Humes History
On an idle Saturday morning, I thought I would investigate my other half's family name a little, prompted by the family legend that they came across with William the Conqueror. I find that not only is that likely, but they also have a family curse, administered by none other than the Archbishop of Glasgow. I'll post the curse separately as it's quite long.......!
I found the following from a very comprehensive site on Northern Surnames: "For many centuries the surname Hume, and the alternative pronunciation Home which is also a surname in its own right have been associated with the lowand area of the Scottish borders near Berwick called the Merse. The Merse on the Scottish side of the border has been the scene of many a skirmish between the English and Scots over the years and many of the places in the area like Polwarth, Blackadder and Edrom were strongholds of the Humes. The Humes often sided with the English Kings in order to protect the district, but could support either side, perhaps because their family could trace its origin to William the Conqueror and to Duncan, the King of Scotland who was slain by Macbeth. The Hume family takes its name from a place called Home in Berwickshire, which derives from the Viking word 'holm' meaning an island of land or a holm oak tree."
I have also found the following "Border Widow's Ballad", around which a very good book about Thomas the Rhymer was written:
"My love he built me a bonny bower,
And clad it all wi' lilly flower
A brawer bower why ye ne'er did see
Than my true love he built for me.
There came a man by middle day
He spied his sport and went away
And browt the kin that very night,
Who broke my bower and slew my knight.
He slew my knight te me sae dear,
He slew my Knight and stole his yield,
My servants all for life did flee,
And left me in extremity.
I sewed his sheet marking my name
I washed the corpse my self alane,
I watched his body night and day,
Nae living creature came that way.
I took his body on my back,
And whiles I pray and whiles I sat
I digged a grave and I laid him in,
And covered him with grass sae green.
But think nae ye my heart was sair,
When I laid the clay on his yellow hair
Oh think nae ye my heart was wae,
When I turned about and went away
No living man I'll love again
Since that my lovely knight was slain."
George M Trevelyan had this to say about the Reivier Families:
"They were cruel, coarse savages, slaying each other like the beasts
of the forest; and yet they were also poets who could express in
the grand style the inexorable fate of the individual man and
woman, the infinite pity for all cruel things which they none the
less inflicted upon one another. It was not one ballad- maker alone
but the whole cut throat population who felt this magnanimous
sorrow, and the consoling charms of the highest poetry."
Poets, artists and murderers all in one package. Hmmmm!
I found the following from a very comprehensive site on Northern Surnames: "For many centuries the surname Hume, and the alternative pronunciation Home which is also a surname in its own right have been associated with the lowand area of the Scottish borders near Berwick called the Merse. The Merse on the Scottish side of the border has been the scene of many a skirmish between the English and Scots over the years and many of the places in the area like Polwarth, Blackadder and Edrom were strongholds of the Humes. The Humes often sided with the English Kings in order to protect the district, but could support either side, perhaps because their family could trace its origin to William the Conqueror and to Duncan, the King of Scotland who was slain by Macbeth. The Hume family takes its name from a place called Home in Berwickshire, which derives from the Viking word 'holm' meaning an island of land or a holm oak tree."
I have also found the following "Border Widow's Ballad", around which a very good book about Thomas the Rhymer was written:
"My love he built me a bonny bower,
And clad it all wi' lilly flower
A brawer bower why ye ne'er did see
Than my true love he built for me.
There came a man by middle day
He spied his sport and went away
And browt the kin that very night,
Who broke my bower and slew my knight.
He slew my knight te me sae dear,
He slew my Knight and stole his yield,
My servants all for life did flee,
And left me in extremity.
I sewed his sheet marking my name
I washed the corpse my self alane,
I watched his body night and day,
Nae living creature came that way.
I took his body on my back,
And whiles I pray and whiles I sat
I digged a grave and I laid him in,
And covered him with grass sae green.
But think nae ye my heart was sair,
When I laid the clay on his yellow hair
Oh think nae ye my heart was wae,
When I turned about and went away
No living man I'll love again
Since that my lovely knight was slain."
George M Trevelyan had this to say about the Reivier Families:
"They were cruel, coarse savages, slaying each other like the beasts
of the forest; and yet they were also poets who could express in
the grand style the inexorable fate of the individual man and
woman, the infinite pity for all cruel things which they none the
less inflicted upon one another. It was not one ballad- maker alone
but the whole cut throat population who felt this magnanimous
sorrow, and the consoling charms of the highest poetry."
Poets, artists and murderers all in one package. Hmmmm!
posted by Catherine at 15:08
1 Comments:
Hello there
I found your web page very interesting and have been researching my name Hume for some years now, although I've never come accross the legend that we came to these shores with William the Conqueror. However most of the prominent Scottish families of the 12th/13th century were of Norman blood, so it's quite plausible and I'd certainly like to know more on this subject. What I do know is that the present Earl of Home (and most of us Humes as well I suppose) could be descended from both the Royal Houses of Scotland and England through Cospatric, the former Earl of Northumbria during the 11th century. His father was Maldred, grandson of the Scottish king Malcolm 11 and brother of the Scottish king Duncan 1 (he who was slain by Macbeth) and his Mother was the Northumbrian princess Ealdgyth who was descended from the English King Edmund Ironside.This Cospatric in fact led a northern rebellion against William the Conqueror and was defeated at Stafford in 1069. He fled into Scotland under the protection of his cousin king Malcolm 111 and became Earl of Dunbar in 1072. A grandson of the third Earl of Dunbar called William inherited the lands of Home (Hume) through marriage (some say to the daughter of the Scottish king William the Lyon) and styled himself William de Home (it seems that this was Hume with a tilde over the 'u', which eventually became one to form the 'o' - that's the theory at least!). The name Hume is given as a 'sept' of the clan MacDuff, the ancient Earls of Fife, and one of their cadet lines was designated 'H-Uamh' which is Scots gaelic for 'of (the) Cave (which must alude to the sacred caves along the south shore of Fife). The Great MacDuff has been attributed as killing Macbeth, and was granted lands in 'The Lothians' by a grateful King Malcolm 111, which is where we find Hume Castle today.
I hope all this is of interest.
Regards
Morris Hume
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