The following Ledingham family information was provided by Ken Ledingham in August of 2001, and is revised with references.

ORIGINS OF THE SURNAME LEDINGHAM

The earliest reference to the origins of the Ledingham name, which I have been able to find, is from a book which I discovered in the village library where I live in Kemnay, Aberdeenshire. The book is about the history of this area and is called "Inverurie and the Earldom of the Garioch" by Reverend John Davidson and was published in 1878AD, [Ref.1]. In this book Rev. Davidson indicates that the lands of Lodhgavel [ which he says was later changed to the name Ledingham] and Malinside in the parish of Culsalmond in the area of Aberdeenshire known as the Garioch were granted to the Abbey of Lindores in Fife in the year 1195AD. This information comes from a Papal Bull [a written pronouncement] issued by Pope Celestine the third in that year, [Ref.2]. It would appear that the land belonged at that time to David, the Earl of Huntingdon who was the son of Prince Henry and brother of King William the First of Scotland. David appears to have founded the Abbey of Lindores in that year. Davidson does not make it clear when the Ledingham name was first used instead of Lodhgavel or why the change of name took place. The following paper represents my efforts to date in my search for this information and my suggestions as to the origins of the surname. My research is by no means complete as yet but I hope that the information which follows will be of interest to those who are curious about how the family name got started.

In 1291AD a further Papal Bull was issued refering to the earlier pronouncement but this time from Pope Nicholas IV, [Ref.3]. In this proclamation he confirms the granting of land in various parts of Scotland to the Abbey of Lindores in Fife, including Lodhgavel in the Garioch. This does not mean of course that the name Lodhgavel continued to be used in this part of the country up to this time since the Papal Bull may only have used the original names for places as given in the original text and the name Ledingham, or something like it may already have been in use at an earlier date than 1291AD by the people in the area itself.

The first written reference I have been able to find to a name like Ledingham however is in 1594AD in a volume of the Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, which is a complete record of all charters and legal agreements passed by the Kings and Queens of Scotland from 1306AD to the Union of Scotland and England in 1707AD.

In 1594AD the name Lethinghame appears instead of Lodhgavel in describing the area of land referred to above in a charter dated the 2nd. October signed at " Halyrudhous" [ Holyrood House] in the reign of King James VI of Scotland,[Ref.4]. In this document, which is in Latin in keeping with all such documents of the time, the lands of Lethinghame and other property previously given to the Abbey of Lindores are given to a Joannis Gordoun of "Newtoun da Culsalmond" and his male heirs.

On the 31st. March, 1600AD a further charter [Ref.5] was signed in Edinburgh granting the feudal rights of land called Ledinghame to a Patrick Leslie and his male heirs in the Presbytery of Alford [which takes in the parish of the Garioch].

In 1610AD on the 2nd. August reference is made in the Register [Ref 6] to a croft in the parish of Inverurie occupied by an Alexander Ledinghame and a William Gavan. In 1613AD, on the 30th. July reference is again made to the same croft, [Ref.7] and to the same Alexander Ledinghame and a William Gawane, [ presumably Gavan]. Further reference is made on the 4th. April 1620AD to the same croft and to the same occupiers except that Gavan is now spelt Gawan [Ref.8]. It was quite common for surnames to be spelt differently by different scribes and for names to change over time as can also be seen in the different spellings of the Ledingham name itself.

On the 22nd December, 1662AD the names Miekle and Little Lethingham appear in a charter signed in Edinburgh under the Great Seal of Scotland granting these lands amongst others to a Sir John Strauchan [Ref.9].

Finally the names Miekle and Little Leddinghames appear in a further charter dated September the 7th.1666AD granting these lands to a George Skeyne [Ref.10].

The name Ledingham however appears on Robert Gordon`s map of this area published in 1640AD [Ref.11] and 1654AD [Ref.12] but on later maps of the area around 1800AD the name changed to the local colloquiall spelling " Ledikin". There are still farms around the village of Insch, near Inverurie called East Ledikin, West Ledikin etc

In 1696AD a poll tax was levied in Scotland to help pay for the cost of maintaining an army and to pay off government debts. Every household in Aberdeenshire was recorded and a list compiled of those due to pay the tax along with the amount paid by them. Only beggars and children under 16 years escaped paying the tax.

