas fought with William Wallace and Sir George Dundas was one of the eight Lairds who fought with Robert the Bruce but was killed at the battle of Duplyn.

Sir James Dundas was governor of Berwick during the reign of James VI. His son, Sir James Dundas, knighted in 1641 was a loyal subject but was opposed to the king’s interference with the Church. As a result of this he signed the National Covenant. After the restoration he took a seat on the supreme court but the position didn’t last long due to his continued support for the Covenant. Lord Arniston was awarded at this time.

William Dundas of Kincavel was descended from the Dundases of Blair. He was imprisoned for his part in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion.

George Dundas, the eighteenth Laird fought in the Wars of the Covenant and was on the committee that tried Marquess of Montrose. The twenty-third Laird, George Dundas, was a sea captain who died in a shipwreck off Madagascar in 1792.

One of the most famous Dundas family members was Henry Dundas , Viscount Melville also known as Uncrowned King of Scotland” and “King Harry the 9th”. After a long political career which included the lifting of the highland dress proscription act and a spell as Lord Advocate he took over the post of Secretary of State in 1791. He was made a peer in 1802. His mark can been found easily in Edinburgh’s St Andrews Square where the impressive building now owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland was built as his home and the imposing statue of the viscount stands on a large column in the centre of the square.

Other notable Dundas members were Sir David Dundas who was commander-in-chief of the British army in 1809, Sir Thomas Dundas, Lord Dundas of Skea, the second Marquess who was Secretary of State for India from 1935 to 1937 and Admiral Sir Charles Dundas of Dundas who was an aide-de-camp to George V.

The present chief of the clan lives in South Africa.

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Gaelic Name: Mac Dhonnchaidh
Motto: Disce pati ( Learn to suffer)
Lands: Atholl, Lundie
Origin of Name: Gaelic Donnachadh, from donn (brown) and cath (war), brown warrior

Septs of the Clan:

Associated Names (with spelling variations):

History

The personal name Duncan can be found on Scotland’s oldest records in its Gaelic form Donnchadh. Among these records is a reference to the death in 717 of Dunchad, the eleventh Abbot of Iona. In 965 the killing of the Abbot of Dunkeld is recorded, showing his name to be Duchad.

When Duncan I took the Scottish throne, his grandfather had the blood of several relatives on his hands, having murdered the way clear for Duncan. With such ill-feeling as there must have been, Duncan would have been wise to pacify his remaining family, especially his senior cousin Thorfinn the Mighty, Earl of Orkney; his uncle, MacBeth; and the person closest to his throne, Queen Gruoch, wife of MacBeth. By 1040, however, he had been murdered and the crown belonged to MacBeth.

Fifty-four years later, despite being the son of Malcolm Canmore, Duncan II was also dead at the hands of relatives. Duncan left a son, yet the throne was grabbed by his younger half-brothers, the children of English Queen Margaret.

John Duncan was the owner of property in Berwick in 1367. The mayor of the Border port is recorded as John Duncanson, in all likelihood the former’s son.

A Clan Donnachaidh had emerged earlier in the 1300s from the Earls of Athole. The clan name came from Donnachadh Reamhar -‘Fat Duncan’. It was this chief who led the clan into the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Duncan’s great-grandson was Robert, and from these two men have descended not just the Duncans but the Robertsons also.

The predominant Duncans of the East of Scotland were the Duncans of Lundie in Forfarshire. Their extensive property included not just the barony of Lundie but also the estate of Gourdie. In 1764, George III’s physician, Sir William Duncan was created a baronet. The title was not hereditary. By 1795, Adam Duncan of Lundie had become Commander of the Fleet in the North Sea and Admiral of the Blue. With a glorious career of victories he was created Earl of Camperdown in 1797, and his son was made the first Earl of Camperdown in 1831.

