B.
THE CRAWFURDS.
[Page 193.]
Crawfurd, is a corruption of two Celtic words Crodh-Phort, pronounced Cro-forst, signifying a sheltering place for cattle, a designation expressive of the general appearance of the parish of Crawford-John. As every thing relating to so illustrious a character as Wallace is important, the following pedigree, showing his maternal descent, will doubtless be acceptable to many.
According to that accurate genealogist George Crawfurd, author of the Scottish Peerage, and the History of Renfrewshire, and of the House of Stewart, published more than 100 years ago, the Craufurds are derived from Thorlongus, an Anglo-Danish chief, who, being expelled from Northumberland by William the Conqueror, found an asylum in Scotland, and, in particular, had a grant of land in the Merse from Edgar, King of Scots, whose reign is included betwixt the year 1097 and the 8th January 1106–7.
This appears from Crawfurd’s MS. “History of the Craufurds,” in the Advocates’ Library, and is corroborated by Anderson in his Diplomata, compiled at the desire of the Scots Parliament, who has this notice of Thor-Longus:—“Hic vir nobilis et Anglus genere fuisse, videtur ac forte idem qui Thor in Libro vulgo dicto Doomsday-Book, sæpius memoratus amplissimis suis prædiis in borealibus Angliæ partibus sitis a Gullielmo Conquisitore erat exûtus.”
At what particular time his expulsion took place, does not precisely appear; but it seems probable that it must have been betwixt the years 1069 and 1074, when, from the unsubmissive spirit of the Northumbrians, they brought down on their own heads the most direful wrath of the conqueror, who was so provoked with them, for joining their original countrymen the Danes, who had at that time invaded England, (and whom, for all his prowess, he was fain to buy off), that “he swore by the splendour of God he would not leave a soul alive;” and so soon as he found it in his power (the foreigners being now gone) to be avenged of them, he ravaged their country in so merciless a manner, that for 60 miles together he did not leave a single house standing.—See Rapin, vol. i. p. 172.
All this took place betwixt the years as above stated; and as they were quite subdued by the last of these dates (1074), and as there appeared to have been no more exterminating spoliation of this part of the country afterwards during William’s reign, it seems to be a fair conclusion, that this Anglo-Danish chief had found it necessary to fly, and make his escape to Scotland during the interim mentioned. The era of the Doomsday-Book itself (1079), in which Thor is mentioned to have been, before that time, deprived of his possessions, should be a concluding evidence of the fact. That he obtained lands in Scotland during the reign of King Edgar, appears distinctly from the following writs, copied from the MS. History of Crawfurd, and which also are to be found in the archives of the cathedral of Durham.
CHARTA THORLONGI.
Omnibus sanctæ matris Ecclesiæ filiis Thorlongus in Domino, salutem: Sciatis quod Edgarus Dominus meus Rex Scottorum, dedit mihi Ednaham desertam, quam ego, suo auxilio et mea propria pecunia inhabitavi, et ecclesiam in honorem Sancti Cuthberti fabricavi, quam ecclesiam cum una carrucata terræ, Deo et Sancto Cuthberto et monachis ejus in perpetuum possidendum dedi; hanc igitur donationem feci pro anima domini mei Regis Edgari, et pro animabus patris et matris illius, et pro redemptione Lefwini patris mei dilectissimi, et pro meimet ipsius tam corporis quam animæ salute, et siquis hanc meam donationem sancto predicto et monachis sibi servientibus aliqua vi vel ingenio auferre presumserit, auferat ab eo Deus omnipotens vitam Regni celestis, et cum diabolo et angelis ejus pœnas sustinet eternas. Amen.