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Clan Robertson

GLORY THE REWARD OF VALOUR


Clan Robertson (also known as clan Donnachaidh) can trace their heritage further back than any other Scottish clan. They take their name from Robert "Riabhach" ("Grizzled") Duncanson, who captured and put to death the assassins of King James I. The Robertson clan crest was awarded by James II to honour this act.

The Robertson clan motto is "Virtutis gloria merces" (Glory is the reward of valour) and the clan crest is a hand holding a crown.

Scottish History

of Clan Robertson


Picts and pirates

Around the year 600 ad when the Picts dominated the lands north of the valley of what would be named the Forth and Clyde, monks from religious houses in Ireland founded a monastery at Dull in the north east end of Loch Tay.

These men of the Gaelic religion were the ancestors of the Robertsons of Clan Donnachaidh.

As time went on, the monks were driven from their monastery by the Picts but eventually victoriously returned to Dull and took over the abbey at Dunkeld where relics of St Columba had been brought from Iona when that sacred isle became a target for the Viking sea pirates.

It was a serious business guarding these relics - and not only from the Vikings.

Fortunately in the Dark Ages monks could transform themselves as occasion demanded into part-time warriors when, led by a sword wielding Abbot wearing a relic of Columba in defiance of the heathen enemy, they would give a good account of themselves.

Abbot Crinan was such a one, killed in action around the middle of the 11th century. He had held authority over the lands of Dull and Dunkeld. His wife Bethoc was a daughter of Malcolm II, King of both Scots and Picts, who, in battle against the warring Cumbrians and their southern allies, defeated them at Carham (between Coldstream and Kelso on the present Border line), driving them from their domination of the lands of Lothian as a result, thus initiating the forming of the Kingdom of Scotland.

Abbot Crinan’s wife had given birth to a son who was christened Duncan.

He was heir to the throne but was slain by Macbeth who in turn was killed by Duncan’s son Malcolm who became King Malcolm Canmore.

Succeeding families formed the Clan Donnachaidh (the latter name being Gaelic for Duncan) and the surname Robertson was taken by Duncan who fought at Bannockburn after his men had rallied around their standard at St Ninians near Stirling. When the order to advance to the field of battle was given and the standard was pulled up from its temporary position, a strange gleam of light was reflected from the base of the hole in the earth. This light came from a crystal ball some two inches in diameter.

Such an unusual find in these superstitious, medieval times was thought to be of a magic significance and was taken by the chief into battle.

The resulting victory coinciding with this find may well have convinced the clan of its supposedly superior powers for it was carried into conflicts through ensuing years, whether in war or some brief foray, the arrangement of the varied hues coming from the rock crystal being studied avidly in the hope that omens would reveal the outcome of ensuing fights.

The crystal was first kept in a filigree gold holder then later in a silken pouch and now, as one of the clan treasures, is on view in the museum at Bruar.

Its healing properties have also been noted over the centuries.

In 1358 Robert of Atholl, who succeeded Duncan, married a daughter of Sir John Stirling of Glenesk in Angus whose lands in time passed to her nephew, Sir David Lindsay, a move disputed by Clan Donnachaidh.

When Lindsay arranged a tryst with Robert of Atholl’s sons to peaceably discuss the matter, no sons appeared and, on a vassal of Lindsay’s being sent to Atholl to enquire why, he never returned to Angus country to report; and this was followed by a foray eastwards into Angus lands by Donnachaidh warriors who slew more than 50 horsemen.

The 4th Chief’s men also ravaged the church lands of Bishop Kennedy of St Andrews and Alexander Robertson, who succeeded as the 5th Chief, actually violated the Cathedral of Dunkeld by having his archers send flights of arrows into the worshippers during observation of the Mass.

On another occasion, Sir Robert Graham and his henchmen murdered King James 1st in Perth. They were promoting the interests of the Earl of Atholl and the murderers fled into the remoter stretches of the Atholl lands but were hunted down by the fighting men of Donnachaidh and died by hideous torture in Edinburgh.

