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Origin of Abernethy, Meaning of Abernethy
Origin: From a town in Strathern, Scotland, on the river Tay; derived from Aber, as given above, and nethy, in the Gaelic, dangerous. Nith or Nithy, is also the name of a river in the south of Scotland, and the name may have been taken from a town at or near its mouth--Abernithy.
Surnames: Abernethy
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Origin of Abernethy, Meaning of Abernethy
Origin: ABERNETHY-(beyond the Nethy)-a surname derived from a barony of that name in Lower Strathea n, Perthshire, which, was possessed in the reign of William I. by Orme, the son of Hugh, who was styled Abbot of Abernethy, and whose descendants assumed the name of Abernethy. In 1288 Sir William de Abernethy, the first of the family styled of Saltoun, and Sir Patrick de Abernethy, lay in wait for Duncan earl of Fife, one of the regents of the kingdom during the minority of Margaret of Norway, at Potpollock, and murdered him. William was seized by Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell and condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and Patrick fled into France and died there. [Fordun] His nephew, Alex, ander de Abernethy, in 1308, along with Robert de Keith, Adam de Gordon, and other leading barons, were sureties to Edward for the good behaviour of William de Lambyrton, bishop of St. Andrews. [Ppmer's Faedera, tome iii. p. 82.] The same individual was appointed by Edward warden of the country between the Forth and the mountains of Scotland, 15th June, 1310. [Ibid. tome iii. p. 211.] His eldest daughter Margaret was married to John Stewart, earl of An4us, who got with her the barony of Abernethy, the superiority of which is still possessed by the family of Douglas, (nofy Hamilton,) as representatives of the earl of Angus. To the famous letter to the Pope, drawn up by the barons of Scotland at the parliament of Aberbrothic 6th April, 1320, appears the name of William do Abernethy, lord of Saltoun. He was the son of the first Sir William de Abernethy of Saltoun. His son, also named Sir William, appears in the list of noble persons who fought at the battle of Halidon hill, 19th July, 1333, [Hails' Annals, vol. ii. p. 307,] from which disastrous field he appears to have escaped. He had from David II. a grant of the lands of Rothiemay in Aberdeenshire. George Abernethy of Saltoun, his son, was taken prisoner at the fatal fight of Durham, 17th Oct., 1346. At the battle of Harlaw 24th July 1411, William Abernethy, son and heir to the Lord Saltoun, was one of the principal leaders, and was slain. But although he is called "the worthy Lord Saltone," and of his death it is said in the popular ballad,
"And on the other side war lost
Into the field that dismal day,
Chief men of worth of mickle cost,
To be lamented sair for aye,
The lord Saltone of Rothiemay,
A man of inicht and mickle main,
Great dolour was for his decay
That sae unhappily was slain;"
yet the peerage was not conferred upon the family till 28th June, 1445,-34 years later,-in the person of Laurence Abernethy of Saltoun and Rothiemay, created Baron Saltoun of Abernethy, and as the said William Abernethy predeceased his father, he was called " the Lord Saltone" only by courtesy. This Laurence Abernethy of Saitoun and Rothiemay, first Lord Saltoun, was the twelfth in descent from Orm the sounder of the family. Margaret, the eldest daughter of the seventh Lord Saltoun, married Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth in Aberdeenshire, and their son, Sir Alexander Fraser, became the tenth Lord Saltoun, and his descendants succeeded to the title. The brother of his mother, John, eighth Lord Saltoun, sold the estate of Rothiemay. The family of Abernethy is now represented by the Frasers of Philorth, lords Saitoun.--See SALTOUN.-The parish and village of Abernethy are of great antiquity. The latter was at one period the capital of the Pictish kings. It is named by various English writers and by Fordoun as the place where Malcolm Canmore concluded a peace with William the Conqueror in 1072, delivered to him hostages, and did homage to him for the lands which he held in England. But although now a mean village, "it would appear," says Dr. Jamieson, "that it was a royal residence in the reign of one of the Pictish princes who bore the name of Nethan or Nectan. The Pictish chronicle has ascribed the foundation of Abernethy to Nethan I., in the third year of his reign, corresponding with A.D. 458. The Register of St. Andrews, with greater probability, gives it to Nethan Ii. about the year 600." We find that while the church of Abernethy was granted by William 1, in 1178, to his foundation of the abbey of Aberbrothock, Orme, abbot of Abernethy, granted the half of the tithes, of the property of himself and his heirs to the same institution. The other half belonged to the Culdees, as in ancient times Abernethy was a principal seat of the Culdees, who had a university at Abernethy, which in 1273 was turned into a priory of canons regular of St. Augustine. It is a burgh of barony, and has a charter from Archibald, earl of Angus, lord of Abernethy, dated November 29, 1628. The title of Lord Abernethy was conferred on the earl of Angus when created marquis of Douglas in 1633, and is now one of the inferior titles of the duke of Hamilton as representative and chief of the illustrious house of Douglas.
Surnames: Abernethy
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