Chisholms. The Bissets of Lessendrum are
among the oldest families in Aberdeenshire.
The Martins (Mairtin) came to Ireland with
Strongbow in the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman invasion. They became one of the famous,
mostly Norman merchant families of Galway City, known collectively as the Tribes of
Galway. The Martyns of Tullyra, County Galway, were one of the few Catholic families ever
to be excluded from the harsh penal code, owing to their assistance of Protestants during
the Catholic ascendancy of the seventeenth century.
The Menzies (Meinnearach) are a branch of the
Anglo-Norman family of de Meyners of England, where the name has taken the form of
"Manners" (of Etal and Rutland). The first of the name in Scotland was Sir
Robert de Meyners, who was at the Court of Alexander II by 1224, and was created Great
Chamberlain of Scotland by 1249. Alexander de Meyneris or Meinzeis had a charter of the
lands of Durisdeer in Nithsdale from Robert I, and also held Weem and Aberfeldy, and
Fortingal in Rannoch, or West AtholI (Fortingal later passed through an heiress to the
Stewarts), and Glendochart, in Breadalbane. The Menzies fought for The Bruce at the Battle
of Bannockburn in 1314. Sir Robert de Mengues, Knight, had his lands erected into the
Barony of Menzies in 1487. The last chieftain of a distinguished fourteenth-century cadet
branch, the Menzies of Pitfoddels (their young chieftain had carried the Royal Standard at
the battle of Invercarron in 1650) settled his estate of Blairs on the Catholic church,
which is now Blairs’ College near Aberdeen, and which holds the surviving muniments
of the old Scots College of Paris. The Menzies appear in the Roll of the Clans, 1597.
Though after the Stewarts were driven from the throne in 1688 the chief of the Menzies
favored the new government, the Menzies nonetheless were out in support of the Stewarts in
the 1715 and 1745 Risings (though the chief sat out the 1745 Rising, the clan was out
under Menzies of Shian). Menzies of Culdares introduced the first Larch trees to the
Highlands in 1738, which was important to the reforestation of the Highlands. The Menzies
of Culdares and Arndilly (Speyside) have inherited the chiefship. The name is pronounced
"Meeng-us."
The Morrises (de Moireis: Latin "de
Marisco"; Norman-French "de Marreis") are of Norman origin, and were a very
powerful family in the south of Ireland attached to the Butlers of Ormond. They became
Gaeticized, and adopted the patronymic name of Mac Muiris, now usually Morrissey. In 1485
a branch of these Ormond Morrises settled in Galway City, where they became one of the
famous and mostly Norman tribes, or merchant families, of that city. They were prominent
in the affairs of Galway City down to the time of Cromwell and the submergence of the
Catholic aristocracy.
The Nugents (de Nuinnseann) settled to
Ireland at the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion in the twelfth century, having come to
England with William the Conqueror in 1066. In Ireland the family settled in what is now |
