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Sons of Andrew

The clan Anderson are something of a mystery. They have an ancient, bonny, blue tartan, no chief and no place to call home.

For a family with a name so commonplace that it can be found in phone books from Stockholm to Auckland and Wisconsin to Warsaw, they have an elusive past and appear to have kept a low profile during times of war and struggle. Anderson is ninth in frequency of Scottish family surnames.

Most Andersons south of Aberdeen simply began to name themselves after Saint Andrew the patron saint of their country. In the north, they followed the tradition of taking the clan Chief’s name and became “son of Andrew”. In common with Scandinavian ways, the family tended to be footloose and to rely on first names. An Icelandic phone book today, for example, lists people not by their last name, but by their first name.

While arms were awarded to “Anderson of that Ilk” by the Lord Lyon in the 16th century, that family has never been identified. Sadly, as a result, there is no known clan Chief and the chieftanship has remained dormant. Yet from that point in time, when formal and legal recognition was given to the Andersons as an “honourable community”, a clan chief could have been there to represent that family in civic duties and on public occasions. Without the vital leadership, the Andersons have done what they have always been good at, keeping quiet in the background minding their own business – usually very successfully.

As one Anderson put it “we prospered while the bannock burned”. Thinkers rather than fighters, they have had the tendency to keep to themselves and not look for trouble. Their intellectual qualities have moved them towards words rather than wars.

The name Anderson means many things. One natural origin is from St Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. Indeed it is his cross which features on the clan shield. In the Gaelic the clan name is Mac Ghillie Aindrais or Gilleandrais which translates as son of the servant of Andrew. A Ghillie is a servant. Or even simpler, MacAindrea which is straight forwardly translated as son of Andrew. Mac means son of, in Gaelic.

But a complicating factor is that the Ross Clan are known in Gaelic as Clann Andrais or Andrews Clan. It is easy to see how these various nomenclatures could be confused in any language. So whether followers of the saint or simply sons of Andrew or his servant, Anderson has many antecedents all of which could be correct.

Andersons or MacAndrews do appear to have a “cadet” sept of the Ross family. A sept is the Irish word for a division of a tribe. Cadet refers to important clansmen related by blood to the chief line but forming their own branch.

So while well connected within the Ross hierarchy, the Andersons had their own lineage, a vague allegiance to people of the same, or similar name, and a great facility for survival.

Following their Ross connections, the Andersons can claim ties to the Irish royal house of Tara.

The first recorded chief of the Rosses was one Fearchar Mac-an –t- Saigairt. He was the son of a priest. In the early days of the Celtic and the Roman church there were no celibacy laws. Fearchars’s father was the priest of Applecross Abbey on the north west coast of Scotland where they were hereditary abbots. They, in turn, were related to the O’Beolins of the Irish House of Tara who were the hereditary abbots of Duncliff and descended from Cairbre, son of King Naill of the Nine Hostages.

Applecross Abbey was founded by St Malrubha in 673. This Abbot of Bangor was also a descendant of the Irish King Naill. Interestingly, the Applecross lands were inherited by a woman at one point. This was common Pictish practice.

Leaping forward in time to 1215, Ferchar the first chief of the clan Ross backed Alexander II as King over those tribes in Scotland which were being moulded together into a nation. In the chronicles of Melrose it is recorded that “he cut off the heads of the king’s enemies”. He was created Earl of Ross in 1234 for his brave deeds and loyalty to the King. The successive Earl of Ross is noted for his bravery too – at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314 and at Halidon Hill 1333.

There is no mention of Andersons fighting alongside these Rosses. But without doubt there would be sons of Andrew and followers of the Saint Andrew in the Ross camp.

Large numbers of the Anderson clan can be found in the north-east of Scotland from around 1540. The most prominent family branches being the Andersons of Dowhill in Aberdeenshire, the Andersons of Western Ardbeck in Banffshire and the Andersons who were lairds of Candacraig in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire.

Dominated by the much more powerful families Farquharson, Forbes and Gordon, these fertile lands provided a living from farming for many people. Smallholdings abounded which enabled the Andersons to live independently but still enjoy the benefits of protection, patronage and trade by being an accepted part of the larger clan. When it suited, they could blend into the scenery.

