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William was the third son of Robert de Beaumont, 3 rd Earl of Leicester, and founded the family around 1215 AD, taking the surname from the manor of Hambleton in Buckinghamshire, and was well received by King Alexander II of Scotland.Īnother source states the family progenitor of the family was Walter fitz Gilbert of Cadzow, an Anglo-Norman companion of Robert the Bruce, and the family rose to power to be the leading noble family in Scotland, second only to the royal House of Stewart, to whom they were related. One of the early ancestors, Sir William de Hambleton feuded with John de Spence and killed him, drawing the ire of King Edward II of England, and pursued him as he fled north to Scotland, where according to legend, Sir William exchanged clothes with a wood cutter, used their saw, and coat down a large oak tree to bridge a river, using it to escape, hence why many of the arms of the family depict a saw. The Clan trace its origins to the Earls of Mellent in Normandy who arrived in Britain with William the Conqueror during the Norman Invasion of 1066 AD, after which they were granted the lands of Hambleton in Buckinghamshire. The family was first found in Renfrewshire, Scotland, where they received lands of King Robert the Bruce of Scotland (1274-1329 AD). Roger de Beaumont holding a bowl on the Bayeax Tapestry In Ireland, it could have replaced the surname Hamill in some instances, and is an Anglicized version of the Irish surname Ó hUrmholtaigh. Yet another source states the Old English word hamel means bare, treeless, or scarred. Another source states hamell means the seat of a freeholder or mansion. The Dictionary of American Family Names, published in 2013, states this primarily Scottish and Northern Irish last name is a habitational name for someone who came from the village (now deserted) of Barkby, Leicesterhsire, and derives from the Old English word hamel (crooked or blunt) and dun (hill). Petersborough, Oxford, and Winchester) and one called Hambleton (Manchester), as well as several smaller locales. He also mentions here are also several dioceses called Hambledon (ex. However, Another source, Charles Wareing Bardsley, in his 1901 book, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, states the Scottish Hamilton are traced back to Hambleton, a manor in counting Buckingamshire, and the English Hamiltons sprung from twelve different locales, including Hambleton, a township in the parish of Brayton, near Selby, in county York. According to A Dictionary of Surnames, authored by Flavia Hodges in 1988, most descendants of this family either descend from the original noble family or from the two aforementioned times. Heraldry of the World is a private site and maintained as a hobby, which takes a lot of time and effort (and costs).Hamilton Surname Name Meaning, Origin, History, & EtymologyĪccording to The Dictionary of Surnames, authored by Basil Cottle in 1978, this last name is a locational name denoting someone who came from the village of Hamilton in Leicestershire, England, although the name became establish in Lanarkshire in the 1200s AD, where the town of Hamilton in South Lanarkshire was named after the family in the fifteenth century. He may have used the seal to sign archdiaconal documents, and after his death it was maybe used as a seal of the Archdeaconry. The time would fit with the design of the seal though. The theory was that the seal came as a personal seal of Bernard, Archdeacon of Down (who held the office in the late 12th and early 13th century), although it is not known where he originates from.
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But how and why did this seal came to be used as a Mayoral seal in Carrickfergus ? The city of Aquila, in Northern Italy (!) indeed uses an eagle. The text was deciphered as S(igillum) FR(atr)IS BER(nardi) CAM(erarii) CIVITATIS AQ(vi)LE, meaning the 'Seal of Brother Bernard, Chamberlain of the City of Aquila'. The style of the seal indicated an origin in the 12th -14th centuries, so predating the main seal shown above. An eagle was never part of the city arms or in the arms of any known magistrate.
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