Clan Spens

Clan Spens
Crest: A hart's head erased proper.
Motto	SI DEUS QUIS CONTRA (from Latin: If God is for us, who is against us").
Profile
Region	Fife.
Chief
Patrick Nathaniel George Spens.
The 4th Baron Spens.

Clan Spens or Spence is a Lowland Scottish clan and is also a sept of Clan MacDuff.

The name Spens or Spence means "custodian" or "dispenser", possibly derived from Old French.

The principal Scottish family of Clan Spens descend from one of the ancient Earls of Fife. John "Dispensator or Le Dispenser" appeared in a list of the tenants and vassals of Walter fitz Alan High Steward of Scotland on the period 1161–1171. Roger ‘Dispensator’ witnessed a charter by Bricius de Douglas, the bishop of Moray granting the church of Deveth to Spynie between 1202 and 1222 . His son Thomas 'Dispensator' witnessed a charter in 1232 of Andreas de Moravia, later bishop of Moray. John Spens is listed as baillie of Irvine in 1260. In the year 1296 Henry de Spens, feudal baron, swore fealty to Edward I of England, and his name appears on the Ragman Rolls of 1296. He died around 1300, when his son, Thomas, succeeded. He is mentioned in two charters of King Robert the Bruce. His heir Thomas de Spens witnessed several charters of Trinity college of Edinburgh between 1296 and 1324 and of the monastory of Soltray. One of his sons William de Spens was laird of Gylgyrstoun, Glespany and gets the lands of Dumbarnie and Bondiingtoune from William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas in 1358. His son William de Spens get married with Isabel Campbell of Glendouglas heiress and daughter of Sir Duncan Campbell of Glen Douglas and Strachur. They get by charter given in Dunblane the 5 May 1385 the lands of Athaland, Ketydy and Craigswmqwar from Robert Earl of Fife and Menteith. These lands were later made into a barony in 1430.

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