clan-relationship with both parties. The
Sinclairs of Rosslyn descend from the second son of William, last Earl of Orkney, and held
the castle of Rosslyn in County Edinburgh. The strongholds of the earls of Caithness were
the castles of Girnigoe and Mey (or Barrogill) in Caithness. The Linklaters (Old Norse
"Lyngklettr") derive their name from a place in Orkney, and being regarded as
kin to the original line of earls, or jarls, of Orkney, are regarded as a sept of the Clan
Sinclair.
The Spaldings take their name from the town
of Spalding in Lincolnshire, England. They appear in Scotland from about 1225, when
Radulphus de Spalding witnessed a charter of a mill in Kincardineshire. Magister (a church
office) John de Spaldyn witnessed a grant of lands in Aberdeen about 1294, and appears as
canon of Elgin in 1300 and 1304. A Symon de Spalding was a parson (parish priest) in
Ayrshire, and Peter de Spalding held lands and tenements at Berwick, and was a burgess of
that town, in 1318. All of these de Spaldings may well be related, given their
chronological progression, and as two of the three living around 1300 are non—Celtic
and thus by rule were celibate Catholic churchmen, the Spaldings probably descend from the
above-mentioned Peter, who helped Robert the Bruce overcome the governor of Berwick (whom
Peter considered too severe) in The Bruce’s siege of that town in 1318. In May of the
following year he received as a reward for his services and in exchange for his Berwick
lands (it may have been too hot for him to stay around Berwick) the lands of Ballourthy
(Balzeordie) and Petmethey (Pitmachie) in Angus, together with the keepership of the royal
forest of Kylgerry. The Spaldings became an important family in the Dundee area, and in
1587 were included in the roll of "Clans that have captains, chiefs and chieftains on
whom they depend."
The Walls (de BhaI, Norman-French "de
Valle") descend from the Norman William de VaIIe, who came to Ireland with Richard de
Glare, Earl of Pembroke, alias Strongbow, in 1172. William had four grandsons, each of
whom founded families in various parts of the country between Waterford and Tipperary. In
1335 two of them, John de Vale and Walter de Vale, accompanied Sir John D’Arcy, the
Chief Justiciary, on an expedition to Scotland. By the sixteenth century branches of the
family were settled throughout the counties of Kildare, Carlow, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Cork,
Limerick and Galway. In Galway they formed a distinct clan or sept in the Gaelic way, with
a "chief of the name." Some of these were known as Faltagh (Faltach), a
case-form of de Bhal in Gaelic. The Limerick branch held the manor of Dunmoylan from the
thirteenth century down to 1580, when Ulick de Wale, though blind from birth, was put to
death by the Englishman Pelham, who confiscated his lands. The head of the Limerick branch
was known as An Faltach, which means "The chief of the Walls."
The Stewarts (Stiubhard) take their name from
the office of Steward or Stewart of Scotland, the Anglo-Saxon title equivalent to the
Norman Seneschal, or household officer. The distinctive arms of the Stewarts, the |
