Introduction to the House of Crawford
Welcome to the website of the Clan Crawford Association (CCA). The Association was incorporated in 2006 and is also legally registered under the name The House of Crawford. We are a member of the Council of Scottish Clans and Associations. In 2012 we were issued Letters Patent from the Court of the Lord Lyon granting a coat of arms that integrates the designs of the two main branches of the House, Crawfordjohn and Dalmagregan. At the bottom of this “About” page, you can download a copy of the most recent Newsletter. This will give you additional information about CCA. To receive it regularly and access past issues, you will need to join the Association. If you are a Crawford or a descendant of one, you are welcome to do so. The Clan Crawford Association would like to honour the members of this association who were its founders. They include many who are still engaged in the work of our house and clan. We thank them deeply for their commitment over the years. The years reflected in their member information doesn’t give due credit to the time and effort of their dedication before we started the new websites in 2013, thus loosing the recorded dates and the accrued number of years they had actually dedicated to the Association. The records are not lost, just do not reflect the true number of years in the Clan Crawford Association. The founding members were: A. Raymond Crawford (UK), Frederick H. Crawford (MN), Harden Lake Crawford, III (NJ), Terry L. Crawford (NC), Abre Crafford (South Africa), John Crawford (Canada), Terry Pea (WA), Gillian Crawford White (Scotland), Andrew D. Crawford (Scotland), Robert J. Crawfurd (Scotland), Dan Crawford (UT), Terence Crawford (Africa), Roger Letsom (US), Brian D. P. Crawford (HI), Simon Houison Craufurd (Scotland), Kevan Crawford (UT), and C. Joanne Crawford (CA). These sixteen members founded the Association in the fall of 2006. Many more joined during the following year, including our departed Secretary Bob Crawford (Canada), Sir Robert J. & Lady Georgina Craufurd (UK), J. Patrick N. Crawford (UK), John P. Crafoord (Sweden), Chip Crawford (NY), Alex Houison Craufurd (Scotland), Edward Crawford (UK), Derek R. Crawford (UK), David Cummings (UK), Charles (Chip) Crawford (FL), Craig Crawford (GA), Jay Crawford (CA), G. Ian Crawford (Mid-west US), Greg Crawford (CA) and many more. We have been from the beginning a truly international association of Crawfords/Craufurds/Crawfurds/Crafoords/Craffords, with various spellings of the surname, but that for many of us translates into an ancient common ancestry and heritage. Immediately below is the Clan Crawford Association coat of arms matriculated with the Lyon Court in Scotland and granted by the Lord Lyon in 2012.
Read through this web site to learn more about the Association and what it does for its members. If you would like to become a member of the Association then you will find more information on the membership page. It is not necessary that your surname be Crawford, however you do need to be a Crawford descendant. Members of the Association now include a very international membership of Crawfords from around the world. Among them are Crawfurds of Ardmillan, Crafoords of Sweden, Craffords of South Africa, Craufurds of Kilbirnie, Crawfords of Newfield, Craufurds of Craufurdland, as well as the Baronet of Kilbirnie (Craufurd of Auchenames via the cadets of Previck and Thirdpart). We have a board of directors, which has representation from eleven world regions within which Crawfords of the Scottish diaspora have settled.
The Crawford Surname
The Crawford surname is of Scottish origin, being traced to the upper Clyde River Valley in Lanarkshire, historically represented by the towns of Crawford and Crawfordjohn, and in its early history, the Barony of Crawford. The surname goes back to the late 1000’s when the Barony of Crawford is noted in local, royal, and ecclesiastic records. The first reference to an individual being “of Crawford” was in the reign of Malcolm IV (1153-65). This surname is recognized as an independent House of Scotland with two unique arms designs, continually maintained since before 1196 (surviving seals of the Lord of Loudon Castle who was also Sheriff of Ayr) and 1319 when the Crawford blazon appeared with the oldest surviving colored Scots shields on the Scottish National Treasure, the Bannatyne Mazer.
