“Wha daur meddle wi’ me?” 1 Dear Kinsmen, This has been a particularly sad new year with the news of the deaths of too many friends. Dommie Elliot, a Trustee, was a kind and charming man, a scion of the great Minto line and very proud of his family’s illustrious history. Also, many of you will remember John C. K. Elliott, larger than life and great fun who, with his wife Angela, attended all the Gatherings since the beginning and gave his time and legal brain to setting up the Sir Arthur Eliott Memorial Trust. We will miss them both. Also Janet Danforth, Commissioner South Carolina, who heroically made it to the dinner in North Carolina last summer and Carol who organized our visit to Grandfather Mountain so beautifully. Both of them became good friends and are a terrific loss. In this issue, plans for a new hardback edition of The Elliots with the addition of a brief resume of new research on The Origins of the Clan. The dramatic story of Wee Jock Elliot and an artist called Arthur Elliot who painted Montrealers but of whom I know nothing else. Somebody reading this may be able to fill me in? We are starting work on Foulshiels cottage any day now with a view to renting it out for holiday lets. In the next newsletter I hope to be able to report it ‘open for business’ !! Yours sincerely, Margaret Eliott of Redheugh Redheugh, Newcastleton, Roxburghshire TD9 0SB www.elliotclan.com www.elliotclanusa.com www.elliotclanaustralia.org www.visitnewcastleton.com “Here’s to all Elliots and Elliot’ bairns And them that lie in Elliots arms.” No. 82 – Spring 2019 Chief: Margaret Eliott of Redheugh ELLIOT CLAN SOCIETY Newsletter NOTICES AND NEWS ITEMS Our New Treasurer, Sandra Inglis, is bringing our UK membership records up to date, so you may well receive a reminder to update your Standing Order Mandates. This has been a rather complicated operation and I hope that we have not made any errors. Please, where possible, put your membership number as it is sometimes difficult to identify one Elliott from another !!! Letter in The Times: Sir, I was interested to see that Frank Wild, Ernest Shackleton’s second-in-command, ate penguins while awaiting rescue on Elephant Island in 1916, and found that “the legs taste like mutton and the breast very like hare.” SIR GERALD ELLIOT also ate penguins while wintering over at the whaling station on South Georgia in the 1960s and when subsequently asked what they tasted like he replied with his usual straight face that they tasted “not unlike cormorant.” Tour Guide for the Borders: Alistair Cunningham of Clans and Castles Ltd is highly recommended. Based in Hawick, so he knows his way around the history of the Borders. The website: www.clansandcastles.scot email: [email protected]Acquired for the Clan Room Library: “A narrative of the life and death of John Elliot, M.D.’ containing an account of the rise, progress, and catastrophe of his unhappy passion for Miss Mary Boydell; a review of his writings. Together with an Apology, written by himself . . .” Published by Gale Ecco Print Editions. VISITING THE CLAN ROOM: To avoid disappointment, please warn us if you intend to visit Redheugh. Email or telephone us on the follwing UK number: 013873-75213 or [email protected]
Transcript
“Wha daur meddle wi’ me?”
1
Dear Kinsmen,
This has been a particularly sad new year with the news ofthe deaths of too many friends.
Dommie Elliot, a Trustee, was a kind and charming man, ascion of the great Minto line and very proud of his family’sillustrious history.
Also, many of you will remember John C. K. Elliott, largerthan life and great fun who, with his wife Angela, attendedall the Gatherings since the beginning and gave his timeand legal brain to setting up the Sir Arthur Eliott MemorialTrust. We will miss them both.
Also Janet Danforth, Commissioner South Carolina, whoheroically made it to the dinner in North Carolina lastsummer and Carol who organized our visit to GrandfatherMountain so beautifully. Both of them became goodfriends and are a terrific loss.
In this issue, plans for a new hardback edition of TheElliots with the addition of a brief resume of new research on The Origins of the Clan. The dramatic story of Wee Jock Elliot and an artist called Arthur Elliot whopainted Montrealers but of whom I know nothing else.Somebody reading this may be able to fill me in?
