KINCAID - HISTORY OF SURNAME

Extract from the Statistical Account for Stirlingshire - Campsie Parish (Drawn up May 1841)

Old Families.-There are several very old families in this parish, the principal of which are the Lennoxes of Woodhead, the Kincaids of Kincaid, the Stirlings of Craigbarnet, the Stirlings of Glorat, and the McFarlans of Kirkton, who are derived, by the female line, from the same stock from which the Lennoxes of Woodhead claim descent. All these families, the Kincaids, Lennoxes, and Stirlings of Glorat and Stirlings or Craigbarnet, have possessed the same estates they now do during nearly four centuries, some of them much longer.* M'Farlan of Kirkton, or Bancleroche, a maternal ancestor of John McFarlan, Esq. the present proprietor, came into possession of that estate in 1624. Antermony was purchased by Captain John Lennox, a younger son of the Woodhead family. The three families of Woodhead, Kincaid, and Antermony, are now all of them represented, as these estates are possessed by John L. Kincaid Lennox, Esq. the first in right of his mother, the second in right of his father, the third in right of his uncle.

The claim of this family to the Lennox peerage has been brought down to her own time, by Margaret Lennox, late of Woodhead ; from which case, it appears that Askill, a powerful Northumbrian baron of the age of William the Conqueror, having found it necessary, with many other northern barons, to flee into Scotland, was kindly received by Malcolm III.; and his son, Alwyne, was, by Malcolm VI. created Earl of Lennox; the name being derived from the river Leven, and the estate extending over Dumbartonshire, great part of Stirlingshire, and parts of the counties of Perth and Renfrew. The earldom continued in this family down to the time of Earl Duncan, who, with the Duke of Albany and his two sons, was executed at Stirling, May 1425. After this, Isabella, his eldest daughter, enjoyed it many years, and she having died without issue on 1459, the earldom, without any forfeiture having taken place, but by reason of the feudal incident of non-entry, fell into the hands of the sovereign as superior.

Donald, son of Earl Duncan, by a second marriage, was the ancestor of the Lennoxes or Ballcorach. John, the sixth of Ballcorach, came into possession of the lands of Woodhead about 1520.

* The Kincaids were in possession of Kincaid in 1280. as is proved by a charter extant. In 1421, Duncan Earl of Levenax conveyed to his son, Donald, ancestor of the Woodhead family, the lands of Balcorrach, Baigrochyr, Bencloich, Thombay, and others, in the parish of Campsie. The charter still exists. His son, John, was served heir of his father in said lands in 1454, and seems to have been also proprietor of the estates of Kilmordining and Caillie. The estate of Bencloich was sold to Edmonstone of Duntreath in 1660, and was, by the present Sir Archibald Edmonstone, sold to Charles Macintosh, Esq. and William Macfarlan, Esq. in 1834. Gorat was a part of the Earldom of Levenax, and Isabella Duchess of Albany, eldest daughter of the last Earl of the old line, was in possession of it, as appears from the Exchequer Rolls in 1456. John Earl of Lennox, in the Darnley line, gave a grant of the lands of Inchinnan, in Renfrewshire," delecto consanguineo suo Gulielmo Stirling de Gloret et Margaretas Houstoun sposa, suae," in 1525, which is the first trace I can find of the family; but very probably Glorat was acquired by the Stirlings about 1470, after the death of Isabella. In 1550, George Stirling of Glorat was Captain and Governor-in-chief of Dumbarton Castle. The arms and motto, "semper fidelis," were granted to the family for their loyalty to their sovereigns, Charles I and II., and, in the year 1666, the family was honoured with the dignity of knight baronet. Both the Glorat family and the Stirlings of Craigbarnet are descended from the Stirlings of Calder or Cadder, whose name appears in the Ragman's Roll, 1279. John Striveling or Stirling of Craigbernard (Craigbarnet) is witness to a deed in 1468. Kincaid, " Laird of Kincaid of Stirlingshire, for his vallant service in recovering of the Castle of Edinburgh from the English, in the time of Edward I., was made constable of the said castle, and his posterity enjoyed that office for a long period, carrying the castle in their armorial bearings in memory thereof to this day.''

There is an old broad sword belonging to a branch of the family, upon which are the arms, gules on a fesse ermine, between two mullets.in-chief, or and a castle triple towered, in base argent, with these words,-

Wha will pursew, I will defend

My life and honour to the end."

-Nisbet's Heraldry.