Templeton

Uh-oh. Could this be another line?

Pulling on the loose string I’ve found on Google Books, I’ve come across another “Templeton” place-name in Aberdeenshire that may — may — have spawned a line of Templetons that George Black didn’t uncover (or assume as a provenance).

Seems that one James Tempiltoun and his wife, Euffame Frame, both registered their “testaments” as hailing from Dalbog, in Aberdeenshire, near the turn of the 17th century. Still relying on Google, I went to Google Maps and discovered the intersection that is apparently still known as Dalbog is a hop-skip-and-a-jump from another farm that Google maps as “Templeton” up there:

Now, these are the earliest folks we have in the record from the Angus/Aberdeenshire area, and the Templetons we know of in Ayrshire pre-date them by at least 300 years. So, they may have immigrated to this area and brought their name along with them. But, it does bear further investigation, doncha think?

Hm-m-m.

UPDATE:

2010.01.24 - In 1654, Bleau didn’t see “Templeton” up there in Aberdeenshire on Pont’s map, which was surveyed in the 1590s or so. I don’t want to jump to any conclusions based on this, but it seems possible that the toun that appears on the Ordinance Survey of yore (the 19th century?) may not be the last word on there being a namesake settlement up there back when surnames were being coined.

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.]

“What’s in a name?” - Vol. 2

I’m getting intrigued by the people and events surrounding Dundonald Castle, ‘round about 1140 through 1330, or from King David I (Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim) through Robert I, ‘The Bruce.’ That period covers the introduction of the convention of hereditary surnames among gentlemen, the appearance of our first known forebear in Gilbertus de Tempilton, ‘rector of the church of Rothir,’ in 1295, and will involve learning a bit more about the transition from tribal & clan affiliation to feudal relations of vassal and lord. But I’m brewing some fascinating speculation by putting various things into a timeline about what may have been going on with our first family members known by the name, and it’s anchored in the proximity of Dundonald Castle:

Of course the story I think I’m going to come up with rests heavily on George Black’s assertion in his The Surnames of Scotland, Their Origin, Meaning, and History that our name came from a Templar land near Dundonald, and not from one of the other ‘Temple touns’ that may have existed in what is now Ayrshire in the earliest days of the order.

[ A full screen version of the slide show is here. - Ed.]

Templeton Country: Panorama & Dundonald Castle

Dundonald Castle overlooks the location of the Medieval enclosure and farm owned by the Knights Templar — a “toun,” hence, “Templeton” — before (and possibly after) the 1312 disbanding of the order, which was about 2 miles to the east. The place name Dundonald means “Donald’s Fort”. Historians do not know who the original Donald was but he may have been one of three Briton kings of that name who ruled in Strathclyde in the 10th century.

The castle site has been occupied since 2000 BCE, and its earliest known construction was a hill fort built between 500 and 200 BCE, eventually comprised of a mixture of large timber round houses and straight-sided structures. A timber laced stone rampart encircled the settlement. This rampart was destroyed by an intensely hot fire around the year 1000, coincidently about the time Strathclyde was absorbed into the Kingdom of Scotland.

Three impressive stone castles followed, the first two erected by High Stewards of the king, destroyed finally in the Scottish Wars of Independence, and the last, which is the present ruin, by Robert Stewart, probably to mark his accession to the throne as Robert II in 1371.

Driving the area, it seems the land use is principally agricultural — sheep and cattle — villages and light industry. I hope to have more on the history, culture and migrations of the people of Ayrshire in later posts.

Wow. Another place to go and sniff “essence de Templeton.”

09.08.05.14:32 - Just a quick “Google,” and look what I found! An actual documented connection between The Family and a patch of Scotland back in the olde days. I woulda never thought to go to Chapeltoun to investigate these tid-bits:

The name Chapelton is relatively recent as Pont’s Map of 1604 does not show such a place name; however, he does show a Templeton in approximately the right place between the Annick Water and the river Glazert. Other Knights Templar temple-lands were to be found at the Templehouse and Fortalice in the old village of Darlington near Stewarton, Templehouse near Dunlop, at Templetounburn on the outskirts of Crookedholm and at several other places in the area, such as Temple-Ryburn and Temple-Hapland.In 1312 the Knights Templar order, whose Scottish headquarters had been at Torphichen, was disbanded^[3] and its lands given to the Knights of St. John^[4] who today run the St John Ambulance amongst other activities. Lord Torphichen as preceptor obtained the temple-land tenements and the lands passed through the hands of Montgomerie of Hessilhead to Wallace of Cairnhill (now Carnell) in 1720, before passing out of the hands of the aristocracy.

[snip]

The name change from Templetoun to Chapelton may have resulted from the end of the official existence of the temple-lands sometime after 1720 or as a result of the breaking up of the ownership of these lands at around this date or possibly slightly earlier. Thus the name Templeton was in use in 1604^[6], in 1654., but not by 1775^[2]

This is sweetened by the following nail-on-the-head history:

Dobie^[4] in 1876 records that Hugh, Earl of Eglinton inherited in May 1661 the 10 merkland of Langshaw with the patronage of the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin within these lands. A reference is made to a James Wyllie, whose family held these lands for several generations. [snip]

It is relevant here to note that Dobie lists three families with the name Tempiltoun in the Kilmaurs valuation role of 1640 whilst no other Cunninghame parishes have this name listed. One of the oldest graves in Kilmaurs-Glencairn churchyard, dating from the 17th. century, is that of a Tempiltoun. The family Bible of the Templetons is held by the Forrests of Byres Farm, who are direct descendants.

Ya gotta love Wikipedia!

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.