We are starting work on Foulshiels cottage any day nowwith a view to renting it out for holiday lets. In the nextnewsletter I hope to be able to report it ‘open forbusiness’ !!
“Here’s to all Elliots and Elliot’ bairnsAnd them that lie in Elliots arms.”
No. 82 – Spring 2019 Chief: Margaret Eliott of Redheugh
ELLIOT CLAN SOCIETY
Newsletter
NOTICESAND
NEWS ITEMSOur New Treasurer, Sandra Inglis, is bringing our UK membership recordsup to date, so you may well receive areminder to update your StandingOrder Mandates. This has been a rathercomplicated operation and I hope thatwe have not made any errors. Please,where possible, put your membershipnumber as it is sometimes difficult toidentify one Elliott from another !!!
Letter in The Times:Sir, I was interested to see that Frank Wild, Ernest Shackleton’s second-in-command, ate penguinswhile awaiting rescue on ElephantIsland in 1916, and found that “the legstaste like mutton and the breast verylike hare.” SIR GERALD ELLIOT also atepenguins while wintering over at thewhaling station on South Georgia in the1960s and when subsequently askedwhat they tasted like he replied with hisusual straight face that they tasted “notunlike cormorant.”
Tour Guide for the Borders:Alistair Cunningham of Clans andCastles Ltd is highly recommended.Based in Hawick, so he knows his wayaround the history of the Borders. The website: www.clansandcastles.scotemail: [email protected]
Acquired for the Clan Room Library:“A narrative of the life and death of John Elliot, M.D.’ containing an account of the rise, progress, and catastrophe of his unhappy passion for Miss MaryBoydell; a review of his writings.Together with an Apology, written by himself . . .” Published by Gale Ecco Print Editions.
VISITING THE CLAN ROOM: To avoid disappointment, please warn us if you intend to visitRedheugh. Email or telephone us on the follwing UK number:
British artist Arthur Elliot sketcheddozens of lively pictures ofMontréal, Canada, during his visitthere from September 1881 toMarch 1882. He had a sharp eye forthe details of daily life and recordedthem with an equally sharp wit.
The winter months, in particular,were of interest to Elliot, whorecorded the various sleighs and thewinter dress of Montréalers, andpainted charming watercolours ofskating carnivals and of childrensledding on city streets.
Mary, Queen of ScotsObituaryThe Hon. Dominic Elliot
Trustee of the Clan ElliotSociety, he died peacefully on3rd October 2018 aged 87.Much loved husband of Jane,beloved father of Alexander,Esmond, Violet and Georgeand grandfather to Lara, Alice, and Flora. After a funeral inSalisbury, he was interred atMinto Churchyard in theBorders.He was a prominent societyfigure in the 1950s and 1960sand was a frequent escort ofPrincess Margaret and later amember of the Mustique set.He was born in 1931, son ofthe 5th Earl of Minto, by hiswife the former Marion Cook;married firstly in 1962 toCountess Marianne Esterházy,and married a 2nd time in1983 to Jane Caroline Reeve.Dommie loved the Borderswhere he grew up and was a great supporter of the Clan Society and gaveencouragement whenever hecould. He had great charm andwas proud of his family’shistory.
In the mid 16th century, such wasthe level of violence on the borderwith England and Scotland, that theEarl of Bothwell was dispatchedwith a strong force to Liddesdale todeal with the troublemakers. Hearrived at Hermitage Castle aboutthe same time as Mary arrived inJedburgh to attend court and dealwith wrongdoers.
While attending to her civic dutiesin Jedburgh, news reached Mary thatBothwell had been seriously hurtduring an encounter with the reiversand lay helpless at Hermitage Castle. She decided to go to Hermitagethere and then to attend to him.
The route took the party over hugetracts of open moorland and bog. It was difficult terrain and foul
weather and more than once Mary'shorse stumbled in the bog and onlywith difficulty found firm ground.On one occasion she lost her watchalong with other possessions.
For 300 years Mary's watch laywhere she had dropped it, until itwas picked up by a farm workerdigging a drainage channel. It hadbeen well preserved and is now ondisplay at Queen Mary’s House inJedburgh.
