Clan Barclay
| Clan Barclay | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Barclaigh | |||
| Motto | Aut agere aut mori (Latin): ("Either action or death") | ||
| Profile | |||
| Region | Lowlands | ||
| District | Aberdeenshire | ||
| Chief | |||
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| Peter Barclay of Towie Barclay and of that Ilk | |||
| Chief of the Name and Arms of Barclay. | |||
| Seat | Towie Barclay Castle, Aberdeenshire | ||
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Clan Barclay (
listen ) is a Lowland Scottish clan.
Since the eighteenth century, Barclay historians, noted for their low level in medieval scholarship, have assumed the Scottish family Barclay (de Berchelai) is a branch of one of the Anglo-Norman Berkeley family of Berkeley, Gloucestershire in Gloucestershire. However, the link between the Scottish and English families is disputed. The Collins Scottish Clan Encyclopedia agrees that the Barclays came over from France during the Norman conquest and that they settled in Gloucestershire, England where as the Earls of Berkeley, they built Berkeley Castle in 1153. Some of the family moved north to Scotland where they settled in Aberdeenshire and Fife.
An old family tradition is that the Scottish family is descended from John de Berkeley, who was the son of Roger de Berkeley, provost of Berkeley, and went to Scotland in 1069 with St Margaret. Another theory is that the clan is descended from a John de Berkeley who went north in 1124 with Maud, queen of David I.
Another theory of the Barclay origin, put forth by the historian G. W. S. Barrow, points to the small village of Berkley in Somerset (in 1086 Berchelei). In 1086 the overlordship of Berkley belonged to Robert Arundel, whose main tenant was a Robert. Arundel's manors included Cary Fitzpaine (in Charlton Mackerell), near Castle Cary. Cary Fitzpaine seems to have been held by the tenant Robert as well. At the same time as Henry Lovel of Castle Cary first appears in Scotland, there appear the names of Godfrey de Arundel and Robert and Walter de Berkeley.
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