History of the Scottish Clans
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History of the Scottish Clans

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Earliest References to Scottish Clans

David Stewart of Garth addresses the possible origins of the Highland Clans in Chapter IV, Vol.I, of Sketches of the Character, Manners, and Present State of the Highlanders of Scotland, which the 1822 Map of the Clans is included in. He was aware of the complexities of this involving the different peoples present in parts of Scotland historically. The Picts and the Gaels are his principal reference points (Scots originally referred to Gaels from Ireland), however, Norsemen, Britons and Normans are also likely to have contributed to the evolution of Scottish Clans. King Robert the Bruce and the Gordon, Menzies, Fraser and Sinclair Clans have Norman ancestries in their histories for example. Whereas other Clans possibly have Viking roots or Irish ones.

Scotland's fascinating history lends itself to romantic reinvention and because of its political, social, and economic complexities there is sometimes an agenda to how it is written. Many Clan origin stories may have first emerged in the 19th century with William Forbes Skene's 1837 book The Highlanders of Scotland, their Origin, History and Antiquities assisting with this. They are sometimes dependant on supposed unpublished privately held records, or lost manuscripts; and may involve often repeated traditional legendary tales with little or no firm factual evidence to support them. This in no way detracts from the proven facts of their historical existence though.

What Scotland's known history shows is that invaders get stuck at the Highland Line and above that its earlier occupants and more ancient regimes have persisted, hence the Highland Clans. Scotland's past is complex though and the truth of it wanders deeper into the unknown as it recedes further into the mists of time and becomes myth.

All that may be said with certainty is that the Clan system began before 1400 and that the first list of names associated with Scottish Clans does not appear until 200 years after this:

King Robert II: November 1384

The first reliable mention of a Clan in a formal Scottish document is from the time of Robert II, where, in a statute of 1384, Clan MacDuff is referred to, as follows:

“In addition, in correction of the law, the lord Earl of Fife, voluntarily and for the advantage of the country which he controls as head of the law of Clan MacDuff, granted and promised that he will protect the present statute and ordinance and cause it to be protected in all its respects within his limits through the term ordained, protesting for the freedom of his right, namely, since this was done freely and on account of the common good, as was said before, it should not turn out to his prejudice nor prejudice the said law in future.”

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Clan as a term

The term Clan or similar sounding variations resembling that word, used to mean a locally associated or extended family group in Scotland, especially in the Highlands or occasionally by implication in the Borders, occurs in various sources thereafter. For example in the Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland attributed to Andrew Wyntoun, circa 1420; and in the Acts of the Lords of Council in Civil Causes, covering the period from James III to James IV of Scotland (1478 – 1495).

Apparent instances of specific Clan names may occur in these or even earlier sources. What may be a reference to Clan MacMillan is in an Act of Robert III from 1392, for example, which concerns “...notorious wrongdoers dwelling in the highland parts of the kingdom...”. Although nothing resembling a list of these Clans appears until the end of the 16th century.

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James VI: July 1587

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First List of Scottish Clans

An Act of Parliament of James VI of Scotland contains a list of names and refers to Clans. Although there are perhaps some ambiguities in what is meant by this at certain points in the text, it does plainly say “...the said clans to be specially noted at the end of this present act...”, which is a clear reference to the list. There is also this interesting phrase “...by pretence of blood or place of their dwelling...” that gives an insight into the vagueness of what the associations within a Clan might be. Plus there is also the inclusion of the Borders as well as the Highlands when Clan is used, which makes sense in terms of the problem of lawlessness that this Act is addressing, involving the Border Reivers as well as rogue Highlanders. However, Clan put descriptively before a surname is only used in the list of names under the Highlands and Isles.

One way of interpreting this is that Clan is being used with variations in meaning to indicate a localised or family group with a head or leader and separately a feudal regime under a nobleman or landowner, in this Act. Comparison with the “...law of Clan MacDuff...” in the earlier 1384 reference might support the latter contextual meaning.