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Motto: In Promptu ( In readiness)
Origin of Tartan: A Border tartan from the”Vestiarium Scoticum”

Septs of the Clan:

Associated Names (with spelling variations):

History

Born around 975, Crinan of Dunkeld was the Thane and Seneschal of the Isles. He was the father of King Duncan I, and grandfather of Gospatric. Gospatric was given the Earldom of Northumberland in 1067 by the recently arrived William the Conqueror.

In 1072 however, the Earldom was taken back from him. So Gospatric came to Scotland and was made Earl of Dunbar by King Malcolm III. The town and port of Dunbar, on the Lothian coast, has been the scene of many important events in the history of Scotland. The Dunbars were not supporters of Robert the Bruce or a Scottish crown and after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 they sheltered the fleeing, defeated Edward II at Dunbar Castle until he could leave Scotland by sea.

It is believed that if Patrick of Dunbar had detained Edward then he would have had to recognise the Scottish crown and make peace with Bruce. Instead the two countries fought on for many more bloody years.

In 1315, Dunbar and King Robert, who were cousins, settled their differences and when the English occupied the lands of Berwick in 1337, where Dunbar was governor, he renounced any allegiance to Edward III.

Dunbar Castle was then attacked by the Earl of Salisbury. The castle was defended by Dunbar’s wife, Black Agnes, who exasperated Salisbury until, after nineteen weeks, he retired to England in failure.
He wrote of her:-

She kept a stir in tower and trench
That brawling, boisterous Scottish wench.
Came I early, came I late,
I found Agnes at the gate.

When the greedy and jealous James I ruled, the huge wealth and properties that the Dunbars had collected for over four hundred years was annexed to the crown.

The 11th Earl, Sir George Dunbar of Kilconquhar, was the last. The Dunbar house had expanded by this time to include the Earlship of Moray, which they retained. In 1990 the present claim to the chiefship was settled only after a celebrated court case which was heard first before the Lord Lyon, King of Arms, then the Supreme Court of Edinburgh, then the House of Lords.

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Gaelic Name: Drummann
Motto: Vitutem coronat honos (Honour crowns vitue)
Badge: Holly
Lands: Perthshire
Origin of Name: Placename, Drymen

Septs of the Clan:

Associated Names (with spelling variations):

History

To the west of Stirling lies the parish of Drymen. This name Drymen is derived from the Gaelic for ridge or high ground – ‘dromainn’. To this area, according to legend, came a Hungarian admiral in 1067, escorting Edgar the Aetheling and his two sisters as they fled William the Conqueror. In 1225, a descendant of the admiral known as Malcolm Beg (Little Malcolm) is recorded as being Seneschal (Chamberlain) of the Lennox and taking on the name Malcolm of Drymen.

From then till now the clan chief has been known as An Drumanach Mór, which means The Great Man of Drymen. Also connected to Drymen are the Buchanans and the Highland Mores.

Malcolm of Drymen’s son, Malcolm of Drummond swore fealty to England’s Edward I but nonetheless fought in the Wars of Independence and was twice captured by the English.

The third Malcolm of Drummond is credited with the deployment of caltrops, iron spikes to injure horses, before the Battle of Bannockburn. Their affect on the English cavalry made the victory possible and two caltrops are displayed as part of the Drummond’s armorial bearings. Robert the Bruce rewarded the Drummonds with lands in Perthshire.

The mediaeval Stobhall became the Drummond family’s in 1345 when John Drummond married its heiress Mary de Montfichet. Their daughter Annabella became Queen of Scotland when she married Robert III.

John, 5th Chief of Cargill and Stobhall became the first Lord Drummond in 1487. One year of his life was spent in confinement within Blackness Castle after he assaulted the Lord Lyon, King of Arms.

James IV was infatuated with John’s daughter Margaret. In 1502, however she and her two sisters died under mysterious circumstances, possibly through poisoning, and James IV instead went on to marry Margaret Tudor of England.

For their support of the Stewarts through the risings of 1715 and 1745 the property and titles of the Drummonds were twice forfeited. It was not until 1853, through an Act of Parliament, that the title of Earl of Perth and other forfeited titles were restored to George Drummond, who was also in the French peerage as a Baron.

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