In 1844AD a group of far sighted individuals, who formed the Spalding Club in Aberdeen, published the complete list of these names in two volumes as one of a number of important historical records about this area [Ref.13]. In this record there are a total of 33 people with the name Ledingham or Ledinghame including husbands and wives. If wives are excluded there are only 21 adult males with this surname, living mainly near Insch in the parishes of Oyne, Leslie, Premnay and Daviot. This suggests that the family name may only have existed in this part of the world for a fairly short time prior to 1696AD or that the Ledingham clan were not particularly fast at colonising the area.

In looking at various books on the place names and surnames of Scotland reference is made to the name Ledingham having Gaelic roots. In "Celtic Place-Names in Aberdeenshire" by John Milne, published in 1912 [Ref.14] he suggests that the place-name Ledikin [which appeared around 1800AD] may have been called Leathgayn in 1366AD and Ledingham in 1660AD. Leathgayn he suggests comes from Leathad a' Ghabhainn meaning "hillside where there was a fold". About 1800AD he says that the family name Ledingham changed to Ledikin.

In James MacDonald's book" the Place Names of West Aberdeenshire", published in 1899AD, [Ref.15] he refers to Ledikin in the parish of Culsalmond being known as Lethinghame in 1644AD and Ledinghame in 1600AD. He goes on to suggest that the name derives from Leideag or Leideagan and is, he says, a common name for fields, especially those on the outskirts of farms in the West Highlands. He also quotes an authority on the Gaelic language, a Professor Mackinnon as saying although the two words appear very similar he is not prepared to say that they are the same.

In George F. Black's book" The Surnames of Scotland" published in 1946 [Ref.16], Black repeats the information given previously by MacDonald but also gives examples of the name appearing in 1574AD as Ledinghame, in 1603AD as Liddinghame and in 1798AD as Ledingham. He also suggests that in the area around Braemar called Mar in the 17th. century, Ledigan was the form of the name. He then goes on to mention Professor Mackinnon and his comparison of the name Ledikin with the Gaelic Leideagan but he does not mention the Professor's unwillingness to commit himself that the two words are the same!

In David Dorward's book, "Scottish Surnames", published in 2000AD [Ref17] Dorward indicates that although the name Ledingham is similar in construction to English names such as Birmingham or Nottingham the name in fact originates in Aberdeenshire and probably comes from the Gaelic word Leideagan, meaning "outlying fields". He then refers to examples given above in Black's book and says that the name is still very much a Northeast Scotland name and is uncommon elsewhere.

Whilst I appreciate that I do not have the background in History or Linguistics which these various authors may have, I wonder if too great an emphasis has been put by these writers on the similarity of Ledikin and Leideagan and to suggest that since this name has Gaelic origins the surname Ledingham, which was the earlier version of the surname, is also Gaelic in origin. Since the name Ledikin did not appear until about 1800AD according to most writers and the name Ledingham appears on maps and various texts prior to this date I do not see why the name Ledingham should also be Gaelic in origin.

There is a very strong case I would suggest that the name Ledingham is not Celtic or Gaelic in origin but is in fact Saxon. The "ingham" bit of the name is found in a number of places especially in England, as indicated by Dorward above and which are associated with Saxon dwellings, eg. Birmingham and Nottingham. According to Kenneth O. Morgan in The Oxford History of Britain [Ref.18] the"ing" bit of the name seems to mean the "tribe" or "people" and the "ham" bit means the "homestead of". Ledingham would seem to mean therefore "the homestead of Led`s people", Led being the name of the chief of the tribe or group of people. The earliest Saxon use of these terms could go back to 300AD but could also have been introduced any time up to 1000AD.

There is evidence that there was a place called " Ledeneham" in Lincolnshire in 1086AD as it is mentioned in the Doomsday Book [Ref19]. This place is now called "Leadenham" but there does not seem to be all that many families with that name in Lincolnshire or indeed Ledingham. I suspect that sometime before 1195AD there was a movement of people called Ledeneham,or something similar, from Lincolnshire or thereabouts to the Garioch and that it might have had something to do with the Scottish nobility and their efforts to colonise this part of the world with Saxon and other non -Celtic families. This colonisation process is refered to in the book by Rev. Davidson and other texts eg. Scotland before 1500AD by Sidney Wood [Ref.20] and A History of Aberdeen and Banff by William Watt [Ref21].

