Comprised of "Two" Clans Dunbar being first origin and the Clan Home being
later but the Largest of Scottish Border Clans.
Flag of Scotland Clan Dunbar/Home
Tartan Clan Dunbar/Home Badge
Greenlaw Ancestry Research started Oct. 2000
Greenlaw Family Pages updated as of April 2003
Clan Dunbar
Motto: "Honour is the prize of honesty".
Badge: A white horses head.
Septs: Clugston, Corbett, Dunbar, Dundas, Edgar, Grey, Heryng, Home,
Knox, Nisbett, Peddie, Strickland, Washington, Wedderburn
Born around 975, Crinan of Dunkeld was the Thane and Seneschal of the Isles.
He was the father of King Duncan I, and grandfather of Gospatric. Gospatric
was given the Earldom of Northumberland in 1067 by the recently arrived William
the Conqueror. On an exposed cliff top overlooking the North Sea, the Picts
built a fortress to defend themselves from invading Scots, Saxons, and Britons.
Over succeeding years this fortress was to grow in importance because of its
strategic location at the mouth of the River Forth.
Sometime between the years of 835 A.D. and 839 A.D., after the Battle of
Scone, when Dursken, King of the Picts was slain and his followers fled, this
fortress was awarded by Kenneth I, King of Scotland to a brave and valiant
captain of the Scots named Bar. Thus the fortress became known in the Gaelic
as Dun Bar, or the Tower or Fortress of Bar on the Hill. The first person
to use the name of Dunbar was Gospatric I ,who rebuilt the wood and wattle
Tower of Bar into the stone castle that was to become the home of one of the
most powerful families in Scotland.
The Dunbar Earls of Dunbar and March controlled much of Lothian, and all
of "The Borders", Berwick, Peebles, Selkirk and Roxburgh, plus great holdings
in Northumberland and Cumberland. Through marriage to the famous "Black" Agnes
Randolph, the Dunbar Earls acquired the Earldom of Moray as well, holding
Aberdeenshire, Morayshire, Nairn, Buchan, and Inverness.
While the Privy Council of Scotland recognized the Dunbars as a clan in
1579, the House of Dunbar has always been infinitely more than a clan. As
a famous 17th century historian remarked, " Second only to the Cummings,
and of course, the Royal family, the Dunbars are the greatest family of Scotland".
Sir Robert Douglas noted, "No name in Scotland can boast of a more noble
name than Dunbar". In Gospatric, First Earl of Dunbar and founder of this
great family, the greatest families of Scotland, Pictland, Northumbria, and
England were combined to prove Douglas' evaluation.
The Clan has long been closely associated with the Church, and has built
many monasteries, abbeys, and chapels throughout the Scottish nation. The
Clan was present on the Crusades to the Holy Land, and the Seal of the Dunbar
Family can be found on the Arbroath Declaration sent to the Pope. After the
death of the heirless King Alexander, Patrick the Eighth Earl of Dunbar was
one of the ten competitors for the throne of Scotland at Berwick upon Tweed
in 1291. Dukes, Earls, Marquises, and Viscounts abound through the family
history from 1066 to 1457 when through palace intrigues, a jealous King James
I deprived George, Eleventh Earl of Dunbar of not only his title, but also
his land and other possessions. With one stroke of a pen, James I appropriated
the entire inheritance of the richest man in his kingdom, and destroyed a
possible rival. The Clan to date has not recovered from this affrontery, and
its descendants have scattered across the world. Eventually five branches
of the once princely House of Dunbar obtained baronetcies; Mochrum in Galloway
and Senior of Line, Durn in Banffshire, Northfield in Moray, Boath in Nairn,
and Hempriggs in Caithness. Although worthy and well doing families, none
have risen to the former glory of the House of Gospatric. The motto of the
Mochrum branch, "Sub Spe" or "Under Hope" attests to our faith that the Clan
will rise again to its former glory.
Clan Home
* Branches: Home of Blackadder, Home of Broomhouse, Home of Coldingknows,
Home of Manderston, Home of Polwarth, Home of Simprin, Home of Wedderburn
* Septs: Ayton, Bunckle, Buncle, Douglas, Dunbar, Eaton, Grady, Greenlaw,
Haddock, Haliburton, Holmes, Landale, Landels, Mack, Nesbitt, Nisbet, Palmer,
Paxton, Rutherford, Wedderburn
Gaelic Name: Uamh
Motto: A home
Badge: Broom
Lands: The Borders
Origin of Name: Gaelic, Uamh (cave)
The names Home and Hume are of the same enormously powerful borders family.
Descended from the Saxon Princes of Northumberland was Cospatrick, Earl of
Dunbar, and his second son, Patrick, is believed to be the originator of the
family. The Clan Home/Hume is said to be descendents of the Saxon Princes
of Northumberland through Cospatrick, Earl of Dunbar. At the Battle of Homildon
in 1402, Sir Alexander Home of Dunglass was captured then killed in another
battle in 1424. His three sons are where the principal branches of the family
began.
His eldest grandson was created a Lord of Parliment and took the title "Lord
Home" in 1473. His son, the second Lord Home, became joint administrator of
the Lothians and Berwickshire during the minority of James IV, and Great Chamberlain
of Scotland in 1488. He and his followers were part of the army levied by
James IV for his invasion of England in 1513.
After the invasion, Home was appointed one of the counsellors to the Queen
Regent. The regency was transferred to the Duke of Albany and, as a result,
the Homes suffered. Lord Home was arrested for treason for conspiring with
the English, and he and his brother were executed in 1516. The title and estates
were given to another brother, George Home who died in 1547.
Alexander, the 6th Lord Home, was a favourite of King James I of England
and VI of Scotland, and was created 1st Earl of Home and Dunglass in 1605.
Because of a marriage to the heiress of the Douglas fortunes, the family acquired
the lands of Douglas, Bothwell and others in Angus; however, the chief of
Home could not also be the chief of the Douglases. Therefore, in 1875 the
11th Earl was created Baron Douglas.
Today, the Clan Leader of all Homes and Humes is David Douglas-Home, the
15 Earl of Home, who became Earl when his father, the late Prime Minister
of Great Britain and Knight of The Thistle, died on Oct 9, 1995.
