Clan Ralston
The Ralstons were a landed family of Renfrewshire, taking their name from the lands of Ralston near Paisley and styling themselves of that Ilk. Nicholas de Ralstoun witnessed a gift to the monks of Paisley Abbey in 1272, which is the earliest date the sources agree on. A Jacobus de Rauliston said to have witnessed at Paisley in 1219 cannot be checked against any legible citation and should not be relied on, and a Thomas de Raulfestone of Lanarkshire on the Ragman Roll of 1296 has not been shown to belong to this family. A Ralston is first styled of that Ilk in 1346. The legend that the family descends from a Ralph, younger son of an Earl of Fife, is tradition; the acorns of the Ralston arms bear no relation to the lion of Fife.
John de Ralstone rose to be Keeper of the Privy Seal in 1444, Bishop of Dunkeld in 1448 and Lord High Treasurer in 1449, the high point of the family’s fortunes. Hugh Ralston was killed at Pinkie on 10 September 1547. Ralston itself was sold to the Earl of Dundonald about 1704 or 1705, sources differing by a year. The family had built the tower of Woodside in Beith parish in Ayrshire in 1551 and held that estate until 1771. The line of chiefs then failed: accounts differ over who the last chief was and when he died, one naming a Gavin Ralston of that Ilk who died in June 1819 and another a William who died in 1744. There is no chief of Ralston recognised by the Lord Lyon today, and the Court of the Lord Lyon treats Ralston as an armigerous clan.
The Ralston tartan
Every Ralston tartan is modern, and none has a chief’s authority behind it, there being no chief. A Ralston tartan registered in 2003 was designed by Michael T. Ralstin in the United States to mark his sixtieth birthday, and was intended to serve the name and its spelling variants. A second and separate Ralston design, registered in 2006, is the work of Robin Elliot and Alison Ralston in the United Kingdom.
The Paisley District tartan of 1952, designed by Alan C. Drennan, is sometimes offered alongside these. It is a district tartan for the town, not a Ralston family sett, although the family’s lands lay beside it.
A note on honesty: the brighter and darker versions of the 2003 tartan are colourways of one threadcount rather than two tartans, and a Ralston Universal offered by some retailers has no traceable registration. No Ralston sett comes from Wilsons of Bannockburn, the Vestiarium Scoticum or the Clans Originaux, and none predates the commercial era — indeed neither predates the twenty-first century.
Clan facts
| Chief | None. Ralston is an armigerous clan and the line of chiefs of that Ilk failed; sources conflict over who the last of them was. |
|---|---|
| Motto | Fide et Marte — literally “by faith and by war”, usually rendered “with fidelity and bravery”. Scottish arms and mottoes belong to individuals rather than to surnames. |
| Plant badge | Not recorded. |
| Lands | Ralston near Paisley, Renfrewshire, sold about 1704; Woodside in Beith, Ayrshire, 1551 to 1771 |