More Facts About the Craig Family Mr. W. R. Gillanders Supplements the evidence re the Craig Name Supplied in Mr. Beverley Craig’s History of the Craigs of North Gower and Goulbourn,.
I was very Interested in reading about the name of Craig. Without disparaging the author’s contention that the original Craigs came from the south of Scotland, there Is no evidence that there were not Craigs among the Dalriad Scots when they came from Ireland. The name was not a family one originally, and the Craigs in every Gaelic speaking country were distinctive men who earned the distinctive name. Perhaps the south ot Scotland was the most likely place to rear a family In those days, but when it comes to authentic history, the distinguished Craigs certainly came from the north. It is traditional In Aberdeenshire that there were Craigs there long before the advent of William the Conqueror in England. These Craigs fought at Bannockburn (1314) and at Harlaw (1411). It was from Aberdeenshire that Craig of Craig Pintray (in Aberdeenshire) Journeyed with his retainers to find death on Plodden Field (1513); his son John, the great Scot-is!), reformer, was born at Craig Fin-tray, as was Sir Thomas Craig, who after sojourning in France, settled in 1873 in Edinburgh where he be came perhaps the greatest man In Scotland at that time and founded a family which throughout the following centuries produced many eminent lawyers. In the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was the polite habit to Insist on a southern origin,. Just as In England today all families with pretence declare their forefathers came over with the Conqueror; and as in the United States everybody came over In the Mayflower.
For the past 2,000 years at least, the Irish word for Craig was Just Craig (Craig); the Scottish Gaelic la Creig, sometimes spelt creag, in order to show Plctlsh disdain for the Erse; in Manx, the third branch of the Goi-delic family, the word was also cralg. All these words, whether written Craig, Crieg or Creag, have the same pronunciation simply Craig. The Welsh is also written Craig, pronounced in the inimitable and beautiful Welsh way. but certainly not craig as we know it. It is doubtful if even a modern Welsh scholar could give the correct value of the old Welsh vowel sounds. In those days spelling was not of so much importance in every day life as pronunciation, The only branch of the Goidelic family which affected the orthography of Scottish Gaelic was the Irish much to the disgust of Scottish scholars, ancient and modernand this was principally through the missionaries, called In by the Dalrlads. By A.D. 600 these missionaries had converted the country between the Humber and the Forth to Christianity, apart from their work among tne picts ana scots. Thus, whether the Craigs as a family arose in the Welsh Strathclyde or in the Anglo-Scottish east, they would get the spelling of their name pat from all sources; and in case of sound there was no differentiation between that of the ranting, roaring Dalriad Scots and the proud, independent Picts. The name of Craig as a distinctive appellation to distinctive persons is older than the south of Scotland, and as these persons were not a clan but individuals distinguished in every district wherever Gaelic was spoken, there is no evidence to controvert the opinion that there were Craigs in Ireland when, as the song says England was a pup; and in Scotland long before the pawky southern Scots began to pawk, With apologies to vour patience W. R. GILLANDERS, Albion Hotel Ottawa,
Clipped from
- The Ottawa Citizen,
- 20 Dec 1930, Sat,
- Page 2
-
All about the Craig’s, from Lanarkshire, Scotland to Lanark County, Ontario
The Craig family crest has three variations, one for England, Ireland and Scotland. The crest above it for the Scottish Craigs and we have a long history there. The family motto “Vive Deo et Vives” translates roughly into “Live with God that you may live for ever”
The surname means rock, rocky , low hill. The anglicised word is “crag”. It is often thought to be a descriptive surname but is as likely to be derived from the people who built and lived in the fortresses which were built on the low, rocky hills. Below is a picture of the “ancient” Craig tartan. I guess there is a modern version as well?
So much for my flip remark, there are about a dozen Craig tartans, for hunting, ancient….. One for every occasion .
The first family I have information on is John Craig and Jane(Jean). All I have is that they had a son, William, born in 1746.
William married Jean Russell on January 15th, 1763. Jean , born in 1745, was from Cambusnetham, Scotland, a neighbouring parish.
They had seven children;
Lilias 1764-1764,
John 1767-?,
Silios/Lilias 1769-?,
Jean 1771-?,
William 1773-?
James 1775-?.
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