Members of this independent House of Scotland have contributed in important ways to the establishment and reunification of Scotland as a nation. Indeed, the House of Crawford has become an integral part of the colorful weave in the tartan that makes up Scotland. You will see this from the photo below of the Mazer, historically known as the Bannatyne Mazer, but also referred to as the Bute Mazer for its most recent proprietor (the Marquis of Bute). The Crawford arms (“gules, a fess ermine”) are at 12 o’clock, behind the head and shoulders of the lion, widely accepted as representing King Robert I, The Bruce, with the shields identifying six Southern Scottish nobles closely aligned with him. As a Southern Upland House the Crawfords followed Lowland traditions, as opposed to the Highland ones. However, like all surnames, the spelling has undergone the effects of different linguistic traditions. One general rule is that the use of ‘u’ is Scots and the use of ‘w’ is English. The most common surname spelling worldwide is the English ‘Crawford’ with the Scottish ‘Craufurd’ mostly in Scotland a distant second. Variations include Craw-Cra-Crau-Crow-Cro-Cran-Kra-/-f–ff-/-ord-urd-erd-ird-oird-ort-oot-oord. The House of Crawford considers all of these variations as equivalent. The original pronunciation may have been something close to ‘Krafort’. The earliest spelling seem to have commonly been Crauford and Craufoird.
The House of Crawford has been without representation on the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs, a recent development (1952). The last unofficial Chief of Crawfords (Hugh Ronald George Craufurd, b 1873) died in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1942 after having sold all of his heritable property in 1903, leaving nothing to unite around but historic legacy. The Court of the Lord Lyon recognizes the Crawford surname as an independent armigerous House with a Senior Line (unofficial Chiefs) having for centuries registered Arms showing no differencing — except internal to cadets of the House and an honorary augmentation — or allegiance to another clan, house, or surname. Here you will learn of the significance of the history of the House of Crawford.
This Association (for the present) and Clan Crawford (in the future) does and will continue to maintain this distinguished history of Scottish nation-building and re-unification. It would be a significant loss to Scottish national heritage if this important and documented contribution to Scottish national history were not preserved or should be misrepresented. We are proud of our Crawford history and heritage. This pride has motivated our establishment of the Clan Crawford Association and bringing together in the on-line Archive (available to members) the records and reports of the history and traditions associated with our surname.
We invite you to look around this site for information that may attract your interest, and we welcome your comments. We encourage notices and articles regarding local and regional Clan activities to be submitted to the CCA Newsletter editor at jcrawfordphd@sbcglobal.net. Genealogical search is also welcome. You may subscribe to the e-Newsletter by joining the Association. You will also have access as a member to our extensive on-line historical archive of Crawford related documents. If you have suggestions for which you wish to volunteer to coordinate your activities with the Association, we recommend that you email the appropriate regional representative as accessed by the administrative link on the top of this “About” page.
A Clan Chief for the House of Crawford
Below is a statement by Vice-President Raymond Crawford who was given charge over the research by the House of Crawford for the search for the most senior living Crawford, who would be the eligible candidate to be Chief of Crawfords. This has been a long process carried out over some ten years of genealogical research culminating in a petition to the Lord Lyon for a family convention to have been held this last spring (2016), request that was withdrawn due to conflicts between a small number of clan members regarding how it was to be carried out: Many Scottish Clans have a Chief, chosen by the Clan and officially recognized by Lord Lyon King of Arms in Edinburgh. The title of Chief is hereditary, so that, wherever possible, it passes from the Chief to the next of kin, as long as the new Chief retains the surname and demonstrates honourable personal characteristics acceptable to the clan. For centuries, the Chief of the Crawfords was the Laird of Auchenames, the senior branch of the Crawford family, and the title passed down, father to son or brother, until the last Laird, Hugh Ronald George Craufurd who sold the Auchenames estate and emigrated to Canada where he died in 1942 and his direct line died out. However, research showed that there was at least one branch of the Auchenames line that had survived and which led to Sir Robert Craufurd, 9th Baronet of Kilbirnie. Although Auchenames was recognized by several authorities over the centuries as the Chiefly line, this had never been officially authenticated by Lord Lyon. So it was to achieve that official approval that the Association petitioned Lord Lyon in February 2015 to set in motion the process for the recognition of a Chief for our Clan. Unfortunately, though the Association had tried to follow Lord Lyon’s regulations, his Supervising Officer was not satisfied with the way we were conducting the process, so as a result we felt obliged to withdraw the Petition. That we hope is not the end of the story. Lord Lyon accepts that we are an ancient, large and historic Clan with the right to have our own Chief. We will have to wait, probably for a few years, before we can submit another Petition, but that we will certainly do some time in the future, and our Clan Chief will one day take his or her rightful place alongside the other Chiefs of Scotland. The Ardmillan Crawfurds have a motto – “Durum patientia frango” – I overcome difficulty with patience.