In the words of a 20th century Anderson “My grandfather told my father, and he told me that our family had changed their name from Macgregor to Campbell and then to Anderson, when it was felt that a change was called for.”

Clan membership, as interpreted by families of the Highlands of Scotland, was a matter of convenience or expediency. It was something which was used and changed as politics or pragmatism dictated.

However, in the Borders where there are also strongholds of Andersons, a blood connection was the main requirement to claim clanship. Pockets thrive to this day in and around Denholm and at Tushielaw, a notable crossroads in the upper Ettrick which is complete with pub. In that hostelry, or any other in the Borders or the Highland homelands of the Clan there is a 50-50 chance that the man sitting alone in a corner, immersed in a book, is an Anderson.

But they didn’t always manage to stay out of trouble.

With their association with the Clan Chattan from around 1400, the Andersons or MacAndrew clan did draw blood. Prior to the 14th century, Clan Chattan were largely unheard of. It evolved into a confederation or alliance of various clans, the Andersons being one. As power waxed and waned among the different families so the relationships altered and protection was given or sought. The Clan Chattan were dominant over the Andersons. And through this allegiance the Andersons were to be found in the bloody brawl at the North Inch in Perth with the Clan Kay.

During King Robert III’s reign –1337 till 1406 – the Chattans and the Kays had many scores to settle. So a mighty battle was arranged to take place at the North Inch on the banks of the River Tay. Each clan selected 60 of their best warriors as their champions. Armed with bows, axes and swords they prepared to fight, watched by the King himself. Such an exceptional fight naturally brought huge crowds of common folk who took up vantage viewing positions from the safety of nearby high grounds.

Just before battle commenced, a man was found to be absent from the Chattan side. His place was taken by a smith from Perth called Henry Bow Anderson or Hal O’ the Wynd. The battle was bloody and furious. By the end of the hours of fighting all the warriors were dead or wounded. The only man unscathed was the late substitute, Hal.

Andersons again got into bad company in the Badenoch area of the Grampian Highlands. In the Kinara manuscript of 1676 it is written that ‘sick-like Donald MacGillandrish of the clan Andrish came out of Muidart.’ This describes a move from Moidart to Badenoch of the MacGillandrish clan centuries before. They held lands at Badenoch for generations and their descendants settled in Connage of Petty. Through Anglicisation, the Gaelic name was eventually changed to MacAndrew.

While they settled in Badenoch in Inverness-shire, they had to contend with an unsavoury neighbour, the ‘Wolf of Badenoch’. This unpleasant character collected a band of renegades, stole lands from the Bishop of Moray and in 1390 burned Elgin Cathedral. Following this he was ex-communicated. But the Wolf turned out to be Alexander, Earl of Buchan and a brother of King Robert III.

There is no way of identifying any Andersons who might have been directly involved in these forays, but a little gentle involvement in cattle rustling along the centuries would be in keeping with the times.

Cattle raids were commonplace in the Highlands for more than 300 years from the 14th century onwards. The authorities found it difficult to police the region because of the inaccessible nature of the land with the physical obstacles of mountains, lochs and rivers.

Thieves and killers

Life for people in those regions was hard. There was little fertile ground available for crops. The economy was based mainly on rearing black cattle. Hunting and fishing were vital for survival. But with the harsh climate during long winter months, food was often scarce. So people were driven to stealing cattle from their neighbours. Such raids would even extend as far as the lowlands.

Such cattle rustling expeditions went on as late as 1670. In that year a member of the Anderson Clan –‘Little’ John MacAndrew was involved in what was to be one of the last such raids recorded.

An expert bowman, Ian Beag, as Little John’s name is in Gaelic, was living in Dalnahtnich. He was a valued and dependable servant of William Mackintosh of Kellachie. One dark night a cattle thief called McDonnell of Achluach descended on the lands of Kilravock with his band of men. They drove away the cattle of the baron. When the alarm was raised they were quickly pursed by the tenants headed by Mackintosh accompanied by ‘Little’ John MacAndrew.

The story goes that the cattle thieves had settled for the night in a bothy on the heights of Strathdean. McAndrew shot an arrow into the hut and the McDonnel swiftly came out. He slipped and fell on a cow hide which had been placed at the door, hairy side down by the clever McAndrew. McAndrew’s next arrow found its mark on the prone frame of McDonnell, killing him instantly.