Arguably it might also at times mean a marauding gang with someone in charge. An earlier Act of 1581 includes this description “...and how the said clans of thieves for the most part are companies of wicked men, coupled in fellowships by occasion of their surnames, or near dwellings together, or through keeping society in theft or reset of theft, not subjected to the ordinary course of justice, nor to any one landlord that will make them answerable to the laws...”, while another of 1584 also refers to “...clans of thieves...”. Both these are additions to an earlier Act indicating that lawlessness in the less accessible parts of the realm was ongoing.

Certainly in the 18th century during the Jacobite risings and when The Highland Society, David Stewart of Garth and Sir Walter Scott are reinventing Scottish identity in the early 19th century, there are only Highland Clans to consider, just as there are no Lowland or Border tartans then either. The popular success of this image of Scotland in turn creates the modern reimagining that follows afterwards.

There are a lot of recognisable Scottish Clan names in the list, however, also a few notable omissions. Except of course there are varying forms of many of them and some represent a role that has become a surname, such as Stewart which is derived from steward for example, or Crosier. Dewar, also a role name, is missing although at the time of this Act the Dewars of Glen Dochart for example may have been encompassed within the authority of the MacNabs, the Campbells or Menzies.

The objective of this Act is to obtain pledges as surety, that is an undertaking to be responsible for the conduct of persons under the authority or command of those giving them.

The list from the Act follows these extracts from its preamble:

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For the quieting and keeping in obedience of the disordered subjects, inhabitants of the borders, highlands and isles

“...providing always that the landlords who have their lands lying in far highlands or borders, they making residence themselves in the inlands, and their tenants and inhabitants of their lands being of clans or dependants on chieftains and captains* of the clans, whom the landlords are in no way able to command but only get their mails off them and no other service nor obedience, shall in no way be subjected to this act but in manner following...”

“Moreover, and beside the aforesaid order devised against the landlords and bailies on whose lands and in whose jurisdictions the thieves, sorners and broken** men dwell and remain, it is also statute and ordained that the captains, chiefs and chieftains of all clans, as well on the highlands as on the borders, and the principals of the branches of the said clans to be specially noted at the end of this present act, which clans dwell upon the lands of diverse landlords and depend upon the directions of the said captains, chiefs and chieftains (by pretence of blood or place of their dwelling), although against the will often times of the lord of the ground, be charged in manner and under the pain above-written to enter such persons' pledges as shall be nominated by the king's majesty's letters to be directed to them, upon 15 days' warning, before his highness and his secret council at the days to be appointed, to be placed as his highness shall think convenient for keeping of good rule in time coming, according to the conditions above-written, whereunto the landlords and bailies are subject under the pain of execution of the said pledges to the death, in case of transgression and non-redress made by the persons, offenders, for whom the said pledges lie; and that the said pledges shall be relieved quarterly with others of the same clan or branch to be specially named as soon as may be after the beginning of this order, and that the said pledges shall be kept in the king's straight ward upon their own expenses until the principals of the clan or branches find sufficient and responsible sureties, acted in the books of secret council, that...”

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The roll of the names of the landlords and bailies of lands dwelling on the borders and in the highlands where broken men have dwelt and presently dwell:

Middle March

West March

Landlords and bailies

Highlands and Isles

The roll of the clans that have captains, chiefs and chieftains whom on they depend, often times against the will of their landlords, as well on the borders as highlands, and of some special persons of branches of the said clans:

Middle March

West March

Highlands and Isles

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Scotland of Old

The Map of Scotland of Old first produced in the 1950s*** and popular as a resource for Ancestry tourism ever since, is on inspection a modification of David Stewart of Garth's 1822 Map of the Clans, with the territories of the Highland Clans somehow projected back to an earlier time, mostly involving minor boundary changes and the separation of some Clans that are considered intermingled by the time of Culloden, together with the list from the James VI Act of 1587 presented as the territories associated with its names elsewhere in Scotland, along with an overlay of heraldic genealogy.

