|
VIPONT: This name seems to derive from one of several places in Normandy called Vieupont from the Latin meaning 'of the old bridge'. The Scottish Viponts descend from William de Ueupunt or Veteri Ponte circa 1165. The Veteri Pontes held the lands of Carriden, West Lothian, for many generations and in about 1250, Nicholas de Veteri Ponte made a gift of Swanston near Colinton to the Hospital of Soltre. Sir William de Vepont, 6th Baron, is described as being one of the two worthy knights slain on the Scottish side at Bannockburn. On his death the estates passed into the family of Cockburn by the marriage of his only child Mariota to Sir Alexander Cokburn. The Viponts were among the earliest known landowners in Fife, and the refrain of a song sung by fishermen there runs: "The leal guidman of Aberdour, sits in Sir Alan Vipont's chair." This surname is now almost extinct in Scotland. As the family does not comprise a clan, there is no chief, war-cry, crest, motto or plant badge. There is however a tartan which seems to have been woven for the family of Vipont around 1930 but is rarely used by them.
|