It would appear from my further research that the Scottish nobility after 1093AD or thereabouts were very friendly towards the Normans, who had been gradually extending their influence and presence in Britain following their invasion in 1066AD. The Scottish kings David 1[1124-1153AD], William 1[1153-1165AD] and Malcolm 4[1165-1214AD] in particular brought Norman Knights to Scotland where they were given land. David, the Earl of Huntingdon, already owned the land called Lodhgavel and other territory in this area by the year 1195AD but I suspect was rewarded by grateful Norman rulers with the title of Earl of Huntingdon because he had helped them with their colonisation of this part of the country. He may therefore have brought Norman as well as Saxon families to settle in this area as they had skills which the Earl needed.

When I look back through my own ancestors it is quite remarkable how many of the men were blacksmiths. This might not have been the case all the way back to 1195AD but I would suggest that the Earl of Huntingdon must have had some part to play in a Saxon family from Lincolnshire being introduced to Aberdeenshire some time before 1195AD. It could be of course that the Ledingham family were already in this part of the world before 1195AD and that other Scottish nobles had introduced the family to this area at an earlier stage but I strongly suspect that it was David, the Earl of Huntingdon who was responsible for bringing our family to this part of Scotland.

So there you have it, or just about. Further research I conducted would seem to suggest that the Saxons were brought originally to Britain by the Romans who used them as mercenaries around the year 400AD. There is a possibility however that some Saxons had already made their home in Britain before that time as Saxon invaders had already been involved in various battles with the natives before the Romans arrived. This information comes from "The Oxford History of Britain" edited by Kenneth O. Morgan [Ref.22]. This text also confirms the information about the Saxon origin of the Ledingham name.

As yet I have not had time to go back beyond 1780 in my search for my own family roots. In that year a John Ledingham married Jean Weir at Kirkton of Premnay near Insch in Aberdeenshire but I hope to do a bit more work on this in the near future. In the meantime I hope you will find the above information of interest. Regards, Ken Ledingham 20/08/01.

REFERENCES

1. Inverurie and the History of the Garioch, Davidson, John, Rev., pub. by A.Brown & co., 1878AD.

2. Bull of Pope Celestine III, 1195AD, Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, pub. by the Spalding Club, Aberdeen,

3. Bull of Pope Nicholas IV, 1291AD, op cit.

4. Charter no. 172, 2nd. October, 1584AD, Register of the Great Seal of Scotland, editor James B. Paul, pub. by Clark Constable, 1984AD.

5. Charter no 1032, 31st. March, 1600AD, op cit.

6. Charter no 355, 2nd. August, 1610AD, op cit.

7. Charter no. 899, 30th. July, 1613AD, op cit.

8. Charter no.13, 4th. April, 1620AD, op cit.

9. Charter no. 332, 22nd. December, 1662AD, op cit.

10. Charter no. 967, 7th. September, 1666AD, op cit.

11. Map by Robert Gordon of Strathloch, 1640AD, National Library of Scotland, 2001AD.

12. Map by Robert Gordon of Strathloch, 1654AD, Collection for a history of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, editor Joseph Robertson, pub. by the Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1843AD.

13. List of Pollable Persons within the Shire of Aberdeen, 1696AD, volume one, pub by the Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1844AD.

14. Celtic Place-names in Aberdeenshire, Milne, John, pub. by Aberdeen Daily Journals, 1912AD.

15 The Place Names of West Aberdeenshire, McDonald, James, pub. by the Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1899AD.

16. The Surnames of Scotland, Black, George F., pub. by New York Public Library, 1965AD.

17. Scottish Surnames, Dorward, David, pub by Collins, 2000AD.

18. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, Morgan, Kenneth O., Guild Publishing, London, 1985AD.

19. The Doomsday Book, www.domesdaybook.co.uk/places.html, 2001AD.

20. Scottish Life before 1500AD, Wood, Sydney, pub. by Cheltenham:Stanley Thornes, 1995AD.

21. A History of Aberdeen and Banff, Watt, William, pub by William Blackwood & Sons, 1900AD.

22. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, Morgan, Kenneth O., Guild Publishing, London, 1985AD.