This version was drawn up by Sir Ian Moncreiffe of that Ilk and Don Pottinger, both Heralds of the Court of the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the Scottish authority on heraldry, so they were well placed to make these additions and changes, although the provenance for them is not explained beyond indicating that the map represents Scotland at about the time of King James VI. Neither is it established that there is a firm connection between the evolution of the Scottish Clan system and the nation's heraldry. Whilst these may overlap, historically their beginnings are not the same. In the 1587 Act, where Earls, Lords, Lairds and captains, chiefs and chieftains of Clans are bundled together as the audience it is directed at, the bearing of heraldic Arms is not a factor in the legislation.

In fact the Scotland of Old map is showing an amalgamation of different things. And it does not call itself a Map of the Clans, although it is quite frequently described as such. The most substantial difference between it and the 1822 Map of the Clans is the inclusion of the Lowland and Border families.

Science versus tradition

A point to note here is that Scottish Heraldry does not have ancient records comparable in age to the Rolls of Arms of the English system. Although there is evidence of the existence of Scottish Arms from the late 14th century an authoritative work on Scottish Heraldry did not appear until 1680****, which is quite recent in relative terms. Scottish Heraldry also makes the presumption, without anything to substantiate it, that all those who share the same surname are related, however distantly.

Modern DNA analysis rather undermines that theory, as does the simple improbability of it. For example an Edinburgh University study found that only 15% of males with the surname Stewart had a DNA connection to the Royal Stewart lineage. However, a remarkable number of ancient DNA traces from across Europe, Asia and Africa were also discovered in the Scottish population. Further research has shown that genetic patterns found in present day Scotland are similar to those found in the Gaels, Picts, Britons and Norse and that clusters of these still reflect Scotland's Ancient Kingdoms.

Mixed influences

The oldest map of Scotland shows the Central Highlands inhabited by the Caledonians with other named peoples present in different areas. The Picts are currently thought to have emerged from these early occupants rather than come from elsewhere. The Romans, the Picts, the Gaels, the Britons, the Vikings, the Normans, as well as the English, have all had a presence in Scotland, some have made it their home and all are a part of Scotland's complex history.

The word Clan is derived from the Scottish Gaelic Clann meaning children or offspring. That comes from the Old Irish or Celtic Cland, which in turn is from the Latin Planta, meaning a plant or a sprout or shoot of one. However, the Norse also had an equivalent form of social grouping within their society, known as an ætt or ätt, based on the notion of a common ancestor, although not necessarily involving living in a specific territory. The Vikings had a strict social hierarchy as did the Normans, whose society was feudal. Rules of conduct, honour and hospitality are common themes. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that mixed influences combined to to bring about what the Scottish Clan became.

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If you have Scottish ancestry and a few facts about your family origins to research from it would be best to begin your search at:

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Although you do not have to be Scottish to feel an affinity with its landscapes, culture and history.

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* The use of “...captain, chief and chieftain...” may indicate different ranks within a Clan hierarchy, as in for the leaders of the principle Clan and a branch of the Clan for example, or it could simply be a catch-all phrase of the legal drafting in the Act. However, it has been suggested that Captain may mean a person leading a Clan that is standing in for the direct authority, which William Forbes Skene gives an example of.

** A broken man is likely to mean a displaced person or other unfortunate that has adopted a criminal lifestyle, whereas a broken Clan might be one that had no chief able to find security for their good behaviour, therefore a clan or group of outlaws.

*** The Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, which approved the Scotland of Old map, was founded in 1952.

**** The Gelre Armorial dating from before 1396 contains a short section on Scottish Arms. George Mackenzie's The Science of Herauldry, Treated as a Part of the Civil Law of Nations: Wherein Reasons are Given for its Principles, and Etymologies for its Harder Terms was first published in 1680.

1822 Map of the Highland Clans: ▸

See also the 1834 Map of the Clans: ▸

Robertsons overlay: ▸

First List of the Scottish Clans: ▸

Early List of Scottish Clans and Families: ▸

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