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Clan Scott

AMO (I LOVE)


Clan Scott originate in the Scottish Borders. Like many of their Border Reiver neighbours, they fought with both their fellow clans and their English neighbours.

The Scott clan motto is "Amo" (I Love) and the clan crest is a stag.

Scottish History

of Clan Scott


A powerful clan

The Clan Scott was one of the most powerful border clans and members of the clan could be found across large swathes of the Border hills.

The heart of Scott country was Bellendain, but they were also to be found in West Teviotdale, Ewesdale, Eskdale and Liddesdale, around Hawick, Selkirk and Melrose in the district of Roxburgh-shire.

They preferred being called Borderers to Lowlanders, although their lands are in the Scottish Lowlands.

The Latin word Scotti originally referred to the Irish Celts, then later Gaels in general. However the earliest record of the name Scott was attributed to Uchtred Filius Scott who witnessed a charter around 1120.

Uchtred was said to have had two sons, Richard and Michael. From Richard eventually grew the family branch known as the Scots of Buccleuch, and from Michael came the Scotts of Balweary.

Four generations later Uchtred’s descendent, Sir Richard Scott, began his family’s transformation into peaceful landowners when he married Alicia, daughter of Henry of Molla and heiress of Murthockstone, thereby acquiring her estates.

Sir Richard was appointed Ranger of Ettrick Forest, which added the lands of Rankilburn to his properties. He built his family residence at Buccleuch and thereafter the estates went by the name of Buccleuch.

Uchtred’s second son, Michael, married Margaret, daughter of Duncan Syras of Syras, and gained the lands of Ceres. They had one child, Duncan, who in turn had two children, Michael and Gilbert.

Michael was knighted by Alexander II and married Margaret Balwearie, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Richard Balwearie. The marriage brought to Michael the lands of Balwearie in the parish of Abbotshall.

Sir Michael was an ardent supporter of Robert the Bruce and later of King David II.

He met his death in 1346 fighting at Durham and he left two sons, Robert and John, who between them founded the two great branches of the Scott clan. The eldest, Robert, inherited the Buccleuch and Murdochston estates, to which he added Scotstoun, while John founded the cadet house of Synton, from which the Lords of Polworth are descended.

Thus began the two great branches of the Scott clan.

Sworn enemies

By the dawn of the sixteenth century there was acrimony between the Scotts and their neighbours, the Kerrs.

This gathered momentum when Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch took it upon himself to attempt to free James V from the clutches of the Earl of Angus. The young king was being held captive at Darnick which lies to the west of the town of Melrose.

Scott launched his attack on July 25, 1526, and Kerr of Cessford was slain during the battle. Sir Walter was also wounded but recovered and went on to fight at the battle of Pinkie in 1547. Later he was appointed as warden of Liddesdale and the Middle Marches.

The Kerrs however had not forgiven their sworn enemy for the death of Kerr of Cessford. A chance meeting in Edinburgh’s High Street on October 4, 1552 between a number of the Kerr clan and Sir Walter led to the Scott chief being slain.

The feuding finally came to an end when Sir Thomas of Ferniehirst married Janet Scott, the sister of the 10th Laird of Buccleuch. The Laird was an ardent supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots until he died, leaving his son, also named Walter after his illustrious ancestors, to inherit his estates while still very young.

This Walter was very much in the mould of his predecessors. He was born in 1565 and succeeded his father in 1574. He went on to become a renowned military leader that history remembers as the Bold Buccleuch. He was involved in every Border raid of his time, and was held in Blackness for a skirmish in which he played a leading part, but he escaped and received letters of pardon from King James VI on March 3, 1582-83.

His imprisonment seems not to have taught the Bold Buccleuch any lessons. Following his release he took part in a raid against England in 1587 and was promptly imprisoned again, this time in Edinburgh Castle, but released fairly quickly.

A more serious problem for the King was Sir Walter’s acceptance of the turbulent antics of the Earl of Bothwell, who had married his mother on the death of his father. He complied with his stepfather’s lawlessness to the extent that he was banished to France for three years.

However he sought a pardon in 1592 and was permitted to return to Scotland in November of that year.

Meanwhile, the King had run out of patience with the Earl of Bothwell and confiscated his lands, giving them to the Duke of Lennox who was a firm favourite at the time.

The Duke, in turn, held the lands for three years before returning them to the King, who immediately conferred the Bothwell estates on Sir Walter as a reward for helping to bring peace to the Borders.

The same Sir Walter, however, had participated in many raids, while supposedly helping to maintain law and order. He actively took the law into his own hands when he considered that any of his supporters had suffered at the hands of English freebooters.

