Clan Dalgliesh
Dalgliesh is a Border name taken from the lands of Dalgleish at the head of the Tima Water in the parish of Ettrick, Selkirkshire. The earliest record usually cited is 1407, when Symon de Dalgles witnessed a charter by Robert, Duke of Albany. Simon of Dalgles appears as a canon of Askirk in 1448, Sir William de Dalgles as steward to the Bishop of Glasgow in 1452, and in 1494 John Dalgleis is styled “of that Ilk”, the phrase used of the landed head of a name. John Dalglese was hanged in 1510 for his part in the burning of Branxholm and Ancrum. Later branches settled in Fife and Perthshire, among them the Dalgleishes of Tinnygask. A date of 1383 circulates on other sites; we could find no record behind it, and would use 1407.
The derivation of the name is disputed. One reading takes it from Gaelic dail and glaise, a field by a stream; another from de l’eglise, of the church. Either way, Dalgliesh is a Border family rather than a clan in the formal sense. It has no chief recognised by the Lord Lyon, it is absent from the roll of chiefs and commanders, and no arms are recorded for the name at all. That last point has a practical consequence. A clan crest badge is the chief’s crest worn by his kinsmen within a strap and buckle, so with no chief and no arms there is no legitimate Dalgliesh crest badge, whatever is sold elsewhere. The cloth is real; the badge is not.
The Dalgliesh tartan
The Scottish Register of Tartans holds a sett named Dalgliesh Dress, registered in 2002, and a personal tartan for Euan Dalgliesh dated 2009. There is no plain Dalgliesh clan sett in the register. For the Dress sett, no designer, no design date and no origin are recorded. Nothing links it to Wilsons of Bannockburn, and nothing links it to the Vestiarium Scoticum of 1842.
There is a second thing worth knowing, because it is the commonest mistake made with this name. D. C. Dalgliesh Ltd of Selkirk is one of Scotland’s best known tartan mills, and because it has supplied reference samples and colour information for a great many tartans, databases carry its name in brackets after other clans’ setts — MacInnes Dress (Dalgliesh), Rankin (Dalgleish), and dozens more besides. Those are not Dalgliesh family tartans. The bracket names the weaver who supplied the record, not the family the cloth belongs to.
A note on honesty: Ancient, Modern, Weathered and Dress Dalgliesh are colour variations woven from the same threadcount, not four separate tartans, and no Dalgliesh sett predates the commercial era — the one registered record of the name dates from 2002. We would rather say plainly that the origin of this sett is unrecorded than invent a weaver or a century for it.
Clan facts
| Chief | None. No chief is recognised by the Lord Lyon, and no arms are recorded for the name |
|---|---|
| Motto | Not recorded |
| Plant badge | Not recorded |
| Lands | Dalgleish, at the head of the Tima Water, parish of Ettrick, Selkirkshire; later branches in Fife and Perthshire |