James II, as reward for the Chief’s capture of “that most vile traitor, Robert the Graham”, did in heraldic terms raise the Struan lands of Atholl into a Barony. This meant that, apart from various other privileges. the Chief could try wrongdoers in his own Baron’s Court.

Crossing swords

The 16th century, as far as the Clan Robertson was concerned, became an era of crossing swords with the governments of the day; and they treated the King’s representatives with some contempt, as when James VI’s two soldier guards arrived at a hostelry prior to arresting a local clansman for debt.

They were unceremoniously hauled out of bed in the middle of the night and ejected from the house without even being given time to don their cavalry boots – if they could have found them, for they had disappeared as had their horses.

A twenty mile hike back to their headquarters was the humiliating result.

The next century marked a different attitude to Royalty on the part of the Robertsons.

In the 1630s, the rise of the Covenanters against Charles 1st, on his decreeing what manner they should worship, prompted the Robertsons to fight for their King.

They did this with bows and quivers of arrows, some guns, a pole axe, a few steel bonnets and one coat of mail: but, with the broadsword and targe and Highland bonnet still in the ascendant, their prowess earned them a mention in an old song with the lines ‘Cam ye by Atholl, lad wi’ the fillabeg, doon by the Tummel an’ banks o’ the Garry!’

The Marquis of Montrose raised Charles I’s standard in Atholl, heralding a succession of Royalist victories and in 1650 the Athollmen led by the 12th Chief, Alexander, were fighting for his son Charles II – battling to oppose Cromwell, self-styled Lord Protector of Scotland.

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English History

of Clan Robertson


Invasion and conquest

Although a name that is particularly identified with Scotland, where it is ranked 5th in some lists of the 100 most common surnames found there, in lists for England ‘Robertson’ is also ranked highly, at 27th out of 100.

The reason for the high preponderance of the name throughout the British Isles lies in the fact that it stems from what for centuries has been the popular forename ‘Robert’, with ‘Robertson’ indicating ‘son of Robert.’ The given name ‘Robert’ in turn derives from the Anglo-Saxon ‘hrothi’ and ‘berhta’, meaning ‘fame-bright’.

This means that, despite being popularised as a surname in the wake of the Norman Conquest, flowing through the veins of Robertsons today may well be the blood of those Germanic tribes who invaded and first settled in the south and east of the island of Britain from about the early fifth century.

Known as the Anglo-Saxons, they were composed of the Jutes, from the area of the Jutland Peninsula in modern Denmark, the Saxons from Lower Saxony, in modern Germany and the Angles from the Angeln area of Germany.

It was the Angles who gave the name ‘Engla land’, or ‘Aengla land’ – better known as ‘England.’

They held sway in what became England from approximately 550 to 1066, with the main kingdoms those of Sussex, Wessex, Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, East Anglia and Essex.

Whoever controlled the most powerful of these kingdoms was tacitly recognised as overall ‘king’ – one of the most noted being Alfred the Great, King of Wessex from 871 to 899.

It was during his reign that the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was compiled – an invaluable source of Anglo-Saxon history – while Alfred was designated in early documents as Rex Anglorum Saxonum, King of the English Saxons.

Through the Anglo-Saxons, the language known as Old English developed, later transforming from the eleventh century into Middle English – sources from which popular English surnames of today, such as Robertson, derive.

The Anglo-Saxons meanwhile, had usurped the power of the indigenous Britons – who referred to them as ‘Saeson’ or ‘Saxones.’ It is from this that the Scottish-Gaelic term for ‘English people’ of ‘Sasannach’ derives, the Irish- Gaelic ‘Sasanach’ and the Welsh ‘Saeson.’

We learn from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle how the religion of the early Anglo-Saxons was one that pre-dated the establishment of Christianity in the British Isles. Known as a form of Germanic paganism, with roots in Old Norse religion, it shared much in common with the Druidic ‘nature-worshipping’ religion of the indigenous Britons.