Later, after being held in captivity byElizabeth I of England, she said"Would that I had died in Jedburgh."
Mary was executed at FotheringayCastle on the orders of QueenElizabeth in 1587. It is said that shedied with dignity and great courage.
Mary Stuart, 1542-1587, Queen of Scotland and DowagerQueen of France. Daughter of James V of Scotland andMarie de Guise. Her second marriage was to Lord Darnleywho was murdered in very mysterious circumstances. The Earl of Bothwell was suspected of causing his deat h.
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Ma castle is aye ma ain, An' herried it never shall be, For I maun fa' ere it's taen, An' wha daur meddle wi' me?
Wi' ma kit i' the rib o' ma naig, Ma sword hingin' doon by ma knee, For man I am never afraid, An' wha daur meddle wi' me?
Bothwell was eager to take onthe mission as it was a chance todisplay his courage and loyalty tothe queen. At this stage there wasno hint of romance betweenthem as both were married toother people. In his capacity asKeeper he used Hermitage Castleas his base for overseeing the ruleof law in the area and he hadmanaged to round up someArmstrongs and put them understrong guard in the Castle.
On an October day Bothwell hadridden out with a company andcame across John Elliot on his own– more commonly called WeeJock Elliot (As is the way ofnicknames, he was probably a verybig fellow - Ed). As Bothwell hadthe superior mount he had riddenahead of his group and cameacross Wee Jock. A struggle ensuedin which Jock was sent sprawlingand Bothwell, seeing this as anopportunity not to be missed,dismounted and approached theapparently lifeless reiver.
Jock was not seriously injured butfeigned death while watching asBothwell approached. Bothwellmisjudged the ground and slippedbecoming “so hurt that heswooned.” Jock, despite being shot in the thigh, summoned thestrength to attack Bothwell witha two-handed sword causing threewounds – one in the body, one inthe head and one in the hand.
Bothwell was left for dead,bloodied and lying in the heather,until his troopers caught up anddiscovered him badly, but notmortally, wounded. He wasdragged back to Hermitage Castleon a sledge.
However, this was not the end of his problems and on theirreturn he found the imprisonedArmstrongs had escaped andoverpowered their guards. Theyrefused Bothwell entrance to hisown Castle.
It was Robert Elliot of the Shawswho stepped in and negotiatedterms with the Armstrongs lettingthem go as free men and in returnallowing access for the woundedman. In return for this serviceRobert Elliot was awarded therents and duties of the lands ofBlackgrave.
Without medical aid Bothwellwould have certainly died. We know that Wee Jock Elliot still lived and was at libertyaccording to the reliable sourceof Sir John Forster, the Warden of the English Middle March.There is no record of hissubsequent apprehension.
Taken from an article by Derek Stewart in The Highlander, January 2019.
Pictured left: The Earl of Bothwelland Little Jock Elliot, from theG & S Embleton painting.
James Hepburn 1st Earl of Bothwell had beenappointed by Mary, Queen of Scots as Lieutenantof the Middle March and Keeper of Liddesdale,responsible for law and order on the frontierbetween England and Scotland.
Wha daur meddle wi’ me
4
A third edition of The Elliots,The Story of a Border Clanis in the planning stage of are-issue this summer. The cost will be £65.00 percopy excluding postage. There is a pre-publicationcost of £60.00 excludingpostage. If you would like toorder a copy please [email protected] mailing address andpostage preference (ie. Airmail or surface mail).This edition will also includea summary of K. E. Hunter’sresearch on the Origins of the Clan.
The Elliots, The Story of a BorderClan . . .