Alarmed by the commotion, the next man came running out of the hut, and also slipped on the smooth cow hide. He was killed by Mackintosh’s arrow. Then a shower of arrows cascaded into the bothy through the door, windows and thatch until every man of the Lochaber band of thieves was dead.

With the exception of a sleeping sentry, not a single man survived to carry the tale to Lochaber. The men of Lochaber swore to kill ‘Little’ John. But luckily for him, this oath was never realised.

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Honours and distinction

A surname derived from the popular given name of ‘Andrew’, in turn derived from the Greek ‘Andreas’, indicating ‘manly’, ‘Anderson’ has a number of points of origin.

With the Scottish-Gaelic derivation of ‘Gilleaindreas’, or ‘MacGhillieAndrais’, it denotes ‘servant of St Andrew’ Scotland’s patron saint, while from earliest times it also simply denoted ‘son of Andrew.’

A name not confined to any particular country, Scandinavian forms include ‘Andersen’ and ‘Andersson’, with the former also found throughout the British Isles.

While the name in Scotland, also in the form of ‘Gillanders’, was from about the thirteenth century identified with the Badenoch area – to where a family of bearers of the name are believed to have moved from Moidart – the earliest record of the name, in the form of ‘Andreu’, is recorded in 1237 in the English county of Buckinghamshire.

This record relates to a William Andreu, and the fact that his name appears on record indicates that he would have been a person of some importance or substance.

Although ‘Anderson’, in this case in the now redundant spelling variant of ‘Andreu’, appears on record more than 170 years after the adoption of surnames was popularised in the wake of the Norman Conquest, the ancestors of bearers of what would become the surname were present on English shores for a considerable period before the Conquest.

This means that flowing through the veins of many bearers of the name today may well be the blood of those Germanic tribes who invaded and settled in the south and east of the island of Britain from about the early fifth century.

Known as the Anglo-Saxons, they were composed of the Jutes, from the area of the Jutland Peninsula in modern Denmark, the Saxons from Lower Saxony, in modern Germany and the Angles from the Angeln area of Germany.

It was the Angles who gave the name ‘Engla land’, or ‘Aengla land’ – better known as ‘England.’

They held sway in what became England from approximately 550 until the Norman Conquest of 1066 – when Harold II, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, was killed at the battle of Hastings by a mighty force led by Duke William of Normandy.

William was declared King of England on December 25, and the complete subjugation of his Anglo-Saxon subjects followed.

Those Normans who had fought on his behalf were rewarded with the lands of Anglo-Saxons, many of whom sought exile abroad as mercenaries.

Within an astonishingly short space of time, Norman manners, customs and law were imposed on England – laying the basis for what subsequently became established ‘English’ custom and practice.

But beneath the surface, old Anglo-Saxon culture was not totally eradicated, with some aspects absorbed into those of the Normans, while faint echoes of the Anglo-Saxon past is still seen today in the form of popular surnames such as Anderson.

Bearers of the name came to feature in the pages of the high drama that is England’s frequently turbulent history.

Born in Newcastle in 1582, Sir Henry Anderson was the prominent politician who supported the Royalist cause during the bitter English Civil War.

The monarch Charles I had incurred the wrath of Parliament by his insistence on the ‘divine right’ of monarchs, and added to this was Parliament’s fear of Catholic ‘subversion’ against the state and the king’s stubborn refusal to grant demands for religious and constitutional concessions.

Matters came to a head with the outbreak of the civil war in 1642, with Parliamentary forces, known as the New Model Army and commanded by Oliver Cromwell and Sir Thomas Fairfax, arrayed against the Royalist army of the king.

In what became an increasingly bloody and complex conflict, spreading to Scotland and Ireland and with rapidly shifting loyalties on both sides, the 49-year-old king was eventually captured and executed in January of 1649 on the orders of Parliament.

Anderson, meanwhile, who had graduated from Christ College, Oxford, was knighted in 1608 and elected mayor of Newcastle in 1613. A year later, he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Newcastle upon Tyne and later as High Sheriff of Northumberland.