It was in the closing years of the sixth century that Christianity began to take a hold in Britain, while by approximately 690 it had become the ‘established’ religion of Anglo-Saxon England.

The first serious shock to Anglo-Saxon control came in 789 in the form of sinister black-sailed Viking ships that appeared over the horizon off the island monastery of Lindisfarne, in the northeast of the country. Lindisfarne was sacked in an orgy of violence and plunder, setting the scene for what would be many more terrifying raids on the coastline of not only England, but also Ireland and Scotland.

But the Vikings, or ‘Northmen’, in common with the Anglo-Saxons of earlier times, were raiders who eventually stayed – establishing, for example, what became Jorvik, or York, and the trading port of Dublin, in Ireland. Through intermarriage, the bloodlines of the Anglo-Saxons also became infused with that of the Vikings.

But there would be another infusion of the blood of the ‘Northmen’ in the wake of the Norman Conquest of 1066 – a key event in English history that sounded the death knell of Anglo-Saxon supremacy.

By this date, England had become a nation with several powerful competitors to the throne.

In what were extremely complex family, political and military machinations, the king was Harold II, who had succeeded to the throne following the death of Edward the Confessor.

But his right to the throne was contested by two powerful competitors – his brother-in-law King Harold Hardrada of Norway, in alliance with Tostig, Harold II’s brother, and Duke William II of Normandy.

In what has become known as The Year of Three Battles, Hardrada invaded England and gained victory over the English king on September 20 at the battle of Fulford, in Yorkshire.

Five days later, however, Harold II decisively defeated his brother-in-law and brother at the battle of Stamford Bridge.

But he had little time to celebrate his victory, having to immediately march south from Yorkshire to encounter a mighty invasion force led by Duke William that had landed at Hastings, in East Sussex.

Harold’s battle-hardened but exhausted force of Anglo-Saxon soldiers confronted the Normans on October 14, drawing up a strong defensive position at the top of Senlac Hill, and building a shield wall to repel William’s cavalry and infantry.

The Normans suffered heavy losses, but through a combination of the deadly skill of their archers and the ferocious determination of their cavalry they eventually won the day.

Morale had collapsed on the battlefield as word spread through the ranks that Harold, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, had been killed.

William was declared King of England on December 25, and the complete subjugation of his Anglo-Saxon subjects followed.

Those Normans who had fought on his behalf were rewarded with the lands of Anglo-Saxons, many of whom sought exile abroad as mercenaries.

Within an astonishingly short space of time, Norman manners, customs and law were imposed on England – laying the basis for what subsequently became established ‘English’ custom and practice.

But beneath the surface, old Anglo-Saxon culture was not totally eradicated, with some aspects absorbed into that of the Normans, while faint echoes of the Anglo-Saxon past is still seen today in the form of popular surnames such as Robertson.

The popularity of the name meant that its bearers came to be found all over England, although the first recorded spelling – in the form of ‘Robertsone’ – appears in Derbyshire in 1327, and it is with this modern-day English county that it is particularly identified.

In Scotland, some bearers of the name today may be entitled to trace a descent, in common with some English bearers of the name who can identify a Scottish ancestry, from the proud Clan Robertson who in turn trace a descent from ancient Celtic Earls of Atholl.

Also known as Clan Donnachaidh, from ‘Duncan’, the clan adopted ‘Robertson’ as a surname from Robert, 4th Chief of the Clan.

Bearers of the name came to feature prominently in the historical record through a range of endeavours and pursuits.

In the ecclesiastical realms, The Right Reverend George Samuel Robertson was the noted Bishop of Exeter born in 1835 in Sywell, Northamptonshire. Graduating with a first class degree in classics from Trinity College, Oxford, he served as Principal of King’s College, London from 1897 to 1903 when he was appointed Bishop of Exeter.

Serving as bishop until 1916, he died in 1931, while his father, Archibald Robertson, had been the Scottish physician, ship’s surgeon and medical writer born in 1789 in Cockburnspath, Berwickshire.

