Clan Scrymgeour
The Scrymgeours hold one of the oldest documented offices in Scotland. On 29 March 1298 Alexander Scrymgeour received from William Wallace, as Guardian of Scotland, a gift of six mark-lands in Dundee called the Great Field, together with the right to carry the royal standard and the office of constable. The grant, the command to install him in December 1298, and renewals in 1301 and 1302 all survive in record. He was listed as a prisoner in August 1306 and executed at Newcastle on the order of Edward I. The constableship of Dundee was made hereditary in 1324. The surname itself derives from skrymsher, an old word for a swordsman; the battlefield origin stories attached to it are tradition, not record.
The earldom of Dundee was created in 1660 by Charles II for John Scrymgeour, 3rd Viscount Dudhope. When the 1st Earl died in 1668 the Duke of Lauderdale asserted there were no heirs-male, the Crown seized the lands, and both the earldom and the constableship were declared dormant. They stayed dormant for 285 years. The House of Lords Committee for Privileges heard the case in October 1952 and found that the 1st Earl had indeed left heirs-male; in 1953 Henry James Scrymgeour-Wedderburn became 11th Earl of Dundee. The family seat is now Birkhill, north of Cupar in Fife; the chiefs lived at Dudhope Castle until 1668.
The Scrymgeour tartan
One Scrymgeour sett is recorded, under Scottish Register of Tartans reference 3754 and Scottish Tartans Authority reference 1627, with a record date of 1971. It is held at three different threadcounts — 288, 192 and 144 threads — but these reduce to the same proportions and are simply the one sett woven at three scales for different cloth weights, not three tartans. A separate entry, Scrimgeour of Glassary, has materially different proportions and belongs to a different branch, so it is arguably a distinct sett.
A note on honesty: no designer, weaver or date earlier than 1971 is documented for the Scrymgeour sett. Scrymgeour does not appear in the Vestiarium Scoticum. The office goes back to 1298; the tartan does not. Scrymgeour Modern, Ancient, Weathered and Muted are the same sett in different dye shades — colourways, not separate tartans.
Clan facts
| Chief | Alexander Scrymgeour, 12th Earl of Dundee; Hereditary Royal Standard Bearer for Scotland and Hereditary Constable of Dundee |
|---|---|
| Gaelic patronymic | Not recorded. Scrymgeour is a Lowland name of Old English derivation and a Gaelic patronymic is doubtful |
| Motto | Dissipate — “Disperse” |
| Plant badge | Rowan |
| Lands | Birkhill, near Cupar, Fife; formerly Dudhope Castle, Dundee |