328 



The Swintons of that Eh. By Aechibald Campbell Swin- 

 ton, of Kimmerghame, LL.D., F.R.S.E., etc. 



The Swintons of Swinton derive their name from the parish in 

 Berwickshire ; the whole or greater part of which at one time be- 

 longed to them. It is now shared by five other principal pro- 

 prietors.* Popular tradition, to which the armorial cognisance 

 of the familyf affords some countenance, attributes their first ac- 

 quisition of the lands to the prowess of an ancestor in delivering 

 the district from the ravages of wild boars. Another legend re- 

 presents Edulf de Swinton as rendering valuable service to Mal- 

 colm Canmore in his struggle for the recovery of the Scottish 

 throne, and receiving from that monarch a territorial grant as 

 the reward of his valour and loyalty. The year 1060 is stated 

 by Douglas, in his "Baronage of Scotland," as about the time 

 when this, the supposed founder of the Swinton family, lived. 

 And a charter of King David I., still extant in the archives of 

 the Dean and Chapter of Durham, and which is represented in 

 facsimile in the National Manuscripts of Scotland,]: shows that 

 the lands of Swinton were possessed, probably by I. Edulf, and 

 certainly by II. L'iulf , his son, and III Udard his grandson. The 

 last of these is styled in another charter by the same monarch, § 

 " the sheriff " (Vicecomes). It has been noticed as a coincidence 

 — probably no more than a coincidence — that the names Liulf 

 and Udard correspond with Ligulf and Odard, who, about this 

 time, were successively Sheriffs of Northumberland. 



IV. Herntjlf or Arntjlf, in whose favour the charters above 

 referred to were granted, must have been a man of rank 

 and distinction, as he is designated by the king, " Miles Meus,' 

 my Knight. Though he is not designed son of Udard, " yet,' 



* Mr Clay Ker Seymer of Handf ord, trustees of Lady Talbot de Malahide 

 trustees of the late Lord Marjoribanks, Lieut. Col. Trotter of Mortonball 

 and Lady Marjoribanks of Lady kirk. There has long existed in the village 

 a family of Swines, the head of which, three generations ago, asked and ob 

 tained permission from the lord of the manor, to change the name to Swin 

 ton, " on account of the nastiness of the beast." The permission was never 

 acted on. 



t Sable, a chevron or, between three boars heads erased argent. Crest, a 

 boar chained to a tree, and above on an escrol Tespere. Supporters (said to 

 have been first granted to Sir John Swinton in 1722) two boars standing 

 on a compartment whereon are the words Je pense. 



% Vol. i., No. xxi. § lb., No. xxii. 



