Holland a clan?

[MacHenderson]

Hey everyone, I'm new to the boards. I thought I'd start off by seeing if anyone could confirm something I heard.

I was talking to a distant relation of mine the other day. (That means we have the same last name, with no connection.) She told me that there was a clan Holland back in ancient Scotland that were good friends of us Hendersons. Can anyone confirm this? And if there was, are they officially recognized as a clan today, with a tartan and badge and stuff?

[gilmore]

If you will click on here: http://www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/Surnames.aspx enter "Holland" and choose the 1881 census, you will see that the Hollands were in England, rather than Scotland. I didn't see a tartan in any of the usual tartan search engines, but that does not mean that some one somewhere can't come up with a good story that involves buying Scottish merchandise.

[Tattoo Bradley]

No idea about the "Hollands." But, welcome from a Henderson cousin! So, "MacHenderson" eh? "Son of Hendry's Son" Or? ;)

MacDonald of Glencoe (MacIan) were connected with the Hendersons. Gunns at Caithness.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

According to The Surnames of Scotland, by George F. Black, the name Holland can be dated back to the reign of Alexander II in Scotland. Oddly enough, he beleives the name doesn't refer to somone from Holland (Netherlands), but rather is of territorial origin from one of many local places named Holland. Black cites several places named Houlland in Shetland and Hollands in the Orkneys, Hollandbush in Sterling, and Holland-Hirts in Kirkintilloch. Also there are placed named Holland in England.

In any case, in Tartan For Me!, by Phil Smith, the reccomended tartan for the name Holland is the Angus district tartans. No clan connection, I'm afraid.

M

[mcvarmit]

welcome from ojo caliente new mexico, USA. in regards to the name Holland, i haven't a clue.i don't know a damn thing about nothing. but welcome anyway.

semper fi

slick

[David Dalglish]

Welcome from Carlisle Cumbria

[ChattanCat]

Welcome from KCMO.

[MacHenderson]

Thanks for the info. So the Hollands of Scotland didn't neccesarily originate from Holland?

[Kiltman]

Welcome from Eastern Washington.

[Gerhard Schreurs]

Greetings from Amsterdam!

Many people have been looking for possible links between Dutch and Scottish ancestries. I stumbled across a website from the Dutch Caledonian society, mentioning all sorts of books where such possible links could be found. I do not know how good your mastery of the Dutch language is, but if de book titles aren't any good, than maybe the society itself may offer you suggestions where to look. The site in question is:

http://www.caledonian.nl/naslagwerk.htm

Speaking for myself, i do not know of any clan organisations in Holland. They may have materialised in Scotland when Dutch families have settled there and their names were naturalised through subsequent generations. Clans as such are not a known phenomenon in Holland, nor are family colours and cloth patterns as used in plaids and kilts. Regional lords have existed throughout the Dutch history, owning large plots of land, with their own estates or little castles in the centre of it. They often had their family crests, as was usual for French or German aristocracy or large land owners. If there was something to defend, however, free lance soldiers were hired or fighting forces were hired from abroad. More often the land owners were surrounded by farmers using the land and in return yielding part of their crops or cattle. In the eastern part of Holland, the colours of the landlord are echoed in the hinged wooden window shutters on the farms situated on the land, showing that the inhabiting farmer was accountable to the lord of the region. Each Dutch town has its own crest and our provinces have their own flag. Gelderland, the province i was born in, for instance, has a three-stripe horizontal flag with blue/yellow/black instead of the common Dutch red/white/blue. There are some regional costumes, like from volendam or Zeeland or Marken or Staphorst, but there is no link with a clan whatsoever.
In 2005 a Tartan of Holland was designed on request by the Scottish Dr. David Wishart and officially registered in Scotland. But there is no link with any Dutch past in Scotland, only with the colours of the current Dutch flag and our Royal House of Orange Nassau (and therefore red/white/blue/orange).

Any historic link could be the Friesian Empire which grew and spread fomr the moment the Roman empire crumbled and lasted until 719 AD. This empire covered more than half of Holland, the northcoast of Germany and a bit of Denmark. Conquests were even made in Poland and eastern parts of Scotland and England. Though there are few Celtic influences in Dutch history, some words in Scottish accent have striking similarity with Dutch words. Some regions still remind of this once large Friesian empire. We have our own province of Friesland and the Friesians are fiercely proud of their own language (which includes dedicated newspapers, school curriculae and their very own TV-airtime). They even strive to get their own passport. Besides Friesland, the upper part of our norhtwestern province of Noord-Holland is calles West-Friesland and the northeastern upper part of Germany is called Ost-Friesland. So you may have some sort of ancient link in the Friesian times as well.

Hope to ave been of some help. Kind regards! Gerhard