Distant History of Clan Barclay
By Tim Barclay, Barclay Historian
According to an Aberdeenshire manuscript of the late sixteenth century, the Scottish Barclays are descended from John de Berkeley, son of Roger de Berkeley, provost of Berkeley in Gloucestershire, who arrived in Scotland in 1069 with St Margaret. By the late nineteenth century obvious problems with this account led to its rejection in favor of an arrival during the first period of Anglo-Norman settlement in the reigns of Kings Alexander I (1107-24) and David I (1124-53), and in the late twentieth century it was hypothesized the mythological John de Berkeley went north in 1124 with Maud, queen of David I. However, according to another modern interpretation, the Barclays instead descend from the lord of Berkley, in Somerset, not the Gloucestershire Berkeleys at all, and arrived in Scotland as part of an exodus of west Wessex lords during the 1140s.
Most recently, a re-examination of the available evidence concerning both English and Scottish families questions the long-held assumption of a single migration of the family. Certainly, the Barclays of Scotland are descended from the Berkeleys of Gloucestershire and their earliest migration dates to the mid-twelfth century. Richard de Berkeley, lord of Ardrossan, was witness to the foundation charter of Kilwinning Abbey in Ayrshire in or soon after 1162 and is the first of the name on record in the north. He was soon followed by the brothers, Robert and Walter de Berkeley, and then Agatha de Berkeley, the heiress of Ardoyne (Aberdeenshire) and wife of Humphrey, son of Theobald de Addeville. Robert, Walter (Chamberlain to the king of Scotland) and Humphrey (who adopted his wife’s surname) were prominent during the reign of King William the Lion. However, by 1215 all three lineages had ended in heiresses. Accordingly, the later Barclays of Scotland were not descended from those of the twelfth century but instead from a second migration from England in the early thirteenth century.
Roger de Berkeley, younger son of Roger V de Berkeley, lord of Dursley, arrived in Scotland around 1220 and soon found service with Malcolm, earl of Fife. He acquired lands from the earl centered on Lordscairnie, in Moonzie parish, and married Margaret, co-heiress to the Crawfordjohn estate, with whom he was also infeft in Forgandenny, Perthshire, in the 1240s. Roger and Margaret had three sons but only their eldest, Sir Hugh de Berkeley, justiciar of Lothian and sheriff of Berwick, had children of his own. Hugh’s daughter, Euphemia, married William, earl of Ross, and from her brothers, Patrick, David and Walter II de Berkeley, descend the chief Barclay lineages of Kilbirnie, Brechin and Towie-Barclay, and their cadets.
Most recently, a re-examination of the available evidence concerning both English and Scottish families questions the long-held assumption of a single migration of the family. Certainly, the Barclays of Scotland are descended from the Berkeleys of Gloucestershire and their earliest migration dates to the mid-twelfth century. Richard de Berkeley, lord of Ardrossan, was witness to the foundation charter of Kilwinning Abbey in Ayrshire in or soon after 1162 and is the first of the name on record in the north. He was soon followed by the brothers, Robert and Walter de Berkeley, and then Agatha de Berkeley, the heiress of Ardoyne (Aberdeenshire) and wife of Humphrey, son of Theobald de Addeville. Robert, Walter (Chamberlain to the king of Scotland) and Humphrey (who adopted his wife’s surname) were prominent during the reign of King William the Lion. However, by 1215 all three lineages had ended in heiresses. Accordingly, the later Barclays of Scotland were not descended from those of the twelfth century but instead from a second migration from England in the early thirteenth century.
Roger de Berkeley, younger son of Roger V de Berkeley, lord of Dursley, arrived in Scotland around 1220 and soon found service with Malcolm, earl of Fife. He acquired lands from the earl centered on Lordscairnie, in Moonzie parish, and married Margaret, co-heiress to the Crawfordjohn estate, with whom he was also infeft in Forgandenny, Perthshire, in the 1240s. Roger and Margaret had three sons but only their eldest, Sir Hugh de Berkeley, justiciar of Lothian and sheriff of Berwick, had children of his own. Hugh’s daughter, Euphemia, married William, earl of Ross, and from her brothers, Patrick, David and Walter II de Berkeley, descend the chief Barclay lineages of Kilbirnie, Brechin and Towie-Barclay, and their cadets.
Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly
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Barclay's Quaker Apology
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Robert Barclay Urie II,
Quaker Apologist
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Post-Medieval History of Clan Barclay
By Tim Barclay, Barclay Historian
By the start of the fifteenth century, the Barclays were well-established at their bases in the counties of Lanark and Ayr, Fife, Kinross and Kincardine, and Perth and Aberdeen. Feuds, disputes, battles, and murders punctuate their histories as frequently as any Scottish family during the post-medieval period, and they were prominent in local affairs as lairds, sheriffs, provosts, portioners, burgesses, and clergymen. They were also consistently involved in the politics of Scotland’s nobility as adherents of one faction or another, and many emerged in the reigns of King James V and Mary, Queen of Scots as defenders of the Catholic faith.