The statement below from the Executive of the Clan Crawford Association, seeks to address two common misunderstandings about the origins of the Clan Crawford and the role that the House of Crawford plays in today’s global communities: Is there a connection between Clan Crawford & Clan Lindsay? Apart from a connection between both our Clans through marriage only, we have completely separate origins. Through a few intermarriages between the families, women passed from one family to the other as wives as a means to providing mothers to the other clan. However, what most proves the separateness of the lineages is that both Y-DNA genealogical lineages proceed from very different haplogroups even as both surnames proceed from several diverse haplogroups. That is, they do not seem to have even one or two haplogroups in common. Why does the Chief of Clan Lindsay use the title, The Earl of Crawford? This has been a confusing question that has led to considerable misunderstanding. In today’s modern online world, there is a lot of information, but also considerable misinformation. The Crawfords held the extensive lands of Crawford in Lanarkshire from the time of Thorlongus, his sons and grandsons granted by the successively ruling sons of King Malcolm “Canmore” III. That is where we resided and from where we took our surname of Crawford. Crawford history attributes the Lindsay acquisition of the Crawford Barony by William Lindsay’s marriage around 1215 to the younger daughter of Sir Johannes Crawford, knight, who died in 1248.
The Earl of Crawford
The title of Earl of Crawford, was given by Robert II to David Lindsay when he created the Peerage in 1398. Robert II was Robert the Bruce’s grandson by his daughter Marjorie and Walter Stewart, the 6th High Stewart of Scotland. David Lindsay had married Robert II’s daughter Elizabeth. The line of the Earl of Crawford has changed through the Lindsay line on several occasions from one related line to another. Two Lindsays took the surname Lindsay-Crawford (21st and 22nd Earls) required by John Crawford when his daughter Margaret Craufurd and her husband Patrick Lindsay inherited the Crawford lands of Kilbirnie and those of Greenock. The Earl of Crawford’s 2nd son Patrick Lindsay had married John Crawford’s daughter and heiress Margaret. The Earldom’s Lindsay line later defaulted onto their descendants. The Earls of Crawford for a large part of their history have simultaneously held secondary titles as Earls of Balcarres as well as Earls of Lindsay. The present holder of the Earldom is the 29th Earl of Crawford, Robert Alexander Lindsay. So why does the Chief of the Lindsays use his primary title Earl of Crawford and not Earl of Lindsay? The answer is that the lands of Crawford were larger and richer than the lands of Lindsay — in fact they were arguably the richest in Scotland, so the title of Earl of Crawford gave him greater status. But let this be clear. Crawfords are an independent House of Scotland. We have never been a part of the Lindsay Clan, nor sworn allegiance to the Lindsay clan or the Earl of Crawford. He has never been our chief. We have had our own Head of House, the Laird of Auchenames, which is the senior line of Crawford (or Craufurd, the traditional spelling in Scotland of our surname).
Scottish Geographical Origins of Crawfords
Our Origins in the Town of Crawford at the Ford of the River Clyde conclude this introduction to the Clan Crawford Association (The House of Crawford), below are two photos of the ford of the River Clyde next to the town of Crawford, which defined our surname. A pre-7th Century nickname for crow, “crawa” may provide its toponym. The trees around the ford of Crawford abound with crows — thus giving meaning to “Craw ford” as the ford of crows! The ford’s shallow waters teem with fish as much today as they undoubtedly did in the distant past. When the crows are disturbed, literally thousands fly up from the trees. A more dramatic though less common interpretation of ‘craw’ is ‘creu’, a term for blood in old Gaelic, suggested because the ford was the scene of many bloody battles during ancient times and undoubtedly also responding to the resemblance between the two terms. A Gaelic translation of “cattle-passage” has been suggested as a further origin for the term, likely derived from ‘ford’, which classically identifies a river crossing, though the association of ‘craw’ or ‘crau’ to cattle remains unclear. The word ‘cattle’ derives from the Middle English ‘catel’, previously from Anglo-French ‘katil’, also ‘chatel’ as personal property; derived from Medieval Latin ‘capitale’, from Latin, neuter of ‘capitalis’ of the head; the term ‘cattle’ is first known to have been used in the British Isles during the 14th century. The name Crawford dates from at least the 11th century and likely earlier, thus an explanation of origins relating Crawford to ‘cattle passage’ is unlikely and probably a Norman introduction. The Gaelic term for “cattle’ is ‘eallach’, unrelated to anything sounding like ‘craw’. One term for ‘passage’ in Gaelic is ‘pasáiste’, unrelated to ‘ford’; another is ‘áth’, thus unlikely to have any relationship to the name.
