Cork, Limerick and Waterford. They became
very influential in County Tipperary, the head of the family being known as Baron of
Coursey. They formed a warlike sept, after the Gaelic fashion, in the fourteenth century,
and were dreaded by later English settlers. Ballytobin, near Callan in County Kilkenny, is
named after them.
The Flemings (Pleamonn) descend from Richar
Ie Fleming, a Flemish knight who obtained from Hugh de Lacy a grant of the Barony of Slane
and other estates in County Meath, which remained in his family down to the Cromwellian
and Williamite confiscations of the seventeenth century. The head of the family was
created Lord Slane in 1537, and \/iscount Longford in 1713. His armorial motto is written
in Gaelic, and translates as "May the King live forever (Bhear na Righ gan).
The lnneses (Innis) descend fronm Berowald
Flandrensis, a Flemish knight, who was granted the Barony of lnnes, in Moray, by Malcolm
IV in 1160 after marrying the daughter of its native thane (thus the "three Moray
stars," differenced blue on silver, of the lnnes arms). This barony included all the
coastal territory between the Spey and the Lossie. Berowald’s grandson, Walter de
Ineys, had a charter from the King in 1226. The ninth Baron, Sir Alexander lnnes of that
ilk married the daughter of the last Thane of Aberchirder in the early fifteenth century,
thus acquiring additional lands not far to the east in Buchan. Their son Walter, tenth of
Innes, built the great tower of Kincairdy Castle. A branch of the family appears in
Caithness in 1507, and other branches acquired lnnermarkie and Balveny not far to the
south of Innes. ‘The lnneses were regarded as a clan by the Privy Council in 1579.
The Leslies take their name from the Barony
of Leslie in the Garioch in central Aberdeenshire. They descend from Bartholf, a Flemish
knight, who obtained the Barony of Leslie in the second half of the twelfth century. He
probably married into a native line, for his son was given the distinctively Celtic name
Malcolm. This Malcolm was constable of the Royal castle of Inverurie, and was formally
granted the Barony of Leslie by a charter by Earl David, brother of William of the Lion.
By subsequent marriages his line acquired the Rothes, a considerable territory not far
away in the lowlands of Moray, and thus the Leslies became an important territorial family
in the North. They also acquired lands in central Fife and on the south side of the Firth
of Tay, the latter by an Abernethy heiress, A branch settled early in France, where they
became the De Lisle Viscounts de Fussy. Sir Andrew Leslie, who married the Abernethy
heiress, was one of the Scottish barons that in 1320 signed the famous letter to the Pope
asserting Scottish independence. His younger son Walter married the daughter of the Earl
of Ross and was given the earldom by the King, who seized it from the male-line of the
House of Ross. The earldom soon passed deviously from the family by another heiress, into
the hands of the Stewarts. Sir Andrew’s great-grandsotm was in 1437 created Earl of
Rothes. |
