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The first of the name was
one Petrus del Hage who is mentioned in documents c.1162, but traditionally they are said
to descend from Druskine, King of the Picts who was killed at the Battle of Camelon by
Kenneth, King of Scots in 839. His son, Hago escaped to Norway and it was his descendant,
Petrus de Hago who served with the Viking forces of King Harold IV of Norway. Hago who was
shipwrecked off Eyemouth befriended the Earl of March who gave him his daughter's hand in
marriage and the lands of Bemersyde near Dryburgh Roxburghshire. The Haigs lived on the
lands of Bemersyde for many centuries and almost bore out the ancient prophecy of Thomas
the Rhymer - "Tyde, Tyde, what'er betide There'll aye be Haigs at Bemersyde" In
the 17th century the Chief of Haig had twelve daughters before a son but in the 19th
century the 25th Laird and his three sisters all died unmarried. The chief made a joint
disposition conveying Bemersyde to Arthur Balfour Haig of the Clackmannanshire who was
descended from a second son of the 17th Chief. In the 17th century William Haig was the
King's solicitor for Scotland for James VI and Charles I. In 1921 the peoples of the
British Commonwealth purchased the estate of Bemersyde from Balfour Haig and presented it
to Field-Marshal Earl Haig in recognition of his services during the First World War.
Alexander Haig who resigned from the Nixon administration is of the American branch of the
family. The present Chief, a distinguished painter is the son of the Field-Marshal and
succeeded to the title in 1928. |
