east-lothian-1924/05-022

Transcription

HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

depute, where the depute is not, as normally, of the shire as a whole but is
assigned to a definite part of it. Soon after the Revolution, East Lothian
or Haddington finally became an independent sheriffdom.
The name Lothian, at first confined to the district treated like Galloway
as a unit including what Lord Fountainhall called the " 3 Lothians," seems
to have begun differentiation in such a phrase as the " est partis of Lodiane "
(1473) and so to have progressed to East and West Lothian in 1523 and
subsequently.

NOTE ON " LOTHIAN."
The forms Lođene, Laudian, Lodoneis should be taken with the XII-XIII century forms
for Mount Lothian, Muntlaudewen, Mountlouthyen, Montlounes in the Reg. de Neubotle, the last
linking up with Loenois, the kingdom of Loth in Le Roman de Brut, both being Anglo-French
forms developed by the normal extrusion of " th " between vowels and the application of the
Romance suffix derived from the Latin ensis (cf. Lodonensem and Lodonesium in Mat. Par. II.
pp. 214, 289). Thus we arrive at the Arthurian Lyonesse.* In certain old Welsh texts Dinas
Eidyn i.e., Edinburgh is mentioned as the abode of Lleuddun Lwyddog, who is Leudonus grand-
father of Kentigern in the Vita, and from whom, it is claimed, the district got the name
Lleudduniawn (the suffix anus becoming Welsh awn), which was Gaelicised and shortened into
Lothian. (Y Cymmrodor, vol. XI p. 51 ; cf. Skene's Celtic Scotland II. p. 186 ; cf. Haddington
and " Hathingtoun," Hedderwick and " Hatherwyk "). But both Lyons in France and Leyden
in Holland were originally Lugudunum or Lleudin i.e. Din Lleu, where Lug or Lleu is the Celtic
deity. Moreover Loudoun Hill in Ayrshire was known in the seventeenth century also as Lothian
Hill (Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. XLV, p. 236), and the common origin can scarcely have been the
name of a local king at Edinburgh.
*Cf. " County of Loweneys " (1335) in Cal. Docts. iii, p. 216.

II.
TERRITORIAL FAMILIES OF EAST LOTHIAN.
The incorporation of Lothian with the Scottish kingdom brought with it
a settlement of some parts of the territory by a Gælic speaking population, if
indeed such a process had not already been at work. In 1069 when the
bishop and leading men were hurrying away the body of St. Cuthbert from
Durham to a safe place in the island of Lindisfarne, they were much impeded
and maltreated by a powerful (praepotens) person beyond the Tyne named
Gillomichael, evidently Gillemichael, a Gælic magnate on the old border of
Bernicia. ¹ Early in the twelfth century another very prominent figure was
Macbead or Macbeth of Liberton, near Edinburgh, with whom may be collated
Macbeth (" Malbet ") of Traquair, in eastern Peeblesshire, whose son Simon
was Sheriff of that place under King William. ² Other such Gælic person-
ages are suggested by " fossil " names like Gillecamestone or Gillesalmestun, the
original designation of the land granted for the foundation of the Cistercian
nunnery at North Berwick (No. 104) ; Malcolmyston south of Herdmanston ³
and Gilcristoun in the barony of Saltoun ⁴ : while of current place-names of
Gælic origin examples are Kilspindie, " church of St. Pensandus " a follower
of the 7th century St. Boniface, a dedication of the same origin as in Kil-
spindie, Perthshire, Ballencrieff (1337 " Balnecrefe "), Balgone (1337 " Balnegon "

1 Simeon of Durham, Hist. Dun. Eccl. Lib. iii., cap. xvi. Gille was being substituted for
maol as a prefix to saints' names in the late tenth and the eleventh century.
2 See charters of Holyrood, Newbattle, &c.
3 Reg. Mag. Sig. i., No. 798.
4 Reg. Mag. Sig. s.a. 1505, No. 2878.

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