The Scottish name Turnbull is thus accounted for: "The first of the name with us is said to have been a strong man of the name of Ruel, who turned a wild bull by the head which violently ran against King Robert Bruce in Stirling Park, for which he got from that king the lands of Bedrule, and the name of Turnbull. Edward Howes, in his History of England, mentions this man in the minority of King David Bruce at the battle of Halidonhill. His words are, 'A certain stout champion of great stature, who, for a fact by him done, was called Turnbull, advanced before the Scots army, and a great mastiff dog with him, and challenged any of the English army to fight with him a combat; one Sir Robert Venal, a Norfolk man, by the king of England's leave, took him up, fought, and killed him, and his dog too.""* His descendants bore a bull's head as their arms (in more modern times altered to three bulls' heads), in allusion to the feat from which the name originated. The Scottish family of DALZELL OF DALZIEL bear for arms a denuded human figure. In old seals and paintings the man is represented as hanging from a gibbet, but this 'ensign of honour' (?) has been laid aside, and the figure alone is retained. "These (arms) of Dalziel," says Nisbet, "are said to perpetuate the memory of a brave and dangerous exploit performed by one of their progenitors, in taking down from a gibbet the body of a favourite and near kinsman of King Kenneth II; whether true or false it is all one, since it gave occasion to such a bearing. For, as the story goes, the king being exceedingly grieved that the body of his friend should be so disgracefully treated * Nisbet's System of Heraldry, vol. i, p. 332. by his enemies, proffered a great reward to any of his subjects who would adventure to rescue it; but when none would undertake that hazardous enterprise, a valorous gentleman came and said to the king, Dalziel, which signifies, as I am informed by those who pretend to know the old Scots language, I dare; which attempt he effectually performed to the king's satisfaction. And his posterity took this remarkable bearing, and the word Dalziel for their surname, when surnames came to be used, with the signification thereof, I dare, for their motto: the crest being a sword in pale, proper; supporters, two men in armour, cap-a-pie, with round targets, now used by this ancient family."* Scotland affords these historical surnames in a greater number than England, and as they have all become naturalized among the Southrons, no apology for their introduction here is necessary. The great and widely-spread Scottish family of ARMSTRONG derive their surname from the following circumstance: "An ancient king of Scotland having his horse killed under him in battle was immediately remounted by Fairbairn, his armour-bearer. For this timely assistance the king amply rewarded him with lands on the borders, and to perpetuate the memory of so important a service, as well as the manner in which it was performed (for Fairbairn took the king by the thigh and set him on his saddle), his royal master gave him the appellation of Armstrong, and assigned him for crest- an armed hand and arm; in the left hand a leg and foot in armour, couped at the thigh all proper." "+ The next anecdote has often appeared under various * Nisbet, vol. i, pp. 259-60. † Burke's Commoners, vol. iv. forms: I give it on the authority of a famous genealogist. "One of the antient Earls of Lennox, in Scotland, had issue three sons; the eldest succeeded him in the earldom; the second, whose name was Donald; and the third named Sillerist. The then king of Scots, having wars, did convocate his lieges to the battle. Amongst them that were commanded was the Earl of Lennox, who keeping his eldest son at home, sent his second son to serve for him with the forces under his command. The battle went hard with the Scots, for the enemy pressing furiously upon them, forced them to lose ground, until at last they fell to flat running away, which being perceived by Donald, he pulled his father's standard from the bearer thereof, and valiantly encountering the foe (being well followed up by the Earl of Lennox his men), he repulsed the enemy and changed the fortune of the day, whereby a great victory was got. After the battle, as the manner is, every one advancing and setting forth his own acts, the king said unto them, 'Ye have all done valiantly, but there is one amongst you who hath NA PIER!' (no equal,) and calling Donald into his presence, commanded him in regard of his worth, service, and augmentation of his honour, to change his name from Lennox to Napier, and gave him lands in Fife, and the lands of Goffurd, and made him his own servant."* The family traditions of Scotland abound in anecdotes of this kind. "The SKENES of that kingdom obtained this name," says Buchanan, "for killing a very big and fierce wolf at a hunting in company with the king *From a MS. temp. Charles I, written by Sir W. Segar, Garter king of arms, quoted in Burke's Commoners. in Stocket forest in Athole; having killed the wolf with a dagger or skene." His original name was Strowan. The COLLIERS, according to the same authority, borrow that appellative from an ancestor, having, when hotly pursued by his enemies, concealed himself in a coal-pit. Some of their surnames originated in the sloggans, slug-horns, or war-cries used by the clans; as in the case of the HALLIDAYS, an old family of the genuine Celtic blood, who settled in Annandale, and made frequent raids or marauding excursions on the English border. On these occasions they employed the warcry of "A Holy Day;" every day in their estimation. being holy that was spent in ravaging the enemy's country hence the surname. The name of HAY (Earl of Errol) is said to have been borrowed from the word of onslaught-' Hay! Hay! used by the brave founder of that family when, assisted by only his two sons, he succeeded in beating back a whole army of Danes in the pass of Lancort, A.D. 942. The name MAULEVERER was antiently written MalusLeporarius or Malevorer, the "bad hare hunter," and tradition states that a Yorkshire gentleman being about to let slip a brace of greyhounds to run for a stake of considerable value, held them with so unskilful a hand as rather to endanger their necks than to expedite the capture of the hare. This deficiency of skill brought down upon him the nickname above mentioned, which thenceforward descended to his posterity, an everlasting memorial of his ignorance of huntingcraft. But that learned student in matters genealogical, Peter le Neve, Norroy king of arms, more rationally supposes it to be Malus-operarius, (in French Mal-ouvrier), because that in Doomsday Book (Essex, : p. 94) occurs the following entry: "Terra Adamis, filii Durandi de Malis Operibus," which I translate, the land of Adam the son of Durand of the Evil Deeds! no enviable surname, in truth, if it corresponded to the character of the original bearer. The arms of the family, however, seem to support the tradition they are Sable, three greyhounds, courant in pale, argent.' Several of the names in the various copies of the Roll of Battel Abbey have Mal or Mau as their first syllable, and some of them probably belong to the class under elucidation. Maucouvenant was probably imposed upon some one for having on some special occasion violated his word; and Mautenant may refer to some forgotten act of infidelity on the part of its primitive owner. Upon Malemis, Maumasin, and some others, it would be hazardous to speculate; while Mauclerc (bad scholar),' Maurewarde (bad-look'), and Maulovel (bad little wolf') belong to another category, and might have been included in my sixteenth chapter. MALVOISIN OF MAUVESYN is, strictly speaking, a local surname, but its origin is so singular that it deserves a place among these anecdotes. Our old historians inform us that when a besieging army erected a tower or castle near the place besieged, such castle was called, in French, a Malvoisin or dangerous neighbour' to the enemy, because it threatened to cut him off from all possibility of relief. In the northern district of the Isle of France, not far from the banks of the Seine, some time stood one of those awful bulwarks, from which the great ancestor of the English family, who was lord of the neigbouring domain of Rosny, received his surname. * * Burke's Commoners; whence also the two following anecdotes. |