As several of the ancient Barclay houses decayed into the seventeenth century, new cadet lineages rose to prominence, including the Russian Barclays de Tolly, descended from the laird of Towie-Barclay, and the Barclays of Ury, founded by Colonel David Barclay, younger son of the laird of Mathers. Most distinguished among the Russian Barclays de Tolly was Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, who emerged as a hero for Russia in the Napoleonic Wars. He assumed the supreme command of the 1st Army of the West during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, and his controversial tactics led to Napoleon’s defeat. Colonel David Barclay of Ury was a mercenary who served in the Protestant armies of Europe in the 1630s, notably rising to the rank of major in the army of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, until he was compelled to return home by the threat of civil war. He was a member of the moderate party in the Scottish Army until 1648, becoming colonel of a horse regiment. However, following the execution of Charles I, David became a pacifist, serving in Cromwell’s parliament and later joining the Society of Friends, or Quakers. David’s eldest son, Robert, was the famous Quaker “Apologist” who became a confidant of King James II, while David’s younger son, John, immigrated to New Jersey as a colonial proprietor and established his family there. The descendants of numerous other Barclays who emigrated from Scotland with the plantation of Northern Ireland also later continued to the Americas or the Antipodes, where they were joined by other families who had remained or returned to Scotland in the interim.
Across these years, several branches of the family engaged in competing claims to be heads of the previously chieftain-less “Barclays of the North.” In 1517, Patrick Barclay of Gartly resigned his lands to the King for re-infeftment to his grandson, Walter, the estate now to be held as one free barony named “Barclay.” By this then, Walter became the first “Barclay of that Ilk.” Following the decline of this branch in 1582, Patrick Barclay of Towie-Barclay, as the descendant of Elizabeth, daughter of Patrick Barclay of Gartly, then modified his arms by combining the Towie-Barclay and Gartly charges and claimed the chieftainship for himself, further inscribing in stone and on paper a fictional ancestry to accompany his claims. However, in 1668 the Towie-Barclay estate passed in marriage with Elizabeth Barclay to John Gordon of Rothiemay and their heirs, and that same year Robert Barclay of Perceton, whose ancestors were entailed as heirs to the Ladyland estate in the sixteenth century, patented the senior arms of the lairds of Ladyland as his own. Finally, in c. 1725 Robert Barclay, third of Ury, removed the chevron from his arms, mistakenly believing it to be indicative of cadency, and assembled information later published by his son demonstrating their family’s independency. This, Ury stated, was a status common to each of the ancient houses and their contemporary representatives, though the claim to chieftainship rightfully descended with the arms thereof through the cadet Towie-Barclay lineages.
Today, more Barclays live outwith Scotland than within, and, apart from the magnificently restored Towie-Barclay castle in Aberdeenshire and the remains at Collairnie in Fife, only ruins and later buildings mark the locations of their medieval residences.
As several of the ancient Barclay houses decayed into the seventeenth century, new cadet lineages rose to prominence, including the Russian Barclays de Tolly, descended from the laird of Towie-Barclay, and the Barclays of Ury, founded by Colonel David Barclay, younger son of the laird of Mathers. Most distinguished among the Russian Barclays de Tolly was Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, who emerged as a hero for Russia in the Napoleonic Wars. He assumed the supreme command of the 1st Army of the West during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812, and his controversial tactics led to Napoleon’s defeat. Colonel David Barclay of Ury was a mercenary who served in the Protestant armies of Europe in the 1630s, notably rising to the rank of major in the army of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, until he was compelled to return home by the threat of civil war. He was a member of the moderate party in the Scottish Army until 1648, becoming colonel of a horse regiment. However, following the execution of Charles I, David became a pacifist, serving in Cromwell’s parliament and later joining the Society of Friends, or Quakers. David’s eldest son, Robert, was the famous Quaker “Apologist” who became a confidant of King James II, while David’s younger son, John, immigrated to New Jersey as a colonial proprietor and established his family there. The descendants of numerous other Barclays who emigrated from Scotland with the plantation of Northern Ireland also later continued to the Americas or the Antipodes, where they were joined by other families who had remained or returned to Scotland in the interim.
Across these years, several branches of the family engaged in competing claims to be heads of the previously chieftain-less “Barclays of the North.” In 1517, Patrick Barclay of Gartly resigned his lands to the King for re-infeftment to his grandson, Walter, the estate now to be held as one free barony named “Barclay.” By this then, Walter became the first “Barclay of that Ilk.” Following the decline of this branch in 1582, Patrick Barclay of Towie-Barclay, as the descendant of Elizabeth, daughter of Patrick Barclay of Gartly, then modified his arms by combining the Towie-Barclay and Gartly charges and claimed the chieftainship for himself, further inscribing in stone and on paper a fictional ancestry to accompany his claims. However, in 1668 the Towie-Barclay estate passed in marriage with Elizabeth Barclay to John Gordon of Rothiemay and their heirs, and that same year Robert Barclay of Perceton, whose ancestors were entailed as heirs to the Ladyland estate in the sixteenth century, patented the senior arms of the lairds of Ladyland as his own. Finally, in c. 1725 Robert Barclay, third of Ury, removed the chevron from his arms, mistakenly believing it to be indicative of cadency, and assembled information later published by his son demonstrating their family’s independency. This, Ury stated, was a status common to each of the ancient houses and their contemporary representatives, though the claim to chieftainship rightfully descended with the arms thereof through the cadet Towie-Barclay lineages.
Today, more Barclays live outwith Scotland than within, and, apart from the magnificently restored Towie-Barclay castle in Aberdeenshire and the remains at Collairnie in Fife, only ruins and later buildings mark the locations of their medieval residences.
Signature of Robert Barcllay Urie II on a Letter to Friend George Fox
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