Genealogical Origins of the Crawfords
The family is said to have originated from the old Barony of Crawford in the upper ward of Clydesdale in Lanarkshire. The House of Crawford is the Lowland Scottish custom for identifying same surnamed extended families and is the most appropriate term for identifying Crawfords, but following the modern practice, the term ‘clan’ is also used, thus the Clan Crawford Association. Following the lead of the historian George Crawfurd (lived 1681-1748), foremost researcher on Crawford history and genealogy, Crawfords accept the genealogies in his manuscript Laurus Crawfordiana, though there is confusion with some of the genealogies where multiple sources provide conflicting information. George Crawfurd acknowledges Thorlongus (Thor-the-long, meaning ‘tall’) as the Crawford progenitor. Thorlongus was an Anglo-Danish knight descended from Vikings that had invaded and settled in England several centuries before (late 9th century AD). Thorlongus may also have been of the line of Alfred the Great of England, through marriage(s) with descendant(s) of the original Danish Viking, thus making Thorlongus a possible distant cousin to Queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm (Canmore) III (who reigned in Scotland 1058-1093). Thorlongus was born in Northumbria around 1040. He fled to Scotland from Northumbria, where he had lands, when William, the Conqueror razed the region in 1079. One source names Ingibiorg of Mercia (b. 1060) as Thorlongus’ wife, but it is unknown how reliable is this information. Thorlongus had apparently two sons (Swain and William) and probably at least one daughter. Both sons appear in charters of the time. He fought alongside his distant kinsmen, the Danes, against William, in alliance with Malcolm Canmore. Probably during the late 1090s, Thorlongus settled at Ednam in the Merse on lands granted to him by King Edgar (who reigned 1097-1106). Years later Thorlongus donated these lands to the monks of St. Cuthbert, giving rise to the earliest donation document in Scotland (1107-1113) by a non-royal. They are found in Durham University Library, at what had been the site of the Monastery of St. Cuthbert. Thorlongus was granted the extensive lands of Crawford by David as Prince of Cumbrians between 1113 and 1124, before David became King of Scotland.
Thorlongus’ probable great-grandson Galfridus was the first recorded (1168) as using the surname ‘Crauford’ as a witness to a charter in the time of King Malcolm IV, the Maiden (reigned 1153-1165). He was witness to a charter of Roger bishop of St. Andrews, confirming a donation to the monastery of Coldinghame, between 1189 and 1202. Galfridus was thought by George Crawfurd to have married the natural daughter of David 4th Earl of Huntington who was the youngest surviving son of Henry, 3rd Earl of Huntington, eldest son of King David I. Earl David, 4th Earl of Huntington was until 1198 heir to the Scottish throne. George Crawfurd presumed Galfridus married a natural daughter of David, 4th Earl of Huntington because the last Earl of Huntington of the Canmore line “John Scotia” calls Galfridus “frater suus” in the Cartulary of Arbroath where Galfridus is a witness to a donation. Close ties to the Scottish royal family would explain the extent of the lands granted to the early Crawfords by the throne through the reigns of Malcolm Canmore and Margaret’s sons (Edgar, Alexander and David) and their subsequent heirs and great-grandsons Malcolm IV and William. Thorlongus was also known as a formidable knight and contributed to the Scottish defence against William the Conqueror. He must have presented a fine figure as a warrior — given his imposing height — in medieval armour and mounted on a destrier (huge warhorse).
