1.BruceNelsonRutherford1, born Jun 22, 1949 in CALDWELL, OH. He was the son of 2. DonaldLeeRutherford and 3. GlemaGailGroves. He married (1) RebeccaLynneMiller1 Dec 28, 1969 in COLUMBUS, OH. She was born Aug 25, 1949 in COLUMBUS, OH. She was the daughter of Jack Carl Miller and Rita Jean Fishpaw.
Notes for Bruce Nelson Rutherford:
http://www.electricscotland.com/history/ferniehirst/8d.htm
Ferniehirst Castle
Chapter VIII - Border Families, Houses & Names
Rutherford
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According to legend, the first of the Rutherfords was a peasant who guided the Scottish King Ruther across the Tweed just behind the present Rutherford Lodge, where their Chief still lives, and was given the adjoining land for this valuable service. It seems a pity to spoil a good story, but Scottish History knows of no "King Ruther". The ford, however, is genuine enough, and the peasant could well have taken Malcolm Canmore’s great-grandfather across it on his way to Carham, the victory that gave Scotland her present size and shape. It would have cost Malcolm II nothing to give him the land as his well-earned reward, especially as it still belonged to Ethelred the Redeless (or Unready) and the name itself could simply mean "cattle ford" or the somewhat redundant "river ford" (one does not normally ford anything else!). If so the Rutherfords are the second oldest landed family in the Borders after the Swintons, and like them of Anglo-Saxon origin.
However, the first actually known to History is Robert de Rodysforde, who witnessed a charter of St. David I in 1140, and the record is only continuous (to the extent of something being down on parchment or paper for every generation of the family) from the time of Hugo de Rutherford, again mentioned as a witness to a land grant about 1215. His grandson, Sir Nichol de Rutherford, signed the Ragman Roll like nearly all Scottish lairds except Wallace himself, but later joined Wallace, to whose wife he was related, and assisted him in the Battle of Biggar and the capture of Sanquhar Castle. Sir Robert de Rutherford, his son, was a friend of Robert the Bruce and of the "Good Sir James Douglas", and fell with Sir James in Spain, guarding the Bruce’s heart (which was later brought back to Melrose Abbey, where it remains hidden).
Sir Robert’s grandson, Sir Richard Rutherford, was an ambassador to the English Court in 1398 and Warden of the Marches (together with his sons) two years later. Another of the same generation was Robert Rutherford of Chatto, also known as "Robin of the Tod’s Tail" from his unconventional battle standard at Otterburn in 1388. He had conveniently killed a fox just before the battle and finding nothing more suitable to use as a rallying point for his men, he tied its brush to a lance. It was distinctive enough, and it worked: he survived and found himself on the winning side.
Philip Rutherford, near the end of the 15th century, was the first Rutherford heir in 300 years, and perhaps longer, to die before his father; his eldest son Richard was the first head of the family to die without issue, and the present head of the family is descended from Philip’s younger brother Thomas.
The Rutherfords of Hunthill are descended from John Rutherford of Chatto, a younger son of Sir Richard. One of his sixth-generation descendants was Andrew, later Lord Rutherford and Earl of Teviot, who served in the French army in the first decades of Louis XIV’s long reign. He came to England with Charles II, who gave him a peerage, and brought with him his regiment, who became the 1st Royal Scots. Subsequently he was made Earl of Teviot as a reward for helping to negotiate the sale of Dunkirk (taken by Cromwell a few years earlier) to Louis: this gave Charles II a useful lump sum for which he did not have to answer to Parliament. Lord Teviot was appointed Governor of Tangier (which had become an English possession as part of Catherine of Braganza’s dowry) but was killed there by the Moors in a skirmish. Tangier was later abandoned as too expensive to defend and supply —a grave strategic error as it could have been used to keep the Barbary pirates bottled up in the Mediterranean and, together with Gibraltar (seized from Spain 20 years after Tangier was given up to the Moors), it would have given England complete control of the Straits.
The Hunthill branch of the family also included Major Andrew Rutherford, who fought with Claverhouse at Killiecrankie and later emigrated to France like many adherents of James VII and II (and the King himself). With the Scottish company he commanded, he served with distinction in the French army, notably at the capture of Rosas on the Costa Brava and in the defence of Alsace (conquered a few years earlier by Louis XIV and Turenne) against a German counter-attack. Major Rutherford and his men, wading breast-deep through the icy Rhine in December, recaptured a small island to which the Germans had already built a pontoon bridge, then held it against heavy odds until reinforcements arrived. Major Rutherford is not recorded as having been killed in the battle but probably died from wounds suffered there, as nothing more is heard of him.