Present in 1809 on the Royal Navy flagship Caledonia when the British naval commander Lord Dundonald attempted to burn the French fleet in Basque roads, in 1818 he established a medical practice in Northampton and wrote a number of medical treatise.

A Fellow of the scientific think-tank the Royal Society and also a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he died in 1864.

Battle honours

Bearers of the Robertson name have gained particular distinction on the bloody field of battle.

Born in Dumfries in 1865, William Robertson was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for valour in the face of enemy action for British and Commonwealth forces.

He had been a sergeant-major in the 2nd Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders, during the Second Boer War, when in October of 1899 at the battle of Elandslaagte he braved withering enemy fire to lead a successful assault on a position and, despite being wounded, to hold it until relieved.

Promoted to captain in 1910, major in 1915 and lieutenant-colonel in 1917, he was appointed honorary treasurer of the Royal British Legion Scotland following his retirement from the army in 1920.

The recipient of a CBE, he died in 1949, while his VC is now on display at the National War Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle.

Born in 1883 in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, James Robertson was a posthumous recipient of the VC during the First World War.

He had been a private in the 27th (City of Winnipeg) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force when, in November of 1917 during the final assault on Passchendaele, in Belgium, he was killed by a bursting shell after having not only single-handedly killed an enemy machine-gun crew but also rescuing a wounded comrade.

Also during the First World War, William Robertson, later 1st Baronet of Welbourn, Lincolnshire is, to date, the first and only British Army soldier to rise from the rank of private to Field Marshall.

Born in 1860, he enlisted in the army in 1877 and served for twelve years as a trooper in the 16th (The Queen’s) Lancers, while in 1897 he was selected to attend the Staff College, Camberley.

His subsequent rise through the army establishment was rapid, serving from 1916 to 1918 as Chief of the Imperial Staff (CIGS); also known fondly as “Wully” Robertson, he died in 1933.

His son General Brian Hubert Robertson, born in 1896 and later 1st Baron Robertson of Oakridge, also served during the First World War and went on to hold posts that included, following the end of the Second World War, Military Governor and British member of the Allied Control Council for Germany.

Chairman from 1953 to 1961 of the British Transport Commission, he died in 1974.

In the smoke and mirrors that is the world of deception, Thomas Argyll Robertson, born in 1909 and known as “Tommy” or more commonly by his initials ‘TAR’ was the British military intelligence officer responsible for the disinformation campaign against the Germans known as Double Cross.

In addition to ‘turning’ captured German spies to feed disinformation back to the Abwehr, German military intelligence, and also to persuade German High Command that the planned invasion of Hitler’s Festung Europa – Fortress Europe – would take place at the Pas de Calais, and not Normandy, Double Cross also involved the complex but ultimately successful Operation Mincemeat.

This was to persuade the Germans that the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia in 1943 – and not Sicily as was actually planned through what was known as Operation Husky.

A scheme was devised by Robertson and what was known as the XX-Committee – a team that included the Royal Navy intelligence officer Lieutenant Ewen Montagu – to arrange for the body of a British officer, carrying apparently top secret documents revealing the Allies planned to invade Greece and Sardinia, to be washed up on a beach in Punta Umbria, Spain.

The planners were aware the Spanish authorities, although ostensibly neutral, regularly co-operated with the Abwehr and would pass on for its examination any documents found on the body.

Accordingly the body of a man who had died in London from symptoms that closely resembled hypothermia and drowning was obtained from a coroner.

It was not until many years later that it was revealed he was Glyndwr Michael, a 34-year-old Welshman who had no living relatives.

A ‘legend’ was created that the corpse was that of Captain (Acting Major) William “Bill” Martin of the Royal Marines and, in addition to the ‘top secret’ military documents, love letters and even a bill from a jeweller for an engagement ring for his fiancée were planted on him.

The body was floated out to sea to wash up on the beach at Porta Umbria and the authorities, as hoped, passed all the documentation and Martin’s personal possessions on to the Abwehr for their examination.

The Abwehr fell for the ruse and accordingly German High Command depleted its forces in Sicily in favour of Greece and Sardinia – contributing in no small measure to the success of Operation Husky.

