My Mother has always been fiercely proud of her Scottish heritage.I have started encouraging her to learn more about our ancestry. We visited Linville, NC this summer-home of the annual Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, and stopped in at a lovely Scottish heritage shop, where the gracious owner gave us a mini history lesson. We found our tartans, and that our Clan motto is 'Fide Et Fortitudine' meaning 'By Fidelity and Fortitude'.
It's always been a family folktale that we are related to the great William Wallace; at least that's the reasoning behind the naming of my maternal Grandfather, William Wallace Shaw.
We also discovered the Clan Shaw Society. This information is from their site.
Highland History
The Shaws are an ancient Scottish clan, which played a considerable role in Highland history, and which traces its ancestry to the old Earls of Fife and thus the royal line of the Scottish kings. Initially, prior to the general adoption of surnames and, specifically, the use of the name Shaw for that purpose, the Shaws were the first Chiefs of Clan Mackintosh. The Clan name derives from Shaw "Mor" "Coriaclich", great-grandson of Angus (6th Chief of Mackintosh) and Eva (heiress of Clan Chattan (a large confederation of Highland clans)). By tradition, he led the Clan Chattan contingent to victory at the famed Clan Battle of the North Inch at Perth in 1396 and was, as a reward, given the lands of Rothiemurchus, which became the first "seat" of the Clan. He is numbered as our third Chief. The lands of Rothiemurchus (site of the well-known castle Loch-an-Eilean), were sold and lost to the Clan in 1539.
Adam (Ay) of Tordarroch, grandson of Shaw "Mor", was the progenitor of Clan Ay, or the Shaws of Tordarroch. The Tordarroch branch of the Clan became preeminent, acted for Clan Shaw and, at Inverness in 1543 and Termit in 1609, signed the Clan Chattan bands. They supported Montrose and raised the Shaw contingent in the Jacobite rising of 1715.
1 comment:
I grew up in Nova Scotia, which, as you probably know, means "New Scotland." So I had an early introduction to tartans. I really love the black and blue Nova Scotia tartan. My brother and I both went to a private school that required that we participate in cadets. My brother wore a kilt "on parade," but by the time I went there, they had done away with the kilts and replaced them with green fatigues. They were certainly not as impressive on parade as the tartan!
Post a Comment