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Urquhart, or Urchard, is the name of a minor
clan (Urachdun), originally settled in Cromarty (badge, the fall-flower), a branch of the
clan Forbes. Nisbet says, - "A brother of Ochonchar, who slew the bear, and was
predecessor of the Lords Forbes, having, in keeping the castle of Urquhart, took his
surname from the place". This castle stood on the south side of Loch Ness, and was in
ancient times a place of great strength and importance, as is apparent from its extensive
and magnificent ruins. In that fabulous work, "The true pedigree and lineal descent
of the most ancient and honourable family of Urquhart, since the creation of the world, by
Sir Thomas Urquhart, Knight of Cromartie", the origin of the family and name is
ascribed to Ourohartos, that is "fortunate and well-beloved", the familiar name
of Esormon, of whom the eccentric author describes himself as the 128th descendant. He
traces his pedigree, in a direct line, even up to Adam and Eve, and somewhat
inconsistently makes the word Urquhart have the same meaning as Adam, namely, red earth.
The family of Urquhart is one of great antiquity. In Hailes' Annals, it is mentioned that
Edward I of England, during the time of the competition for the Scottish crown, ordered a
list of the sheriffs in Scotland to be made out. Among them appears the name of William
Urquhart of Cromartie, heritable sheriff of the county. He married a daughter of Hugh,
Earl of Ross, and his son Adam obtained charters of various lands. A descendant of his,
Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, who lived in the 16th century, is said to have been a father
of 11 daughters and 25 sons. Seven of the latter fell at the battle of Pinkie in 1547, and
from another descended the Urquharts of Newhall, Monteagle, Kinbeachie, and Braelangwell.
The eldest son, Alexander Urquhart of Cromartie, had a charter from James V of the lands
of Inch Rory and others, in the shires of Ross and Inverness, dated March 7, 1532. He had
two sons. The younger son, John Urquhart, born in 1547, became tutor to his grand-nephew
Sir Thomas Urquhart, and was well known afterwards by the designation of the "Tutor
of Cromartie". He died November 8, 1631, aged 84.
Sir Thomas, the family genealogist, is chiefly know as the translator of Rabelais. He
appears to have at one period travelled much on the continent. He afterwards became a
cavalier officer, and was knighted by Charles I at Whitehall. After that monarch's
decapitation, he accompanied Charles II in his march into England, and was taken prisoner
at the battle of Worcester in 1651, when his estates were forfeited by Cromwell. He wrote
several elaborate works, but the most creditable is his translation of Rabelais. Such,
notwithstanding, was the universality of his attainments, that he deemed himself capable of
enlightening the world on many things never "dreamed of in the philosophy" of
ordinary mortals. "Had I not", he says, "been pluck'd away by the
importuity of my creditors, I would have emitted to public view above five hundred several
treatises on inventions, never hitherto though upon by any". The time and place of
his death are unknown. There is a tradition that he died of an inordinate fit of laughter,
on hearing of the restoration of Charles II. The male line ended in Colonel James
Urquhart, an officer of much distinction, who died in 1741. The representation of the
family devolved on the Urquharts of Braelangwell, which was sold (with the exception of a
small portion, which is strictly entailed) by Charles Gordon Urquhart, Esq, an officer in
the Scots Greys. The Urquharts of Meldrum, Aberdeenshire, obtained that estate through the
marriage, in 1610, of their ancestor, John Urquhart of Craigfintry, tutor of Cromarty,
with Elizabeth Seton, heiress of Meldrum. The Urquharts of Craigston, and a few more
families of that name, still possess estates in the north of Scotland; and persons of this
surname are still numerous in the counties of Ross and Cromarty. In Ross-shire,
Inverness-shire, and Morayshire, there are still parishes of the name of
Urquhart.
Another Account of the Clan
BADGE: Lus leth ‘n
t-samhradh (cheiranthus) native wallflower.
 THE
name Urquhart, which is still widespread in the counties of Ross and
Cromarty, has been the subject of much curious speculation. The family
genealogist, Sir Thomas Urquhart, Knight of Cromartie, of the days of
Charles I. and Charles II., declares it variously to be derived from! Ourohartos,
"fortunate and well-beloved," and to have the same meaning
as Adam, namely, "red earth." He backs up the latter speculation
with a pedigree which traces the descent of the clan from the first
parents of mankind, and makes Ourohartos to have been the familiar name of
Esormon, of whom he himself was the 128th descendant. While the worthy if
eccentric chief of the seventeenth century was no doubt as amply justified
as other people in claiming descent from "the grand old gardener and
his wife," it may be feared that absolute reliance is not to be
placed upon the authenticity of all the links in his long connecting
chain.
More authentic, probably,
is the origin of the clan and name given by Nisbet in his Heraldry. "A
brother," he says, "of Ochonchar, who slew the bear, and was
predecessor of the Lords Forbes, having in keeping the castle of Urquhart,
took his surname from the place." Urquhart, or Urchard, is the name
of a district in Inverness-shire, and the ruin of Urquhart Castle, which
was a royal stronghold in early times, still stands at the foot of Glen
Urquhart, on the western side of Loch Ness, and was the scene of a famous
siege by the army of Edward I. of England, during which the wife of the
governor, about to become a mother, escaped in the guise of a beggar
driven forth from the gate.
It should here be noted,
however, that in the old county of Cromarty itself, in the Black Isle,
lies a district known as the White Bog, or Glen Urquhart, and it seems
possible that this was the original seat of the Urquhart family, and the
property from which that family took its name. There are also parishes of
Urquhart in Ross and Moray shires.