The story was used as the plot of a 1950 novel, Operation Heartbreak, by Duff Cooper, who had held a number of wartime posts – but three years later the true tale of Operation Mincemeat was revealed by Lieutenant Commander Montagu in The Man Who Never Was, adapted for a film of the name in 1956.

Robertson, the recipient of an OBE for his clandestine wartime service, died in 1994, while after the war Winston Churchill had written: “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”

Going back to the nineteenth century, James Robertson is recognised as having been one of the first war photographers.

Born in Middlesex in 1813, he trained as a coin and gem engraver, and it was while later working as an engraver at the Imperial Ottoman Mint in Constantinople, now the Turkish capital of Istanbul, that he became interested in photography.

Along with fellow British photographer Felix Beato, he formed the photographic partnership Robertson and Beato, opening a studio in Constantinople and later joined by Beato’s brother Antonio.

Robertson and Felix Beato travelled to Balaclava in 1855 during the Crimean War and, in September of that year, recorded on film the fall of Russian-held Sevastopol to the British and their allies.

Robertson died in 1888, his photographic partnership having produced – in addition to war images – stunning panoramas of far-flung places such as India, Malta, Greece, Egypt and Jerusalem.

From the battlefield to politics, George Robertson, more formally known as George Islay MacNeill Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, is the British Labour Party politician who served from October of 1999 until January of 2004 as General Secretary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).

Born in 1946 in Port Ellen, Isle of Islay, after having studied economics at Queen’s College, Dundee, he first entered the House of Commons in 1978 after winning a by-election in the Scottish constituency of Hamilton, later Hamilton South.

His by-election win came just a year after a serious road accident when the car he was driving was involved in a collision with a Royal Navy Land Rover carrying gelignite and a box of detonators.

Fortunately, the gelignite did not explode, but he was left with a broken jaw and smashed knees.

His many political posts have included, from 1997 to 1999, Defence Secretary, while he was also a leading figure in the successful campaign to ban handguns in the United Kingdom.

This followed the murder in 1996 of sixteen children and their teacher at their school in Dunblane – the Scottish town where Robertson lived with his family – by a deranged local man, Thomas Hamilton.

His many honours include honorary doctorates from a number of universities, while in 2003 he was a recipient of America’s Presidential Medal of Freedom.

One particularly controversial bearer of the Robertson name is the American media mogul, former Southern Baptist minister, supporter of conservative Christian values and author Marian Gordon Robertson, better known as Pat Robertson.

Born in 1930 in Lexington, Virginia, a son of Absalom Willis Robertson, the Democratic Party politician who represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate from 1946 to 1966, he is the founder of a number of corporations and organisations.

These include the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), ABC Family Channel, Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation and Regent University in Virginia.

Unsuccessful in his bid to become the Republican Party nominee in the 1988 presidential election, he is the author of the best-selling The New World Order – which has been heavily criticised because of his theory of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy and his castigation of homosexuality.

In 1999, the Bank of Scotland entered into a joint venture with him to provide financial services in the United States – but the bank pulled out of the venture because of widespread condemnation throughout the U.K. of Robertson’s views on homosexuality.

His son Gordon Perry Robertson, born in 1958 and chief executive officer of CBN, is a frequent co-host of his father’s live weekdays’ Christian news and television programme The 700 Club.

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Family History Mini Book


We hope you enjoyed reading this excerpt from this mini book on the English history of the Robertson family.

You can buy the full book for only
$5.08

125 Clan Robertson

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The Crests

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Mottos

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Glory the Reward of Valour
Glory is the reward of valour

Divisions

of Robertson

Collier
Connochie
Cunnison
Dobbie
Dobbin
Dobson
Donachie
Duncan
Hobson
Inches
Kynoch
MacGlashan
MacInroy
MacIver
MacJames
MacLagan
MacRobbie
Reid
Robb
Robertson of Struan
Stark
Tonnochy
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Spellings

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Roberson
Robson
Robbie

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