ORIGINS OF THE CLAN
Satchell’s ‘good sir’ was telling thetruth. Aliot, Allot, Eliot (Elliot, Eliottor Elliott) and Elot, are French-corrupted co-variants of an olderpurely Breton name, Alegouët, speltalso as Elegouët, from which theEnglish Elligott and Ellacott arederived. The names are still found insome numbers today in HauteBretagne, which used to include thePays Nantais and Loire Atlantique, aswell as in some parts of Normandy.Around a thousand Bretonmercenaries, along with a smallernumber of Flemings, joined Williamthe Conqueror in his invasion ofEngland in 1066, and fought on hisleft flank at the Battle of Hastings.Many of them settled in England andwere joined later by Normans andBretons who supported Henry I(1100-1135) in his fight against hiseldest brother, Robert Curthose forthe duchy of Normandy. Many ofHenry’s ‘new men’ were establishedby him in unsettled northern Englishcounties and some were soon tofind themselves the beneficiaries ofthe introduction of feudal militarytenure in Scotland, by king David I(1124-1153), Henry’s Anglo-Gaelicbrother-in-law and Earl ofHuntingdon. The hand of Henry can be seenbehind the so-called ‘DavidianRevolution.’ The most important ofthe Breton men to whom David gave
lands was Walter fitzAlan, the king’s‘stewart’ (steward or seneschal),progenitor of the Stewart dynasty.The appearance of Eliotstoun in hisbarony of Renfrew raises a questionwhich is covered elsewhere. It isimportant to grasp the implicationswhich arise from the exclusivity ofAliot and Eliot, as French-corruptedBreton names. The feudalization of easternScotland, north of the Forth, wasaccomplished by David’s grandsons,King Malcolm IV (1153-65) and King William I, the Lion (1165-1214).It was the latter who installed Elias(a popular medieval Breton name)with lands at Alyth, now inPerthshire. The king’s clerkspromptly laid a false trail for futurehistorians by following the customof identifying him by place name,despite his possession, unlike manyother Bretons, of a surname, speltby English chancery clerks, noted forstandardized ‘English chanceryspelling,’ as d’Aliot. The spelling ofthe name, as either Aliot or Eliot,was still fluid. Elias, perhaps a typically illiteratefighting man, was unaware of, or didnot understand the Gaelic aileadhfrom which Alyth was derived.Breton settlers are known to havebeen intensely proud of their Bretonidentity, and Elias was known morecommonly as Elias d’Aliot. (more) >>
By Keith Elliot Hunter — Appendix B
The story of the Elliots, fromtheir arrival in Liddesdale to the present day, is containedin “The Elliots, Story of aBorder Clan" written by SirArthur Eliott of Stobs, Bt. andthe Dowager Lady Eliott.
In 1688, Walter Scott of Satchells published his Metrical History of theHonourable Families of Scot and Elliot In Two Parts, which made theclaim, in his inimitable doggerel, that he had overheard his ‘good sir’ tell the story of the Elliots:
The town of Elliot was their antiquitie,Which stands in Angus in the foot of Glenshie;With brave King Robert they hither came,Which is three hundred and eighty years agone;In West Tiviotdale* these gentlemen did dwell, There were twelve great families, I heard my good-sir tell;Their chief was a baron of renown,Designed Reid-heugh, which is now called Lariston.
*An old description of Liddesdale.
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ORIGINS OF THE CLANContinued from page 4
Thanks to the digitization ofsurviving old maps of Angus andPerthshire held by the NationalLibrary of Scotland we now knowthat Alyth itself was for someconsiderable time more commonlyknown as Eliot. Alyth appears for thefirst time in late eighteenth centurymaps and the tributary of the riverIsla, now known as Alyth Burn, wasknown as Elyeht Water. Two leadingcartographers of the modern erafinally spelt the name as Eliot. Thevill or settlement of Auchtereleotwhose situation gives us some ideaof the considerable size of theAliot/Eliot landholding, nowappears as Auchter Alyth. Walter d’Aliot and his brotherThomas, both described by Englishclerks as esquires, were takenprisoner at the battle of Dunbar in1295. Walter was taken off toTonbridge in Kent, and Thomas wasstill incarcerated at Kenilworth Castlein June, 1298. A fellow prisoner, John,Earl of Atholl, secured his release byguaranteeing his own and hisfollowers’ service to Edward I, in hiswar against the French king. Amonghis followers were Walter andThomas d’Aliot. Most Scots of higher rank and statusmade their peace with a triumphantEdward I and in 1304, we find Walterd’Aliot and his son, Thomas, actingas witnesses to a charter, along withno less a personage than RogerMortimer, lord of Wigmore, andfather of Roger, Earl of March andlover of Edward II’s queen, Isabella,the ‘she wolf’ of France.
