Badge—Cumin plant.
The family of Cumyn, Comyn, Cumin, Cummin, or Cumming, merit notice among the septs of the north of Scotland, from the prominent figure which they made there in early times. But almost all authors agree in representing them as having come from England, and having been of either Norman or Saxon descent originally. The time when they migrated northwards is also well marked in history. The event occurred in the reign of David I. That prince still claimed a large part of the north of England, and, besides, had engaged deeply in the contests betwixt King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, which agitated South Britain in the twelfth century. He was thus brought into frequent contact with the barons of Northumberland and the adjoining districts, some of whom were properly his vassals, and many of whose younger sons followed him permanently into Scotland. In this way were founded various northern families in the time of King David, and among others, seemingly, the Cumyns. William Cumyn is the first of the name authentically mentioned in the Scottish annals. He had been trained clerically by Gaufred, bishop of Durham, some time chancellor to Henry I.; and his abilities and experience appear to have recommended Cumyn to David of Scotland for the same high office in the north. He was nominated chancellor of Scotland in 1133; though we find him seizing on the bishopric of Durham in 1142, under countenance of a grant from the Empress Maude. But he soon after resigned it to the proper incumbent, reserving only certain of the episcopal estates for behoof of his nephew and heir, Richard.
Richard Cumyn, properly the founder of the line of the Scottish Cumyn, rose high in the service of William the Lion, and long acted as chief minister and justiciary of Scotland. During his life he held the lands of Northallerton and others, secured to him by his uncle in England; and he also obtained estates in Roxburghshire, the first property of the family in Scotland. That the Cumyns must have been of high importance in England is proved by, and in part explains, their sudden elevation in the north. Richard Cumyn even intermarried with the royal family of Scotland, wedding Hexilda, great-granddaughter of the “gracious” King Duncan of “Macbeth.”[253]
In the reign of Alexander III., as stated by Fordun, there were of the name in Scotland three Earls—Buchan, Menteith, and Athole, and one great feudal baron, Cumyn lord of Strathbogie, with thirty knights all possessing lands. The chief of the clan was lord of Badenoch and Lochaber, and other extensive districts in the Highlands. Upwards of sixty belted knights were bound to follow his banner with all their vassals, and he made treaties with princes as a prince himself. One such compact with Lewellyn of Wales is preserved in Rymer’s Fœdera.
The Cummings, as the name is now spelled, are numerous in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray; but a considerable number, in consequence of being prevented, for some reason, from burying their relatives in the family burial-place, changed their names to Farquharson, as being descended from Ferquhard, second son of Alexander the fourth designed of Altyre, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century. It is from them that the Farquharsons of Balthog, Haughton, and others in the county of Aberdeen derive their descent.
From Sir Robert Comyn, younger son of John lord of Badenoch, who died about 1274, are descended the Cummings of Altyre, Logie, Auchry (one of whom in 1760 founded the village of Cuminestown in Aberdeenshire), Relugas, &c.
OGILVY.
