Clan Keith
The Keiths take their name from the district of Keith in East Lothian. A baron called Hervey held part of it in the reign of David I (1124–1153) and witnessed the king’s charter granting Annandale to Robert de Brus; the estate became Keith Hervei and later Keith Marischal. By 1176 his son was styled Marischal of the King of Scots, and in 1324 Robert I confirmed that office as hereditary by charter. Halforest in Aberdeenshire had been granted to Sir Robert de Keith in 1308.
In 1382 the Keiths exchanged Struthers with the Lindsays for Dunnottar, the cliff fortress above Stonehaven, and around 1458 the head of the family was created Earl Marischal. The line ended badly: the Earl Marischal who joined the rising of 1715 was attainted and lost titles, the hereditary office and the estates — sources disagree whether he was the ninth or the tenth earl. A junior branch had been created Earl of Kintore in 1677, and it is the Earls of Kintore who head the family today. The tale of a Keith killing the Danish leader Camus in 1010 and being given his arms drawn in the king’s own blood is tradition, not record.
The Keith tartan
The Scottish Register of Tartans holds one Keith clan sett, reference 1936. The register gives it no designer and no date. It is usually traced to 1838 through D. C. Stewart’s work on the Wilsons of Bannockburn papers, a date we have not been able to confirm at the register itself. The same threadcount is recorded as serving Falconer, Austin and Marshall as well, deriving from Lord Falconer, so the pattern is not exclusive to the name Keith.
One trap is worth knowing. The register also lists a second tartan called simply Keith, reference 1935, but that one sits in the District category: it belongs to the burgh of Keith in Moray, a place, and is not the clan tartan. There is a separate Marshall of Keith sett by Kinloch Anderson, and a handful of modern personal registrations that share the name by coincidence.
A note on honesty: Keith Ancient, Keith Modern, Keith Muted and Keith Weathered are colourways of the one sett, reference 1936, rather than separate tartans, and there is no registered Keith Dress or Keith Hunting sett at all. No Keith sett predates the commercial era; nothing on record supports a Keith tartan earlier than the nineteenth century.
Clan facts
| Chief | James William Falconer Keith, 14th Earl of Kintore. We have found no dated Lord Lyon recognition of the Kintore line as chief of the name, and the clan society’s own chief page is out of date, still naming the 13th Earl, who died in 2004. |
|---|---|
| Motto | Veritas vincit — “Truth conquers” |
| Plant badge | White rose. Given by some reference works but not by the clan society, and we would not call it settled. |
| Lands | Keith Marischal, East Lothian; Dunnottar and Fetteresso, Kincardineshire; Inverugie, Aberdeenshire. Present seat Keith Hall, Aberdeenshire |