| Loudoun through Reginald de Crawford of Kerse, or
Carse, younger son of Hugh de Crawford, son of Sir Reginald de Crawford,
who married Margaret, heiress of Loudoun. Reginald de Crawford, first
Crawford of Kerse, received the latter property from his brother,
Hugh de Crawford de Loudoun, some time in the reigh of King Alexander
III.--1249 to 1286. |
|
The origins of one branch of the family, the Crawfords
of Drongan, Coylton Parish, Ayrshire, have |
| never been traced, although, of course, it descends,
as do all of the family, from Thor Longus, the Anglo-Danish founder.
The records of this line begin soon after the year 1400. So also the
origins of Crawford of Leifnorris are untraced, though descending
from Thor Longus. There is little chronicled of this branch prior
to the Sixteenth Century. |
|
Other branches of the House of Crawford were those
of Camlarg, Drumsoy, and Dalleglis. That of |
| Camlarg descended from Duncan Crawford, son of David
Crawford of Kerse, the latter entailing his property in 1585 to his
brother, William Crawford, with reversion to other heirs. The Crawfords
of Drumsoy sprang from the Camlarg Crawfords. Those of Dalleglis were
stated by Lord Auchinlech, a student of ancient family papers of the
Crawford family, to have been allied to the Crawfords of Drongan and
of Leifnorris. In 1384 Sir Allan Cathcart confirmed to Roger Crawford
of Dalleglis a part of the lands of Dalmellington. This is the first
record found of this branch. There are a few references to the Crawfords
of Dalleglis up to the beginning of the Fifteenth Century, but the
next item found is of the latter half of the Seventeenth Century,
when William Crawford of "Dalleagles" married Janet, daughter of John
Crawford of Crawfordland, thus linking the less known branch of Dalleglis
Crawford with the old line of Crawfordland. |
|
From the mists of history enveloping England and
Scotland in the Eleventh Century,--the period of |
| the Saxon monarchs of England and of the foundation
by the Normans of a great, stable, government in Great Britain,--we
have sought to trace, as golden threads in the skein, splendid-hued
tracery in the tapestry of events, the chronicles of the great house
of Crawford. The many lines have been studied down past the time when
the first American ancestor of the name came from Scotland to this
country, to found here a family of distinction and of achievement.
These records of seven centuries have spread before our eyes a picture
of varied character; of wild fighting on the English moors and among
the Scottish crags; of deep, ardent zeal for the spread of religion;
of loyal devotion to those to whom the Crawfords gave their faith;
of a social distinction evidenced by the marriages of the Crawfords
with scions of the highest nobility of Scotland; of scholarly attainment;
of life among their broad estates refined with all the culture of
the times in which they lived. If there be truth in the symbolic meaning
attached to heraldic tinctures and armorial emblems, the ancient Coat-Armor
of the Crawfords,--Gules, a fesse Ermine,--suggests splendid significance.
Gules,--scarlet,--glory; Ermine, emblem of royalty! For has there
not been throughout the centuries of this family's history, the glory
of valor, the royalty of faith? |
|