One of his better known exploits was the rescuing of his staunch supporter, William Armstrong, otherwise known as Kinmount Willie, from the previously impenetrable fortress of Carlisle Castle.

During this time, the Scotts were at their most powerful. They could call upon large numbers of followers and as many as 600 would follow them into battle, or take part in a raid organised by Sir Walter.

However, after the union of the Crowns in 1603, cross-border raids came to an end as it was no longer tolerable to have border warfare continuing in what was supposed to be a United Kingdom.

When relative peace was brought to the area many clansmen went to fight in Holland as members of the Scots brigade.

Sir Walter was appointed commander of a body of troops under Prince Maurice of the Netherlands in 1604, where he served until a truce was called in 1609.

In 1606 he had been created a Lord of Parliament in Scotland and was given the title Lord Scott of Buccleuch, and appointed a member of the Privy Council on February 26, 1611.

Such positions in the London establishment transformed the clan chiefs. They became great noblemen, leaders of powerful families rather than adhering to the old clan system of their ancestors.

Sir Walter, or Lord Scott as he was then, died on December 15, 1611 at Branksholm, aged 46, and was buried at Hawick. He left a son and three daughters, his wife having been a daughter of Sir William Kerr of Cessford, the erstwhile enemy of his house.

His son, another Walter, was the first for over 140 years to inherit the Buccleuch estates after having reached majority. He was a military man like his father, who commanded a regiment for the States of Holland against the Spanish. He was given the title of Earl of Buccleuch in 1619. He spent his entire life in the service of his country, and was in active service until six weeks before his death in November 1633.

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Family History Mini Book


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English History

of Clan Scott


Honours and distinction

Although a surname of specifically Scottish origin, ‘Scott’ is nevertheless ranked 42nd in some lists of the 100 most popular names found in England today.

Derived from the Latin ‘Scotti’, it denoted the Celts of Ireland, some of whom settled on the western seaboard of Scotland from about the late fifth century and later gave their name to what became ‘Scotland.’

But those who would take the Scott name were not confined to the northern kingdom, where their main territory was present day Jedburgh, in Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders.

Interaction with England meant that many were to be found there, and one of the reasons for this goes back to the reign from 1124 to 1153 of King David I of Scotland who, impressed by Anglo-Norman customs and manners, invited many to settle in his native land.

Among them, for example, were the Bruces – whose most famous son was the great warrior king Robert the Bruce.

These Anglo-Norman families also retained their original estates in England, and this meant that up until the bitter thirteenth and fourteenth century Wars of Independence there was a highly fluid interaction between both nations.

With the outbreak of the Wars of Independence, many were faced with conflicting loyalties – only too well aware that support for Scotland’s cause would lead to the loss of their English estates.

This was a fear that England’s Edward I, known as ‘The Hammer of the Scots’, exploited to the full – buying the loyalty of wavering Scots nobles by guaranteeing them the retention of the English landholdings in addition to further rewards.

One prominent family of the Scott name came to be settled in Kent, known today as ‘the garden of England.’

To determine how this may have come about, we have to travel back through the dim mists of time to 1290 when, following the death of the young Margaret, Maid of Norway and heiress to Alexander III of Scotland, John Balliol became a competitor for the Scottish crown.

There were several other competitors, in what became known as the Great Cause, but Balliol’s main rival was Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale and grandfather of the future King Robert the Bruce.

The Scottish nobility had asked Edward I to arbitrate in the matter of the succession to the Scottish crown and, through his powerful influence, Balliol was pronounced the rightful heir and duly inaugurated as such in November of 1292.

Balliol, born in about 1249, was the son of John, 5th Baron Balliol, Lord of Barnard Castle in England’s Co. Durham, and Dervorguilla of Galloway, in Scotland, and granddaughter of the Earl of Huntingdon.

Through this, he had extensive holdings not only in Scotland but also in England, including the estate of Hitchin, in Herefordshire.

But, despite his kingship and great wealth, his life was blighted.

Edward I had haughtily declared himself Lord Paramount of Scotland and Balliol was accordingly treated as a mere vassal, owing fealty to the English monarch.

Deeply rankled with this humiliating state of affairs, a number of Scottish nobles concluded an alliance with France – the Auld Alliance – in July of 1295. Edward’s response was to invade the northern kingdom.

As his forces wreaked fire and havoc across Scotland, Balliol was forced to abdicate in July of the following year and, on Edward’s orders, the proud arms of Scotland were formally torn from his tunic – giving the hapless Balliol the nickname of ‘Toom Tabard’, or ‘Empty Coat.’

Imprisoned for a time in the Tower of London, he was later allowed to retire to his French estates in Picardy, and it was here that he died in 1314.

