Templeton

Still digging.

Is there a greater gift to genealogists and armchair historians than Google Books’ searchable archive of utterly obscure and ancient texts?   I don’t think so.

Here’s a list of the first several olde Templetons I’ve come across in Medieval Scotland using the Google, along with the date, the burgh they’re associated with and a note of the text in which they can be found. Remarkably, I even found a woman! (Suggests to me that she married down, but what do I know?)

• 1295-96 Gilbert de Tempilton [Latin: Gilbertus de Tempilton] - “Mestre” rector of Rothesay, Black, also Registrum magni sigilli…,
• 1315 James Tempilton [Jacobi de Tempilton / Jacobus de Templetone], landowner in Ayrshire “in the time of Robert the Bruce,” Black, also Registrum magni sigilli…, and “Scots Lore” magazine. (May have been mentioned in a charter regarding the Burgh of Irvine?)
• 1491 Johne Tempiltoun - steward to “George Campbele of Lowdoun”, the sheriff of Ayr, given remission for acts, Registrum secreti…
• 1499  David Tempiltone - “sergiandis dicti burgi” of Irvine, “tenements” in Gallowhill as of 3 July, 1499 (also see blog below)
• 1500 ca. Andro Tempilton - near Irvine, a “servand” — probably bailie — of John Maxwell taken hostage with Maxwell, The Scottish review, January and April, 1886, Also: Selections from the family papers…Caldwell…,
• 1502-16 Edward Tempiltoun - of “Towrlandis” (Bourtreehill) Liber protocollorum…; “Laird of Tourlands,” Tenth Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.
• 1502 John Tempiltoun [Johanne Tempiltoun / Johne Tempiltoun] - “filio et apparente herede” of Edward of “Towrlandis” Liber protocollorum:
• 1516 Alexander Tempiltoun - witness to Edward “of Tourlands” property deal “at Thripwod” to James Hamilton
• 1516 Ninian Tempiltoun - witness to Edward “of Tourlands” property deal at/of “Thripwod” to Sir James Hamilton of Schawfeld
• 1530 Robert Tempiltoun - “of Tourlands,” “surety and cautioner for Laurence Craufurd of Kilbirny” Protocol Book of Gavin Ros. ALSO: Sir Robert Tempilton, Abstracts of protocols of town clerks of Glasgow…
  
• 1532 Mariota Tempiltoun - “spouse to John Atkyne”, item 1284, Ayr. Publications, Parts 28-30, Scottish Records Society.
• 1531-46 “Soume Caller” Tempiltoun - Royal sumpter man (pack horse stable master), Edinburgh. Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer… Vols. 6-8.
• 1534 David Tempiltoun - reimbursement for hospitality?, Ayr. Also, witness to Robert Hunter’s inheritance in “Campbletoun” , 1548
• 1546-53 Roger Tempiltoun - justice and sheriff officer of Edinburgh, royal missive carrier, court officer of Edinburgh. Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, 9 & 10, and Registrum secreti sigilli regum Scotorum…[Register of the Privy Seal], Volume 6.
• 1553 ca. James Tempiltoun - son of Roger, also justice and sheriff of Edinburgh, Registrum secreti….
• 1569 Andrew Tempiltoune [Tempiltoun | Templetoune]- “servitor of John Maxuell,” bailie of John Maxwell of Nether Pollok, Glasgow, Abstracts of protocols …Glasgow.
• 1577 Thomas Tempiltoun - burgh “hirdis” (herder?), Glasgow, Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Glasgow.
• 1577 Robert Tempiltoun - in Saltcotts, [near Irvine] parish of Ardrossan [8 Aug.], The index library, the Commissariot…
• 1583-1601 Thomas Tempiltoun - “burgess of Irvine”, [5 Mar.], The index library, the Commissariot…
• 1589 - 95 Johnne Tempiltoune | John Tempiltone - poynder of Glasgow,  Extracts…. and “Margaret Hammiltone, spouses”,  Abstracts of protocols of the town clerks of Glasgow…
• 1592 - Euffame Frame, “spouse to James Tempiltoun,” Dalbeg, “par. of Dalbeg,” [27 Feb.], Commissariot record of Inverness…
• 1595 James Tempiltoun - “sher. of Lanark”, “in Dallbog” [6 May], The index library, the Commissariot Record of Edinburgh.
• 1600 Mathow Tempiltoun [Matthew Templeton] and spouse, Ionet [Janet] Or, “in Overtoun [W. Kilbride]”, Publications…Cuningham, by Timothy Pont.
• 1602 Janet, spouse to Mathew Tempiltoun, in Overtoun 17 Aug. 1602, The commissariot record of Glasgow. Register of testaments, 1547-1800.
• 1604 ca. Eister Tempiltoun of Dundonald, “…into the hands of William, Lord of the Blessed John of Torfechin as Lord Superior thereof, of the temple lands of Estir Tempilton and the Temple lands of Kirkstile of Dundonald and on the investiture therein by the said Lord of John Brown burgess of …”, Dundonald: A Contribtion to Parochial History, Volume 1.
• 1612-26 John Templetoun - “in Threipwood”. see “William of Threiipwood”, “in Threipwood, par. of Lesmahago” with spouse Margaret Broune [17 July 1626],  The Commissariot Record of Lauder: Register of Testaments…
• 1612 William Templetoun - “son to John Templetoun, in Threipwood, [apprenticed] with Thomas Paterson, mason  18 Nov. 1612.” Edinburgh Register of Apprentices
• 1617 John Tempiltoun “in Hilhous, parochin [parish] of Kilbryde,” [May],
• 1626 Katherine Tempiltoun - “relict [widow] of Robert Cowper”, in Dalserf [31 July],  Commissariot Record of Inverness:…

