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Urquhart ( listen ) is a Highland Scottish clan.
Contents
Origins of the clan
Urquhart is a name that is derived from the place name, Airchart. Airchart is first recorded in the early life of Saint Columba, the great Celtic saint. In modern times there are two parishes in Scotland named Urquhart, one in Elgin and one on the Black Isle. The meaning of the word Urquhart itself has been given various Scottish Gaelic translations including woodside, by a rowan wood, or fort on a knoll. There is also Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness. One legend associated with Urquhart Castle involves Conachar of the royal house of Ulster, who is said to have come to Scotland to fight for Malcolm III of Scotland. Conachar was rewarded with the castle. The legend is also that Conachar was on the point of being mauled to death by a wild boar when his dog attacked the beast and although the dog died it saved his master. This is one explanation for the boar's head and hounds on the Urquhart chief's coat of arms.
William de Urchard is said to have defended the Moote of Cromarty in the time of William Wallace against supporters of the English Crown. From the reign of David II of Scotland the Urquhart chiefs were hereditary sheriffs of Cromarty.
16th century and Anglo Scottish wars
Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty is said to have sired twenty-five sons in the early sixteenth century. However seven of these sons were killed at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547. Another Thomas Urquhart was born on the day of the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh and was knighted by James VI of Scotland.
17th century and Civil War
Thomas Urquhart's son, Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty was a student at King's College, Aberdeen at the age of just eleven. He was knighted by Charles I of England in 1641. After the Civil War he traveled to the Continent and studied work by the French poet François Rabelais. Thomas Urquhart's translation of Rabelais's work is considered a masterpiece. Thomas rejoined the royalist army and fought at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, where he was taken prisoner and imprisoned in the Tower of London. While in prison he published his family tree which shows the origins of the Urquhart family back to Adam and Eve. When he was released he returned to the Continent where he is said to have died from laughter while celebrating the Restoration (1660).
18th century and Jacobite risings
Captain John Urquhart of Craigston (b.1696) was a man of great wealth but the origins of his fortune are shrouded in mystery. He was called the pirate by his family. He was recruited by the Spanish Navy and this is probably where he amassed his fortune, from the prize money that was paid for captured enemy vessels. He was nearly killed during the Jacobite rising of 1715 at the Battle of Sheriffmuir, fighting on the side of the Jacobites. The Urquhart of Craigston family became of such social eminence that they were able to get the great Henry Raeburn to paint their family portraits. Craigston Castle is still in the family's hands.
Colonel James Urquhart also supported the Jacobite cause and was severely wounded at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. He was the principal Jacobite agent in Scotland until he died in 1741. The chiefship of the clan then passed to his cousin, William Urquhart of Meldrum, who was a cautious Jacobite and avoided the disaster at the Battle of Culloden. His cousin, Adam Urquhart was a member of Charles Edward Stuart's court-in-exile in Rome.
Modern history
The last of the chiefly line was Major Beauchamp Urquhart who was killed in 1898 at the Battle of Atbara in Sudan. In 1959 a descendant of a branch of the clan known as the Urquharts of Braelangswell, who had emigrated to America in the 18th century, established his right to be chief of the Clan Urquhart. The chief's title is Urquhart of Urquhart.