Re-elected as an MP on five occasions, up until 1640 – two years before the outbreak of the civil war – he was punished by being ousted from what was known as the Long Parliament for his support of the ill-fated Charles I.

An indication of the high honours and distinction that the Andersons have gained over the centuries is that a number of baronetcies have been created for bearers of the name ­– a baronetcy being an honour first granted in England in the early 1300s.

They include the Anderson Baronetcy of St Ives, in the County of Huntingdon, created in the Baronetage of England in 1629 for John Anderson; the Baronetcy of Penley, in the County of Hertford, was created in the Baronetage of England in 1643 for Henry Anderson, while the Baronetcy of Broughton, in the County of Lincoln, was created in the Baronetage of England in 1660 for Edmund Anderson.

Also in the Baronetage of England, the Baronetcy of Eyworth, in the County of Bedford, was created in 1664 for Stephen Anderson.

In the Baronetage of Great Britain, the Baronetcy of Mill Hill, Hendon, in the County of Middlesex, was created in 1798 for John Anderson, who served as Lord Mayor of London from 1797 to 1798.

A number of baronetcies in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom have also been created, with the Baronetcy of Fermoy, in the County of Cork, created in 1813 for James Anderson and the Baronetcy of Parkmount, in the County of the City of Belfast and of Mullaghmore in the County of Monaghan, created in 1911 for Robert Anderson, who served as Lord Mayor of Belfast from 1908 to 1910.

Also in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom, the Baronetcy of Ardtaraig, in the County of Perth, was created in 1919 for the Scottish public servant and businessman Kenneth Anderson, while the Baronetcy of Harrold Priory, in the County of Bedford, was created in 1920 for the Scots-born writer, lecturer and businessman John Anderson.

All these baronetcies, granted on a hereditary basis, fell into extinction after the last holders of the title died without succession.

A more recent baronetcy, granted on the basis of a life peerage, is that of Baron Anderson of Swansea, in the County of West Glamorgan, created in 2005 for the former Labour MP Donald Anderson.

Born in Swansea in 1939, he served as MP for Monmouth from 1966 to 1970 and Swansea East from 1974 to 2005 – making him one of the longest serving MPs in recent years.

A number of Coats of Arms have been granted to English bearers of the Anderson name and it is one of these that is featured on the front cover of this booklet.

The Crest and Motto featured on page three are those of the Scottish Clan Anderson – with whom many of the name, regardless of nationality, have an affinity.

Inquiring minds

Bearers of the name have stamped their mark on the historical record through a rich variety of endeavours and pursuits.

Known for his association with Freemasonry, James Anderson was the Scottish minister and writer born in 1679 in Aberdeen.

Ordained a Church of Scotland minister in 1707, he later settled in London and ministered to a number of congregations that included the Presbyterian Church in Swallow Street, the Lisle Street Chapel and the Glass House Street congregation.

It was in 1721, when Freemasonry was undergoing a great revival throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and North America, that its ruling English body, the Grand Lodge, charged Anderson, who was Master of a Masonic lodge and a Grand Master of the Grand Lodge in London and Westminster, to produce a definitive digest of the ancient craft’s institutions.

This authoritative work was first published in 1723 as The Constitutions of the Free-Masons – more popularly known as Anderson’s Constitutions – while, before his death in 1739 he also wrote a number of other works that include A Defence of Masonry.

Born in Aberdeen in 1582, Alexander Anderson was the mathematician who made a significant contribution to the study of both algebra and geometrical analysis.

Very little is known about his early life, but he first came to notice in Paris – where he in all probability had gone to study – publishing mathematical tracts between 1612 and 1619, the year of his death.

He was related to David Anderson of Finshaugh, Aberdeen, known as “Davie Do-a’-things” because of his mathematical and inventive genius – with one of his many renowned feats figuring out how to successfully remove a large rock that had obstructed the entrance to Aberdeen harbour.

One of his grandsons, meanwhile, was the mathematician James Gregory, who in 1663 published a treatise describing a design for a reflecting telescope.

One colourful bearer of the name was John Anderson, born in Rosneath, Dunbartonshire in 1726 and who went on to hold the prestigious post of professor of natural philosophy – as the study of physics was then known – at Glasgow University.