- - -

• 1661 William Templeton - “in Woodside”, ancestor to John Templeton whose family had been “in Hapland since 1681”, The correspondence of James Boswell with James Bruce and Andrew Gibb… By James Boswell, et. al.,
• 1668  - Helen, spouse to Alexander Templetoune, in Balsland, par.
  of Kilmaurs 10 Mar. 1668, The commissariot record of Glasgow. Register of testaments, 1547-1800.

At this point, one is about as interesting as the other as far as researching further.  I’m not certain that’s even on my plate, since I’m anxious to get back to trying to make the link between Scotland and Colonial America.  And, I have a bunch of contemporary oral history/email bios to collect while I can, so I don’t know how much longer I’m going to focus exclusively on this ancien regime.

I’ll be updating this list and post as I search.  It’ll be good to have a single place with names/dates/& links for research on these people.  If you have a particular request for more info on any of the above — or can add to the list — please let me know!

[UPDATE 2010.01.18: I’ve now found a couple of women. The most recent discovery registering her will three years before her husband, James, in 1592.  Also: Mariota’s husband, John Atkin, seems to be but just one connection between the Atkins of Irvine and the Tempiltouns, back at the turn of the 17th century. And, Roger Tempiltoun’s wife seems to have not lost status upon the death of her husband inasmuch her new husband took over for Roger as Justice and Sheriff of Edinburgh, and then passed the job down to Roger’s son, James.]

[UPDATE 2010.01.26: A judge and sheriff of Edinburgh, a sheriff of Lanark, a bailie of a great lord whose kidnapping under threat of death brought about the assertion of the King’s law in an important transition from the old ways of family feuds — stories of common men seeking civic financial aid because the well-born had not paid golfing “green fees” — out of all the above, the mystery of Estir Tempiltoun intrigues me the most, since it promises to shed some light on the original Temple Lands connection of our name, and secondly, the discovery that Gilbert de Tempilton appears not once but three times in the Paisley Abbey records. The Latin of the original remains impenetrable, though. Hey, does anyone know a Latin scholar?]

[UPDATE 2010.05.18: Janet, “spouse of Mathew” gets her own entry with a newly discovered source, and we’re adding names after the arbitrary 1630 cutoff.  But only because they seem to be associated with the Kilmarnock area. It would be good to have a source into the old land records, tenancy charters, and et cetera for the 14th thru 17th centuries. We’re honing in on putting James de Templetone in the area around 1315, and there may be a pattern of residence that could indicate just where & maybe even when — within a generation or so — the Templetons appeared in Ayrshire.]

Was there a ‘there’ there in 1295?

The more I read about the Great Cause of keeping the king of Scotland independent of Edward I of England, and the Wars of Independence that followed Longshanks’ power grab, the more I’m impressed that the nobles of Scotland were able to hold together as well as they did!

As I’ve gotten more familiar with the kings and characters in Britain as well as on the Continent — all the fighting over the crown of England, rebellions of dukes, the grabs for other’s domains — the more I “get it” that the whole idea of Nations was nebulous at best, and those that raised armies were ‘way more identified with their immediate lord and the best possible deal they could broker or win by conquest for their own family and heirs.  Nation states really didn’t seem to exist outside the person of the overlord (king), and that was often contested even between father and son, leaving it up to the dukes and nobles to pick & choose.

It’s almost like the idea of a nation independent of the individual person of the king was hammered out in Scotland after 1288 so that by the time Robert I consolidated his kingship, there was more of a Scottish nation there to rule than the King of France or even King of England could boast of.

At least this is the notion that’s dawning on me, now that I’m pressing to finish my biographical investigation of Gilbert de Templeton.

Looks like another three- or five days and I’ll be ready to post it to the Family History site.  (Whew!)

Haggis hunting season opens

The wild haggis before dressing & butchering.

I’ve been alerted that the Annual Haggis Hunt is set to begin on November 30th. These wily beasties of the Scottish moor are figured to be extra elusive this season, so hunters and spotters are urged to hone their skills by checking the strategically placed online haggiscams; see if you can spot the haggis in his natural habitat.

Prepare for your local conditions & exchange info on Facebook, then follow the hunt action on Twitter.

There are coveted prizes involved.