Walter later attended thecoronation of Robert Bruce asRobert I, along with the Earl ofAtholl whose squire he appears tohave been, and for their pains thelands of both men, along with allothers who attended, were orderedto be dispossessed of their lands byEdward I. Adam Brunyng, a man ofmiddling rank involved in the earliercapture of William Wallace,petitioned for Walter’s lands,described as those of ‘the Brae,’ butwhether he was in a position andhad the resources to oust theincumbents is doubtful. There is little doubt that Liddesdalewas seized by Bruce soon after thedeath of Edward I, in July, 1307, andthat it remained under the controlof his lieutenants, Sir James Douglasand Sir Thomas Randolph, until 1310,when he undoubtedly beganplanning and preparing for his greatraids into England of 1311 and 1312.Liddesdale’s pro-English keeper, Sir Simon Lindsay, had abandonedLiddesdale and the tenants had fledwith their cattle into Cumberland soit was only sparsely populated andonly superficially feudalized. Bruce undoubtedly needed tocolonize this strategically importantfrontier valley prior to the launchingof his raids. Knight service attached to somelands was converted to mountedarcher service, and logistics dictatedthe need for the leaders ofwarbands to be given land to haveand hold. The Elliot holding ofRedheugh and the Liddesdale landsindicates that this policy wasspearheaded by the Elliots.
ObituaryJohn C. K Elliott MBE,1937-2018.
Qualified as a Lawyer atManchester University andfounded his own firmELLIOTT & COMPANY. Whenhe retired in 1996 the firmhad 175 Partners andemployees with an office inLondon. President of TheManchester Law Society in1982 and active in theSolicitors BenevolentAssociation. Awarded an MBEfor his charitable work andbecame Chairman of theManchester Branch of theNSPCC. He helped set up theSir Arthur Eliott MemorialTrust and was Englishcommissioner of the ClanSociety for 25 years nevermissing a Gathering.
Hermitage Castle, Liddesdale, Scottish Border Country
UNITED KINGDOM
E495 Elliot, Christine, Liverpool, L4 9RB
CANADA
C1146 Johnson, Andrew & Family, Strathroy ON N7G 1J6
We welcome the following new members to the Society
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UNITED STATES
US3995 Stiles, Martha, Gridley CA 95948
US3996 Stiles, Corrinne, Gridley CA 95948
US3997 Elliott, Elinor, Portland OR 97213
US3998 Elliott, Karen, Ocala FL 34471
US3999 Elliott, Diana, Syracuse NY 13207
US4000 Johnson, Eileen, Fairfax VA 22033
US4001 Fuhs, Tim, Pismo Beach CA 93449
US4002 Young, Sally J, Mendham NJ 7948
US4003 Elliott, James, Alvin TX 77511
US4004 Brown, Verne, Antelope CA 95843
US4005 Charles, Ronnie, Scottsbluff NE 69361
US4006 Bordenkecher, Theresa, Wheaton IL 60187
US4007 Elliott, Reba Janet, Jacksonville FL 32223
US4008 Elliott, Ralph Earl, Jacksonville FL 32223
US4009 Elliott, Harold W. Phoenix AZ 85045
US4010 Combs, Susan, Deltona FL 37525
US4011 Lesman, John, Ocoee FL 34761
US4012 Slone, Nan, Orl FL 32836
US4013 Boggs, Elizabeth, Hillsboro OR 97124
Details of new members received too late for publication will appear in the next newsletter.
22-24March2019
Step back in time to the mid sixteenth centurywhen the Borderlands were an area of constantfeuding – when loyalties were to kinship ratherthan king and country and when “Reiving” was ameans of survival.
Through music, drama and re-enactmentsexperience what life was really like for the menand women in the Border Marches.
Hawick Reivers Festival aims to help visitors
and townsfolk alike Experience, Explore and willendeavour to Explain day to day life in this violentand turbulent period of our history.
Fiercely loyal and independent, hard-working andprepared to fight for what they believed in thesemen and women of the 1500’s did much to shapethe character of the modern day Borderers.