Other origin myths about Crawfords
Another version of Crawford origins that is frequently cited is the claim that the Crawfords derive from Alan Rufus, the 1st Lord of Richmond (1040-1093), and a trusted companion of William the Conqueror. He lived before the early records of the Crawfords. However, there is no reliable evidence connecting the Crawfords to the Earls of Richmond. Alan Rufus died childless. Alan Niger succeeded his brother, and likewise had no descendants. A younger brother, Stephen of Penthièvre, Count of Tréguier, was the 3rd Lord of Richmond (1058-1136). Stephen’s third son was named Alan, who became the 1st Earl of Richmond and was the father of Conan IV, Duke of Brittany. The first Earl of Richmond had no son named Alan. Conan, his heir, became the next Earl of Richmond, but mainly ruled from France, when he became Duke of Brittany. The title Earl of Richmond became extinct on several occasions but was regularly re-created in England. The only mention of an Earl of Richmond in Scotland was much later (1310). John of Brittany, 4th Earl of Richmond, was named Guardian of Scotland in the early 1300s by his uncle Edward I, title confirmed by Edward II, and in 1311 he was named Lord Ordainer during the baronial rebellion against Edward II. Some claim John participated in the Wars of Independence. He may have served in the negotiations with Scotland in 1321. Thus, the story of descent from the Earl of Richmond was most likely a fictional account. Historical facts seem to show the Richmond family remained for the most part far from Scotland. There is no member that is recorded as having accompanied David I back to Scotland in 1124. However, this version was widely distributed in Burke’s General Armory, a series of editions published between 1842 and 1884, and also in Burke’s History of the Commoners. It appears to have first been given voice about a century earlier, but no sources have been found to support the assumptions. The recording of the Arms of Colonel Robert Crawford of Newfield from the mid-1800’s state the basis of the connection being “presumptive evidence” in reference to the similarity of Arms between the House of Crawford (“gules, a fess ermine”) and the Earls of Richmond (“gules, a bend ermine”). There are problems with this formulation. Arms designs of England (Richmond) and Scotland (Crawford) were independent with no prohibition against similarity. In fact, early manuscripts on arms from England show several families using the same arms as the Scottish Crawfords, with only minor distinctions between them. Their surnames bear no relationship to Crawford, though they show the arms ‘gules, a fess ermine’ in various forms. One of these is a family surnamed Wallis who used the same arms (found in “The Dering Roll”). What most speaks against the veracity of this version of Crawford origins and rests credibility from it is that Thorlongus is named as Overlord of Crawford in the Durham Cathedral documents dating from early 1100s, during the reign of King Edgar. Thus, credible evidence exists for Thorlongus being the progenitor of Crawfords, while there is no corresponding support for any Crawfords descending from an Earl of Richmond. Reliable evidence indicates Thorlongus was the Overlord of Crawford at the time the use of surnames was introduced in Scotland, and it came into use by residents of Crawford around that time. Initially the use of surnames followed the French custom of indicating the location of a person’s home, that is, where they resided or came from. In conclusion, the evidence predominantly supports the view that Thorlongus was the ancestor of the Scottish descent lines that bear the surname of Crawford.
A third popular but likely fanciful origins story involves one Macormack who attained prominence by discovering a ford on the waters of the ‘Cree’ [the Clyde? or perhaps an ancient name for the locale]. This discovery gave him and his party a distinct advantage so that he routed his enemies. In celebration, he changed his name from Macormack to ‘Creeford’, which over time evolved to Crawford. Variants of the tale identified the enemy as Roman or alternatively another local tribe. This version of Crawford origins, though quite popularly known, suggests local lore. It may even go back beyond recorded history, and it probably belongs to oral tradition. In any case, the source of this tale is unknown.
Acknowledgements
We’d like to acknowledge the contributions of many of our members to the development of this new website. Mention is made below of those who have most provided for the development of the current CCA website: Peter Crawford, who provides over-sight and strategy for this website. Julian Crawford, Web-master, designed the new site. Raymond Crawfurd, Vice-President, extensively edited the text, especially those under the tabs ‘History’ and ‘Heraldry’ and carried out the research on the chiefly line, and with Allen Crawford is developing the CCA project on Crawford heraldry. Bruce Crawford, chief administrator of the Crawford Surname Y-DNA Project, is directly responsible for the web-page dedicated to Y-DNA project results, and with Dave Nicolson, is Co-Administrator of the Y-DNA project, both making an important contribution to the discussion of our Y-DNA results, and especially helping us towards an increased understanding of the Y-DNA implications for Crawford genealogy. Don Crawford III and Patrick Crawford, as members of the website committee, have contributed ideas and material to its development. Kevan Crawford, past-president, who provided the design, text, and set up of the original website — currently inactive — was author of the text for the old site and of some of the text used in the new site. Finally, yours truly, Joanne Crawford, current President of the Clan Crawford Association, has contributed to the writing and editing on both sites. Finally, but not insignificantly I’d like to recognize contributions to our newsletter and books that have found their way also onto this new website. Both Sir Robert (“Robin”) and especially Georgina Craufurd have contributed in inspiration, material and editorial effort towards our website and publications. Another person whose many contributions over the years I’d like to recognize are those of Col. John P. Crafoord to both the newsletter and in his book on the history of our cousins the Swedish Crafoords, originally deriving from the Fedderate cadet in northeast Scotland. An additional note of thanks goes to the talented photographers of many of the pictures used on the new website. For her many photos of castles and other Scottish scenes, Eleanor Moore’s work is particularly valued; she also contributed photographs of Crawford sites for inclusion in our Volume II of “The House of Crawford”. The photo of the Bannatyne (or Bute) Mazer is from the Museum of Scotland collection; it graces the cover of Volume two of The House of Crawford, with the permission of the Marquis of Bute. Many others have provided shots; most are from members’ personal collections.