A train wreck of language…including digital.

I’m coming to the conclusion that the Court spoke a wild mash-up of Latin, Scot (a regional dialect of Gaelic-tinctured English), English, with a leavening of French in the mid-Sixteenth century — and I’m trying to make sense of it strained through the vagaries of rogue words and letters left in the text by an imperfect digital Optical Character Reader. The past couple- or three evenings of trying to pick out Black’s early bearers of our Templeton/Templetone/Tempiltoun, et. al., from the apparently raw ‘Google Book Search’ OCR scan of the Accounts Of The Lord High Treasurer of Scotland of the mid-1500s has me wishing I had a linguist sitting at my elbow. Getting useful info out of the Google-ized scan is like picking straw out of your hair after being thrown into a haystack.

The upshot: apparently “Templetone” (or one of a few variants) was the site of a stable used by the King (and Queen) and the military that handled tack and clothing for the King’s “children”, and housed mules, horses and dispatched drayers — teamsters, I take it — and their sledges. Just which “Templetone” location this was I can’t tell, but there seemed to be a lot of traffic twixt Edinburgh and both Tantallon Castle to the east on the Forth and westerly to various lairds in Dumbarton, Galloway, and to Lord Hamilton (just to pick a name from the mess), who I believe had many possible domiciles in the west, perhaps even on Arran, if I remember correctly.

The good news: I’ve found I can acquire both of Black’s original sources for his Gilbert de Templeton entry. The bad news: they cost money that will likely have a meager return on investment.

Black’s cited sources on Gilbert:

‘rector’ - Registrum monasterii de Passlet…, Passlet, 1877.
‘homage’ and ‘seal’ - Calendar of documents relating to Scotland preserved in Public Record Office. Edited by Joseph Bain, Edinburgh, 1881-4. 4v. (Cited by number of document unless page is specifically referred to.) [ED: ‘Gilbert/Gilbertus’ cited in volume II, on pp. 199 & 548.]

They call it stormy Friday.

I thought I’d rolled a seven on the come when I went out for my “before sleep” smoke last night a little after midnight.  The rain had stopped, the bricks of the walk were drying, and the clouds obscuring the moon were breaking up.  Friday, today, was looking good for a dry day of exploring the “A” roads of Ayrshire.

We’d decided yesterday that the more-or-less constant light rain that greeted us in the morning wasn’t auspicious for being lost at the side of the road, looking for landmarks or trying to decipher the somewhat inadequate signage of the Scottish road system, or walking into farmer’s fields to grab a perfect picture of an intersection and farmhouses. We’d laughably figured that the sights of Edinburgh would be more an “inside” pursuit, so yesterday’s Plan B was bumped up and the Ayrshire (that’s pronounced “ear shur,” BTW) journey was postponed for today in the hopes that the weatherman would be wrong, or at least slightly wrong.

Last night, I thought we were golden! Then… .

Yes, those’re droplets on the window and a steady rain coming down on the tee of the whatever hole of the golf course out back from the restaurant of our hotel.  The kind of rain that promises to keep coming down for 40 days and 40 nights.

Oh, well.  We Scots are a hearty people, right?

BTW:  It’s one of two things — the Scots are a perverse people for living in a place that has days like this 340 days a year, yet inventing a game that requires you walk around outside in it for at least 3 hours in a day, OR the Scots know how to celebrate one of their few fine days in summer by making the national sport one which requires you to walk around the countryside for 3 hours and enjoy it.  …Since there were two women of advanced age teeing off yesterday morning in the fine chill drizzle that intermittently resolved into brief showers, I’m going to have to go with “are a perverse people.”

But hearty!

One might say Indomitable.

Well, Karin hasn’t joined me yet, down here at breakfast, but we’re going to have to put our Scots on and sally forth … play our last round of roots touring in “typical” Scottish weather.

After all, we’re indomitable, too.

Discovering ‘Templeton’

2009.08.04.23:50 - This might be the time I finally make it to the natal place of our long Templeton family saga.  Although I have no direct evidence that the family Templeton ever lived at the intersection hamlet of Templeton in Ayrshire, Scotland, it’s generally assumed in chronicles of the name that our earliest ancestors took the place name of their home as their own, and that all the Templetons that now thrive in nations around the world can trace their origin to the countryside of Ayr.  So I’m going to go there and get a picture of that intersection that the British Ordinance Survey calls “Templeton.”

Up til now, I’ve only done a smattering of reading and research into the place and its history.  I’ve just now begun looking into how to get there and what Karin and I might want to see and do in the neighborhood.  Over the years, I’ve only been able to actually locate a few probable historical kinsmen living and working in the area, the earliest of them being one Gilbertus de Tempilton, who was “rector of the church of Rothir’” (or Rothesay) in 1295.  We don’t expect to be there long enough to hope to add much to the lore, but I do hope to find ways to get a sense of the place and to gain some impressions of how its history shaped the people that hail from there.

Or at least discover where the dislocations occur between an American and his Scottish heritage.