It was through one of his close relatives – the precise relationship is not known with any degree of certainty – that the prominent Kentish family of Scott descend.

This was William Balliol, also known as William Balliol le (the) Scot – and it is from ‘le Scott’ that the ‘Scott’ or ‘Scot’ name may have been adopted by the family.

His background is a tangled genealogical weave. But what is known is that he was a close relation of Alexander de Balliol, Lord of Chilham, Kent, and who died in 1309.

William Balliol’s date of birth is not known, but what is known is that he died in 1434 after having obtaining the manor of Brabourne, in what is now the Ashford district of Kent, and building the family seat of Scott’s Hall, also referred to in some sources as Scots Hall.

Other noted members of this family, who held a number of high positions under a succession of English monarchs, include Sir William Scott, honorary Sword bearer to Henry V, who ruled from 1413 to 1422, and Sir Robert Scott, who is recorded as having been Lieutenant of the Tower of London.

During the reign from 1461 to 1483 of Edward IV, Sir John Scott was not only Comptroller of the Royal Household but also Governor of Dover Castle and Comptroller of Calais.

Under Henry VIII, his son Sir William Scott also served as Governor of Dover Castle.

It is the Coat of Arms of this family that features three Catherine wheels as its central motif and crest of a demi-griffin, while mottoes include ‘For King and Country’ and ‘All good or nothing.’

Of a separate family of Scotts, Thomas Scott, born in 1424 in Rotherham, Yorkshire, served as Lord Chancellor of England; founder of Lincoln College, Oxford, he died in 1500 after falling victim to the plague.

Better known as the Duke of Monmouth, James Scott was at the centre of one of the most pivotal events in England’s frequently turbulent history.

Born in 1649 in Rotterdam, the illegitimate son of Charles II, then living in exile, and his lover Lucy Walter, he was variously known as James Fitzroy or James Croft.

Created Duke of Monmouth after his father was restored to the throne in 1660, he married the heiress Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch, and immediately adopted her surname.

Created Duke of Buccleuch in the Peerage of Scotland, in what is known as Monmouth’s Rebellion he launched an abortive attempt to wrest the throne from the Catholic James II, who had succeeded Charles.

Exiled after James’ accession to the throne, he landed at Lyme Regis, Dorset, on June 11 of 1685 and, with up to 4,000 armed supporters, captured Taunton, in Somerset.

But the rebellion was swiftly and brutally quelled when Monmouth was defeated by Royalist troops at Sedgemoor Hill on July 5.

The duke went into hiding but was captured a short time later and, taken to London, executed on July 15.

His wife Anne, Duchess of Buccleuch, was able to retain her titles and estates.

In 1810, the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch inherited the Dukedom of Queensberry, meaning the present holder is only one of five people in the United Kingdom to hold two or more different dukedoms – in this case those of Monmouth, Buccleuch and Queensberry.

‘Scott’, meanwhile, remains their family name, while their family seats are Drumlanrig Castle, in Dumfries and Galloway, and Bowhill House, near Selkirk, in the Borders.

With other family properties that include Dalkeith Palace, Midlothian, Richard Scott, the 10th Duke, is the United Kingdom’s largest private landholder, while he is also Chief of Clan Scott, whose motto is ‘Love’ and crest a stag.

Exploration and the arts

One particularly intrepid bearer of the Scott name, and one who became a British national hero, was the Royal Navy officer and Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott.

Leader of two expeditions to the frozen wastes, it was while on the final one – to reach the South Pole – that he and four of his companions lost their lives.

Born in 1868 in Stoke Damerel, near Devonport, Devon, the third of six children, his father was a brewer and a magistrate.

The family, however, had strong military and naval traditions, and it was towards the latter that the young Scott was drawn, entering the naval training ship HMS Britannia when he was aged 13.

Qualifying as a midshipman two years later, he first went to sea aboard HMS Boadicea, flagship of the Cape Squadron.

Promoted to lieutenant in 1889, it was ten years later, while home on leave, that he met Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and whom he had first met several years before.

Markham was impressed by Scott and told him of an expedition to the Antarctic that the RGS planned.

Against some initial opposition from some quarters, Scott was chosen to be placed in overall command of what became the British National Antarctic Expedition – more famously known as the Discovery expedition.

Organised by the RGS and the scientific think-tank the Royal Society, it was staffed mainly by naval personnel such as Scott and also the explorer Ernest Shackleton.

Built in Dundee, their expedition vessel Discovery – more properly known as RRS Discovery, with ‘RRS’ denoting ‘Royal Research Ship’, was a three-masted wooden sailing ship with coal-fired auxiliary steam engines.

Fully fitted out and stocked with essential supplies, she set off for the inhospitable Antarctic waters in August of 1901.

