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FOTHRINGHAM,
the surname of an old family in Forfarshire. The first of the name is
supposed to have come from Hungary with the Anglo-Saxon princess Margaret
queen of Malcolm Canmore. In the Ragman Roll occurs the name of Henry de
Foderinghay, who, Nisbet conjectures, belonged to the family afterwards
styled of Powrie. In the reign of Robert III., John Foderinghame acquired
the lands of Wester Powrie in the shire of Forfar which belonged to
Malcolm de Powrie, to be held of John Ogilvie of Ogilvie, baron of Easter
Powrie. In Mackenzie’s MS. Genealogies, it is stated that the
Fotheringhames got the lands of Wester Powrie by marriage with a daughter
of the family of Ogilvie of Auchterhouse about 1399. The Fotheringhames of
Lawhill and Bandon were sprung from younger sons of the same family.
Lord Lindsay, in
his “Lives of the Lindsays,” (vol. i. p. 145) says that the principal
friend of the youth of David fifth earl of Crawford, seems to have been
Thomas Fotheringham of Powrie, afterwards his “familiar squire,” and whom
he ever regarded with peculiar affection and kindness. On renewing his
charters between twenty and thirty years after his succession, he grants
him additional lands “for his faithful service and constant attentions.”
“I cannot,” says his lordship, “but attribute much of what was noble,
loyal, and self-devoted in Earl David’s after career to the influence of
this gallant gentleman, who stood by his side, immoveable as a rock, in
the darkest moment of his fortunes.” The Fotheringhams, he adds, “were
closely allied in blood and friendship with the House of Crawford, and the
hereditary regard has manifested itself most kindly in our behoof to the
present generation.” To the protest, dated Oct. 29, 1488, against the
final resignation of the hereditary sheriffdom of Angus, the faithful
Fotheringham was a witness. |
