Sept versus Clan

**macwilkin** · 29th October 09, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by MacBubba45

I don't think anyone knows where the place name "Colquhoun" came from. (Pronounced ka-hoon). Humphry de Kilpatrick, for whatever reason, took the place name as his own as stated above, so the area was called Colquhoun before the land grant and barony. Why this is has been lost in 800 years of history. I admit it's curious and, I think, unparalleled in Scottish history. Technically the chief's line is descended from a Kilpatrick. Sorry,I know this doesn't answer any of your questions; I guess because there is no satisfactory answer.

I guess you know that Kil/Kirkpatrick has it's own crest and I think their own family tartan? That hand held bloody dagger with the motto "I Make Sure" is the story of Roger Kirkpatrick going back in the church to finish off Robert The Bruce's failed assassin John Comyn.

Kilpatrick became a "sept" of Colquhoun because there were families in the area that had that name (all the Kilpatricks that were there didn't change their name). I've always tried to explain that sept names were there by a happy accident that they lived within control of the dominant family that rose to power in the area as the clan system formed. In another post I gave the example of my last name being a "Distrct" name: my family lived in Glasgow which formed it's own "government" and did not have a clan chief when the other clans were forming. The clan cheif was essentially the "governor" of the area he was in and the surrounding families came under his wing as a sept.

Whoa there pardner...let's see your source that John "The Red" Comyn was going to assissinate the Bruce in Dumfries.

If anyone is deserving of the title, it is the Bruce in that regard -- of course, being a Comyn/Cumming, I am a bit biased.

Todd