i
190 CRANIA BEITANNICA. [CHAP. VI .
Auglis." In the main, the latter were the people of the Lothians, &c. south of the Porth,
that part of his dominions held of the English crown; the former, the great mass of the Scoto-
Pictish people north of the Friths, among whom the English and Normans gradually settled,
chiefly perhaps in the old Pictish region, south of the Moray Frith and east of Drumalban. The
familiarity of the Northmen with the islets must have contributed to the like effect. RoUo, the
famous Viking, the founder of the Duchy of Normandy, and the ancestor of the Conqueror, had
been the Jarl of Orkney and of Shetland. It was in the reign of David I. of Scotland, Earl
of Cumberland, who advanced the civilization of his kingdom so considerably, that Anglo-
Norman settlers were most favoured and most numerous. He had been brought up in the coui-t
of Hem-y I., had married an English countess, and was the most distinguished vassal of the
English crown. The course pursued, Chalmers says, was (as in the case of Thorlongus, a
Northumbrian, who obtained from Edgar a grant of Ednaham, then a waste, which he improved
with his money and his people) for a baron to obtain a grant of lands from the king and to
settle them with his followers, to build a castle, a church, a miU and a brewhouse, and thereby
form a hamlet, which was called the Ton of the Baron*. When David came to the throne, in
1124, he was followed by 1000 Anglo-Normans to whom he distributed lands. And such was
the influx of foreigners that the Scottish kings of this period addressed their charters to subjects
derived from many nations—Franou, Anglis, Soottis, Wallensibus et Gahveiensihis ^. This
learned and able writer devotes the chief part of a curious chapter to a genealogical account of
noble Scottish families of great antiquity, wliich are of Norman or English origin. The names
are too numerous for us to dwell upon, or even cite. Robert Corbet, one of the witnesses to
the Inquisitio Bavidis, " probably the progenitor of one of the most ancient families in North
Britain," is regarded as being derived from the Shropshire Corbets, in which county a Corbet is
mentioned in Domesday, whose son " Roger was progenitor of all the Shropshire families of the
name"i. "William de Somerville, progenitor of the SomerviUes of Scotland, was attached to
David I., and was descended from the Sir Gualtier de Somerville who accompanied the
Conqueror to England, and whose descendant had the manor of Wichnor in Staffordshire §.
Many other Norman families settled in Scotland. Even a Percy, the GifFards, the originator of
the Keiths, the De Quincys, Berkeleys, Hays, Ramsays, Gordons, Grahams, Sinclairs, Baliols,
Stewarts, Hamiltons, Grants, Campbells, and other Scottish families are deduced by Chalmers
from a Norman or English soui-ce ||. The district of Scotland in which these Anglo-Normans
obtained lands was almost whoUy confined to the more cultivable portions of the country, in the
lowlands and to the south of the Forth. They must thus have come in contact with the very
numerous Anglo-Saxon settlers of a previous age, and have tended with these stiU more materially
to eliminate the aboriginal British blood from all this part of lowland Scotland.
The Anglo-Normans were not the only foreigners who settled in Scotland during this
period. Chalmers gives a Flemish origin to the great family of Douglas; and the Flemings,
who were conspicuous for ingenuity and energy in the twelfth century, became settlers in Scotland,
of the SomerviUes till the time of Henry II.—Plot' s " Staffordshire,"
1686, p. 440. Shaw's "Staffordshire," 1798,
vol. i. p. 118.
II It is needless to say that other Scottish genealogists do
not concur with Chalmers. See Mr. Skene's views of the
Gaelic descent of the Grants and the Campbells, "Highlanders
of Scotland," 1837, vol. ii. pp. 251 and 280.
» Caledonia, vol. i. p. 501. f lb. 502.
J Owen and Blakeway, " History of Shrewsbury," 1825,
vol. ii. p. 15.
§ Mr. Chalmers, where he says the Conqueror conferred
Wichnor on Gualtier de Somerville, has been led into error by
the authority of Dugdale. This manor was a part of the donation
William bestowed on Robert de Stafford. And Wichnor,
so famous for its " Bacon flyke," did not come into the hands
CHAP. VI.] ETHNOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SUCCESSIVE POPULATIONS. 197
as elsewhere. At the close of the preceding and the commencement of this century considerable
numbers of Flemings came over to England, bringing with them their proficiency in the arts
connected with weaving linen and woollen cloths. The EngHsh monarchs settled them in spots
selected according to the royal convenience. During the reign of the Conqueror an inundation
drove many clothiers from the Netherlands into England, whom the king placed first in Carlisle
and then in the western counties. William Rufus disposed of some on the waste lands of
Northumberland and Cumberland. One colony was located in the town of Haverfordwest and
in the district of Ross, on the west of the Cleddy, in Pembrokeshire, " by leave of Henry I.,
when the sea breaking its banks overflowed great part of Flanders " *. William of Malmesbury,
a contemporary, attributes this settlement to the king's desii-e to rid himself of the burden they
had become to the kingdom, by reason of their numbers, and to interpose these well-affected
people as a barrier against the Welsh. The colony was distinguished by the name of lAttle
England beyond Wales. Animosity long prevailed between the two races, and accounts for that
separation which has always existed between their descendants. Henry II. banished the
Flemings and other foreigners, who had come into the realm during Stephen's time in great
numbers; for in this age mercenary troops were often composed of natives of Flanders. In this
capacity they accepted the pay of the king of Scotland, besides settling extensively in his
kingdom. Chahners produces a great amount of evidence for the settlement of Flemings during
this era in Scotland, from the Tweed and the Solway to the Clyde and the Moray Frith ; of their
having founded hamlets and towns, and congregated in others, contrary to the habits of the
Picts; of their having distinguished themselves by industry, cultivation and trade, and
"energized" the natives by their example and prosperity. He says, "So many Flemings
settled in Scotland, during those ages of colonization, that they obtained a right to be governed
by their own law" t. He afterwards foUows the Flemish colonists into Moray, and derives
many of the eminent families of Scotland, and particularly the house of Sutherland, from these
immigrants. Lastly, the Scottish antiquary dwells, very justly, on the erection of upwards of
100 religious houses in Scotland during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as another source
of the intromission of EngUsh monks and other foreigners. From this great accumulation of
evidence, continually increasing and extending for centuries, we learn what a strong infusion
of Teutonic blood must have been graduaUy insinuated among the inhabitants of Scotland.
Originally Caledonians or Picts, they received a vast immigration of Gaelic Scots, or Cruithne,
who diflPused themselves over the north-western regions, and, in a slighter degree, over the more
eastern. In these early middle ages they had to undergo the fuU influence of hosts of settlers
in their territories, and chiefly in the southern and fertUe portions—settlers derived from Saxon
and Angle, Norse and Danish, Norman and Flemish sources. The result has been a large intermixture
of blood on this soil, having a potent effect on the race,—nay a considerable, if not
perfect elimination of the ancient strains and the substitution of another; so that, now,
the curious problem might be raised, whether many modern Scotchmen reaUy retain any drop
of either Caledonian or Scotic blood.
Besides the great immigrant swarms who came over to the British isles, producing an
ethnic influence on the population, other smaller companies from different nations have
sought om- shores, generally for protection, and have had an effect more or less local. One such
• Camden's " Br i '»»"». " p. 144. Court of Gower A.glicana, in contradistinction to the Court
t Caledonia, vol. i. p. 603. In the peninsula of Gower, in of Gower TFallicana.
Pembrokeshire, there still is a customary court, called the
2 D