Origins
of the Geddes
Here
in the upper Nith Valley, the Scottish Geddeses - chidren of Niall - made
their first home in Caledonia. So wrote The Right Honorable Auckland Campbell
"Baron" Geddes in his book, The Forging of a Family, Geddes. In
his painstaking research into the earliest beginnings of the 'family', Sir
Auckland has found references as early as the fourth century. He writes,
"...these people of mixed racial origin were found in Hibernia, now called
Ulster." The fathers were raiding Northmen; the mothers, indigenous
Hiberians of dark Iberian stock or Romano-British girls captured on the coasts
of Britain or Gaul. Having organized themselves into seven septs, each took the
name of some animal or thing they especially admired. One group chose the pike,
the most ferocious of fresh water fish. In Gaelic a "ged" is a pike.
These
warrior pirates, under their leader Niall, 'High King of Hibernia', lotted Gaul
and Britain. Strategic and safe north of Hadrian's Wall they established
settlements. One such settlement was in the Nith Valley.
In
time the whole of Southwest Scotland was peopled by Scots and that district was
called Galloway, meaning 'Land of immigrant strangers'.
Other
Scots moved into Ayshire, up the Clyde Valley, occupying Cantyre, and spreading
out into Dumbarton and Argyll. In time they consolidated themselves into the
first Scottish kingdom in Caledonia, called Dalriada. Before long, one group of
Scots in the Clyde Valley, Cumbria, pushed to the sea and cut the Geds of
Galloway from their kinsmen in Scotia, north of the Clyde estuary. This forced
isolation influenced the Geds into a way of life which was to characterized them
throughout the Middle Ages. The sea was forsaken and the men of Moss Hags,
'rode, reived and raped with impartiality to acquire cattle, sheep and horses.'
This highly mobile 'light cavalry' raided into the forests, marshes and moors of
northern England as well as Scotland.
For
many generations, perhaps thirty, Sir Auckland states, the Geddes' stock
produced no man of note. They remained 'reivers, and cattle lifters until
neither Scotland or England could tolerate them any longer, and they were
dispersed. One small group took to the sea and escaped to the far north of
Scotland, there offering their swords and services to the Clan Mackay. Others
fled to England and changed their name to Pike, Luce or Lucy. Some settled down
in the lowlands of Scotland and became respectable, appearing later in the
Scottish history.
"None
of the scattered Geds took any material wealth with them, only the richness of
their traditions. They were Scots of the original Scottish stock, the Children
of Niall and their badge was the free swimming Pike." (Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes, The Forging of a Family, Geddes.)
The
wide dispersal of the Geddeses caused the name to be recorded over the length
and breadth of Scotland. Through the centuries references to Geddes' lands and
houses, hills and fairs, chapels and friars have found their way into the proud
history of Scotland.
Dr.
George Black, in his research into the history and origins of Scottish surnames,
mentions the name of Geddes as "having territorial origins from the Lands
of Geddes in Nairnshire, which were in the possession of the family of Rose
before they obtained Kilravock." (Black, George F. The Surnames of
Scotland. New York: Library of Congress #a47-1716, 1962, p.293.) The date of
1230 is given by still another historian as the time Rose settled at Geddes. By
1293, the Roses had become proprietors of the neighboring lands of Kilravock and
Geddes. (Rampini, Charles L.L.D., History of Moray and Nairn, Edinburg:
1923, p. 257.)
An
ancient hill called Geddes can be found in Nairnshire. That and many other
interesting references to the Geddes' "fortunes and connections" are
given in a history of Nairnshire. Some excerpts from that book follow. (Bain,
George, History of Nairnshire, Nairn: Telegraph Office Printing, 1893.)
Although
the Geddes stock had been widely scattered over the British Isles, a handful of
Geds managed to stay in the old homeland near Solway Firth. Sir Auckland
Campbell Geddes writes that "in the second quarter of the 16th century they
had settled sown and begun to be country gentlemen, built houses, and accepted
grants of arms." He quotes a description by Sir Walter Scott in Preface
to Redgauntlet, of a visit to the house and grounds of "Sharing-Knowe",
a place where garnered loot had been portioned out by the Geds of other days.
The current owner was a Quaker, Joshua Geddes, who was ashamed of the past and
had renamed the house Mount Sharon.
In Nairnshire also the Geddes name is found in early charters
and linked with the Roses of Kilravock through marriages, lands, and titles. The
Geddeses proudly took their place in the Rose Clan and wore the tartan and held
the motto "Constant and True" in battle as well as in affairs of
state. (Adam, Frank, The Clans, Septs and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands,
Edinburgh and London: W. & A. K. Johnston, 1952, p. 284.)
The Famous Jenny Geddes
During
the centuries which followed, there were several Gedesses who made contributions
to their country through service to the church and state. Some rose to high
positions. But the only one who is best remembered and held in the highest
esteem is Jenny Geddes, "the brave Scotch woman who struck the first blow
in the struggle for religious freedom" (these words appear on the Memorial
Brass Plaque in St. Giles Cathedral.) There are many accounts of the events in
St. Giles' Cathedral where Jenny threw her cutty stool at the Dean's head
protesting the reading of the Episcopal Common Prayer Book. One record reads:
"Dr.
Hanna, the Dean of Edinburg, began to read the prayers from the hated service
book. The scene which ensued is well known. It was caused chiefly by a number of
serving maids, who were keeping the seats which their mistresses, who cared
nothing for the prayers, intended to occupy when the time for the sermon came.
The disorder was put down by the Magistrates, who turned the unruly out of the
building and locked the doors." (Metcalfe, W. M., A History of the
County of Renfrew, Alex Gardener Printer, Paisely: 1905, p. 295.)
The Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland preserves in its museum Jenny's formidable weapon, the cutty stool. Sir
Daniel Wilson, in his book, Memorials of Edinburg in the Olden Time, shows a
picture of the stool with this caption: '"De'il colic the wame o'thee,"
she cried, hurling the stool on which she sat, "out, thou false thief, dost
thou say mass at my lug?"'
Twenty-three years after
these events, Jenny Geddes was still revered and referred to as "Princess
of the Tron." There was a great celebration at the Restoration (1660) where
Jenny threw her "creels, baskets, and cutty stool" into the great
bonfire. (Whitley, Very Rev. H.C., The Pictorial History of St. Giles'
Cathedral, London: Pitkin Pictorials Ltd., 1971.)
The
above information courtesy of Barbara Geddes Price, 1973.
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