The main aim of the expedition was not to reach the South Pole but to collect as much geological, zoological and biological findings as possible.

But the expedition was woefully unprepared – not least because of Scott’s insistence on ‘man- hauling’ heavily laden sledges, in preference to the use of dogs that his Norwegian rival Roald Amundsen advocated, in addition to the use of skis.

On one early attempt at ice travel one of Scott’s party, George Vine, was killed when he slipped over a precipice, while Shackleton had to abandon his part in the expedition through sheer physical exhaustion after having undertaken a trek with Edward Wilson.

The expedition spent two gruelling years on the ice, returning to Britain in September of 1904 and where Scott was lauded as a hero.

Promoted to the rank of captain, he was also made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO).

He returned to full-time naval duties until, in 1910, he was placed in command of the Terra Nova Expedition, named from its ship, Terra Nova.

The RGS stated before the Terra Nova sailed that the main objective of the expedition was “scientific primarily, with exploration and the Pole as secondary objects.”

Scott, however, aware that Amundsen was on his way to attempt to reach the Pole, stated that as far as he was concerned his main objective was “to reach the South Pole, and to secure for the British Empire the honour of this achievement.”

Along with four others – Henry Bowers, Edgar Evans, Lawrence Oates and Edward Wilson – Scott did indeed reach the Pole on January 12, 1912, but only to find Amundsen’s party had beaten them to it by about five weeks.

Making their dispirited way back to base camp – exhausted, frozen and with their supplies all but depleted – Oates voluntarily left their tent and walked to his death with the farewell: “I am just going out and may be some time.”

The rest of the party quickly succumbed to the terrible conditions, with Scott believed to have died on about March 29.

Their bodies were discovered by a search party on November 29, and buried where they had made camp.

In the years following the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition, a number of monuments and memorials were set up in honour of Scott while his first expedition vessel Discovery, now moored at Dundee’s Discovery Point, is a major visitor attraction.

In 1908 meanwhile, Scott had married the sculptor and socialite Kathleen Bruce.

Their only child was the eminent conservationist, ornithologist, painter and sportsman Sir Peter Markham Scott.

Born in 1909 and a founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature and later a recipient of its prestigious gold medal, it was he who gave the scientific name Nessitera Rhombopteryx to the mysterious Loch Ness Monster, in order that it could be registered as an endangered species.

The name means “the monster of Ness with the diamond-shaped fin”, and was based on an underwater photograph that showed a supposed fin.

Also representing Britain in sailing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, he won a bronze medal in the O-Jolie dinghy class.

Knighted in 1973 for his contribution to the conservation of wild animals, he died in 1989.

His wife, Phillipa Scott (née Talbot-Ponsonby), was the conservationist and wildlife photographer born in 1918 in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Honorary director of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust that was founded by her husband in 1948 and an associate of the Royal Photographic Society, she died in 2010.

One of the greatest literary figures of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Sir Walter Scott was the poet, playwright and historical novelist born in Edinburgh in 1771.

Practising for a time as a lawyer in his native city, he had been fascinated from an early age with his nation’s rich and vibrant history, particularly that of the Borders, where his family hailed from and also had distant connections with the Scotts of Buccleuch.

Turning to full-time writing, his set of collected ballads, The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders, was published in 1796, followed by highly popular historical novels that include the Waverley novels and his Tales of My Landlord collection – that include his 1816 Old Mortality and, from 1818, The Heart of Midlothian.

Married in 1797 to French-born Genevieve Charpentier, he built a family home on the south bank of the River Tweed, near Melrose in his beloved Borders country.

Naming it Abbotsford, he added to it over the following years to leave what is now the major visitor attraction of Abbotsford House.

He was struck by financial disaster in 1825 when a nation-wide banking crisis led to the collapse of the Bannatyne printing business, leaving him liable for debts of a staggering £130,000.

Refusing offers of financial aid from friends and admirers, he determined to ‘write’ his way out of debt and, already in failing health, went on to produce other best-selling novels that include his 1826 Woodstock and his 1828 The Fair Maid of Perth.

It was only a short time after his death in 1832, thanks to the continuing success of his literary output, that his debts were finally discharged.

He was buried in Melrose Abbey, while the many memorials to him across the world include the imposing Scott Monument in Edinburgh’s Princes Street and statues in both Glasgow’s George Square and New York’s Central Park.

Read more

Family History Mini Book


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

You can buy the full book for only
$5.08

117 Clan Scott

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The Crests

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Mottos

of Scott

Amo (I Love)
For King and country

Divisions

of Scott

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Langlands
Napier

Spellings

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Scoit
Scoitt
Scot
Scotte
Scotus
Scoyt
Escot
Escott

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