Despite his highly volatile nature, he appears to have been adored by his students – and one clue to his highly complex temperament can be found in the nickname bestowed on him by these students of ‘Jolly Jack Phosphorous.’

This was a nickname that referred to not only his truly explosive experiments and inventions in the realms of experimental physics, but also to his explosive nature and rigid Evangelical Christian beliefs.

In 1786, ‘Jolly Jack’ published a ground-breaking textbook on physics that subsequently ran through another four editions. It was in recognition of this that the scientific ‘think-tank’ known as the Royal Society elected him to its elite ranks.

He was also a friend of not only the Scottish engineer and inventor James Watt – having asked Watt to repair a steam engine for him – but also of the American statesman, fellow Royal Society member and inventor Benjamin Franklin.

He died in 1796, leaving the bulk of his estate for the foundation of a new institution of learning in Glasgow, one in which emphasis would be placed on the provision of a practical education for both men and women from ordinary backgrounds

At first located in Glasgow’s John Street and later in George Street, the new institution opened its doors only a few years after its benefactor’s death, and was at first known as Anderson’s College.

The institution went through several changes in both structure and name until it received its Royal Charter in 1964 as Strathclyde University, now the third largest university in Scotland.

Also in the sciences, Carl Anderson, born in New York City in 1905 and who died in 1991, was the American physicist who won the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics, along with Victor Hess, for their discovery of the positron – the ‘anti-matter’ counterpart of the electron.

Yet another particularly accomplished bearer of the Anderson name was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, whose many ‘firsts’ include the first Englishwoman to qualify as a physician and surgeon in Britain.

Born in 1836 in Whitechapel, London, the second of eleven children, she moved as a child with her family to Snape, Sussex, where her father bought a barley and coal merchant business.

Receiving her early education from her mother and later a governess, it was not until she was aged 13 that she was sent to a private boarding school in London.

Later becoming a friend of Emily Davies, the early feminist and co-founder of Girton College, Cambridge, she determined on a career in medicine and, accordingly, in 1860 she studied to become a surgery nurse at Middlesex Hospital, London.

This was at a time when the career of physician was effectively barred to women, but by dint of her dogged determination and through private study with the Society of Apothecaries, in 1865 she passed its examination and was licensed to practise medicine – making her the first woman in Britain to do so.

Opening her own practice in Upper Berkeley Street, London, she also later obtained a medical degree from the University of Sorbonne, Paris, while in 1870 she was appointed one of the visiting physicians of the East London Hospital for Children.

Co-founder of the London School of Medicine for Women and dean of the institution from 1883 to 1902, she also became the first female mayor in London when, in 1908, she was elected mayor of Aldeburgh.

Also active in the women’s suffrage movement, she died in 1917, while a year after her death the hospital she co-founded was renamed the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in her honour.

The hospital was amalgamated in 2001 with the Obstetric Hospital to become the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital and, after relocating, is now the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson wing at University College Hospital.

On foreign shores, Anton Anderson, born in 1892 in Moonlight, New Zealand, to a Swedish father and an Irish mother and moving at the age of 22 to the United States to work as a surveyor, became known as “Mr Alaska Railroad.”

Obtaining a degree in engineering from Seattle University, he moved to Anchorage, Alaska, to work for the Alaskan Engineering Commission – and as its chief engineer was instrumental in the construction of the Alaska Railroad.

Mayor of Anchorage from 1956 to 1958 and a president of the American Society of Engineers, he died in 1960, while the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel from Whittier to Portage, Alaska, is named in his honour.

One particularly infamous bearer of the otherwise proud name of Anderson was William T. Anderson, better known to posterity as “Bloody Bill.”

Born in 1840 in Hopkins County, Kentucky, he earned his unenviable nickname while fighting for the Confederate cause during the American Civil War of 1861 to 1865.

Joining the murderous Confederate guerrilla band known as Quantrill’s Raiders in 1863, many of the atrocities carried out by the feared group include the Centralia Massacre.

This was in September of 1864 when they captured a passenger train near Centralia, Missouri and killed 24 Union soldiers who had also been aboard and, later that same day, killing more than 100 Union militiamen in an ambush.

“Bloody Bill” was himself killed a month later.

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