At the time of the siege of
Urquhart Castle the ancestor of the Urquhart Chiefs was Sheriff of
Cromarty. Lord Hailes in his Annals describes how, during the
competition for the Scottish crown at the end of the thirteenth century,
Edward I. ordered a list of the Sheriffs of Scotland to be made out. In
that list appears the name of William Urquhart of Cromarty, Heritable
Sheriff of the county. Evidently, therefore, even at that early date, the
family was already of considerable importance in Cromarty and the north.
The Heritable Sheriff of
the days of Edward I. and King Robert the Bruce married a daughter of
Hugh, Earl of Ross, and his son Adam obtained charters of various lands.
In the years that followed, the family estates were greatly enlarged by
marriages with heiresses of the neighbouring Mackenzies and others.
Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty,
chief of the name in the first half of the sixteenth century, had a family
of no fewer than eleven daughters and twenty-five sons. Of these sons,
seven fell at the battle of Pinkie in 1547, and from another descended the
Urquharts of Newhall, Monteagle, Kinbeachie, and Brae-Langwell. The eldest
of the family, Alexander Urquhart of Cromarty, in 1532, under a charter of
James V., acquired the lands of Inch Rory and others, in the shires of
Ross and Inverness. He had two sons, the younger of whom, John Urquhart of
Craigfintry, born in the year of the disastrous battle above mentioned,
was afterwards known as the Tutor of Cromarty, to be referred to
presently.
The elder son’s grandson,
who succeeded to the chief-ship was Sir Thomas Urquhart, the family
genealogist of the days of Charles I., already mentioned. During his
minority the estates prospered under the management of his grand-uncle the
Tutor, who died only in 1631 at the age of eighty-four. Born in 1611, Sir
Thomas was educated at King’s College, Aberdeen, and travelled in
France, Spain, and Italy. On the outbreak of the Civil War he took the
side of Charles I. and fought against the Covenanters at Turriff in 1639.
Two years later he was knighted by the king and began a notable literary
career by the publication of his Epigrams. After returning from
London to Scotland to arrange his affairs in 1642, he again went abroad,
and remained there till 1645. On his return he published Trissotetras, a
work on trigonometry, and for five years resided in Cromarty Tower, on his
ancestral estate. Then the news reached him of the execution of Charles
I., and he forthwith took part, along with the Mackenzies, Monroes, and
other clans, in the Inverness rising of 1649, which proclaimed that
monarch’s elder son as Charles II. After the young king’s landing in
the north of Scotland in the following year Sir Thomas again took arms,
and as an officer in the royal army followed Charles into England. At the
battle of Worcester he was made prisoner, and had many of his manuscripts
destroyed. During his captivity in the Tower of London and at Windsor he
published his True Pedigree and Lineal Descent of the Most Ancient and
Honourable Family of Urquhart, since the Creation of the World, as well as
an invective against the Scottish Presbyterians. In 1652 he returned to
Scotland on parole, to find that his affairs had gone to ruin in his
absence. The trustees to whom he had entrusted the care of his estates had
pillaged his lands and appropriated the rents. Believing him to be dead
they had even abstracted his title-deeds and other documents, and one of
them, Leslie of Findrassie, had made a predatory raid on one of his chief
vassals.
His clansmen would have
avenged his wrongs by force even at that late day, but he would not hear
of it, and in the end his property was sequestrated, and to his great
grief a choice collection of books which he had formed was dispersed. In
1653, he published his scheme for a universal language, and also the first
part of his most important work, a translation of Rabelais. These were
only a moiety of the literary achievements he had planned. "Had I
not," he says, "been pluck’d away by the importunity of my
creditors, I would have emitted to public view above five hundred several
treatises on inventions never hitherto thought upon by any." He
afterwards went abroad, and his death place is unknown. Tradition says he
expired of an inordinate fit of joyous laughter on hearing of the
restoration of Charles II. to the throne in 1660. A further part of his
Rabelais was published in 1693, and his miscellaneous works were published
in 1774 and 1834.
The senior line of the
Urquharts came to an end with the death of Colonel James Urquhart, an
officer of much distinction, in 1741. The chiefship of the clan then
devolved on a descendant of the Tutor. The latter’s son had married, in
1636, Elizabeth, heiress of the ancient family of Seton, of Meidrum in
Aberdeenshire, and his descendants were known as the Urquharts of Meidrum.
Still later, the representation devolved on the Urquharts of Brae-Langwell,
descended from a brother of the Tutor, but Brae-Langwell was sold,
excepting a small portion, which was strictly entailed, by Charles Gordon
Urquhart, an officer in the Scots Greys.
Among notable bearers of
the name of Urquhart have been Thomas Urquhart, the famous violin-maker of
London, who flourished about 1650, and David Urquhart, the diplomatist and
traveller, who after serving in the Greek navy, and advocating Turkish
autonomy, represented Stafford in Parliament from 1847 to 1852, bitterly
opposed Palmerston, and died at Naples in 1877.
Meanwhile, after the
sequestration of Sir Thomas Urquhart in the middle of the seventeenth
century, the ancient possessions of the Urquhart chiefs passed into
possession of Mackenzie of Tarbat, and Sir George, second baronet of
Tarbat, the famous antiquary, Lord Justice General, and Secretary of
State, who was made Earl of Cromarty by Queen Anne in 1703, had them
included, along with his other landed possessions, in the widely scattered
county of Cromarty, a territory fifteen times as great as that ruled by
the Heritable Sheriff of the days of Edward I. and Robert the Bruce.
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