An earlier Rutherford of Hunthill was the "Cock of Hunthill", also an ancestor of William Gladstone, who played a prominent part in the action at Redeswire, the last "official" battle between Scots and English, though there were several later affrays and raids. Nine of his sons also fought there, among them Richard, the "bauld Rutherford" who led the Jedburgh men as their Provost and who had a few years earlier presided over the "debagging" incident mentioned on p. 23.
Several Rutherfords of the Hundalee branch (descended from yet another son of Sir Richard) were provosts of Aberdeen. One of them, Alexander, held this office for nearly 20 years and was a noted Anglophobe. He made a speach against the Union of Crowns, first in Scots, which the English nobles could not understand, then in French, then in Latin, but avoiding speaking any English, except a few words whenever he ran out of Latin. This made a great impression on the scholarly King James, who disagreed with him but gave him a ring from his own finger as a token of appreciation. Provost Alexander Rutherford also had to put down a "sit-in" by the boys of Aberdeen Grammar School, who were armed with "hagbuttis, pistollis, swordis and lang wapynnis", organised as a protest against the suppression of Christmas celebrations by the Kirk.
An interesting document from the family history of the Rutherfords is their "peace treaty" with the Kerrs at Ancrum Spittal in 1560. Written in medieval Scots and difficult to read, it provides compensation of £500 to be paid by the Kerrs to George Rutherford of Longnewton, whose father had been killed not long before, and for Robert Kerr of Newhall to "offer his sword" to George Rutherford (and presumably get it back) "according to the practice and fashion of the country". Additionally several Kerr-Rutherford marriages were to be arranged, in some cases between unspecified young couples, when the girls were 12 and the boys reached an unspecified age of majority (probably 14 or 15). In one case the parties were named; Andrew Kerr (Robert’s son) and a daughter of Philip Rutherford of Edgerston. If Andrew died, his next available brother was to take his place; if the girl died, "another gentlewoman of that surname and blood". Some of the signatories were illiterate, so the notary "led their pens".
Not all the Rutherfords were soldiers, landowners or provosts: one of them was a naval captain at Trafalgar and several were professors of theology, medicine or science, among them Samuel Rutherford, D.D., one of the leading Covenanters’, Dr. John Rutherford, and his son Daniel. Sir Walter Scott’s uncle, who discovered nitrogen gas. As a young man in Paris, Dr. Daniel Rutherford refused to attend a party where Prince Charles Edward, by then an alcoholic and an overweight shadow of his former self, was expected to be present; though not a Jacobite, he had too much respect for the House of Stewart to witness the degradation into which they had sunk. He died suddenly, while stroking a cat, after attending his sister, Sir Walter Scott’s mother, who had gone down with "paralysis"; another sister died two days later and Mrs. Scott not long after.
If we now live in the nuclear age, for better or for worse, part of the responsibility must lie with Lord Rutherford of Nelson (1871-1937), the father of atomic science. He was born Ernest Rutherford, near the town of Nelson in New Zealand, from which he took his title, his grandfather having emigrated from Perth thirty years earlier, and educated at Nelson College and at Canterbury College, Christchurch, where he graduated with first-class honours in mathematics and physics. He then came to Trinity College, Cambridge, and worked under Sir J.J. Thomson (also of Scottish descent, though born in England), experimenting with electromagnetic waves and with various kinds of radiation. He was appointed Professor of Physics at McGill University in Montreal before his 27th birthday, returned to New Zealand to be married and settled with his wife in Montreal, continuing his research into radio-activity there and at Manchester University, where he became Professor of Physics in 1907. While at Manchester he discovered the division of the atom into a nucleus and electrons but did not manage to actually split the atom, though he foresaw that it could be done and would give rise to an entirely new and terrifying form of energy. He succeeded Thomson as Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge in 1919 (having been knighted a few years earlier), was elected President of the Royal Society in 1925 and was created a peer in 1931.
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http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/ntor/rutherford2.html
Clan Rutherford
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Robert De Rutherford witnessed a charter by David 1 around 1140. Sir Nichol de Rutherford is mentioned in several charters between 1161 and 1272. Sir Richard Rutherford was a favourite of Robert III he was ambassador to England in 1398.
Thomas Rutherford, The black Laird of Edgerston, was famed for his daring attacks upon the English. His most notable exploit was at the battle of the Red Swire at Caterfield in July 1575. This came about when the English and the Scots wardens of the marched had met to hear mutual grievances and to give redress for complaints. The Scots demanded the surrender of a notorious English brigand named Farnstein. The English claimed that Farnstein had fled and could not be found. Sir John Carmichael, the Scots warden, doubted this and said so to Sir John in plain terms. The English warden retorted with insults regarding Carmichael's family whereupon the English bowman discharged a flight of arrows among the Scots Sir John Carmichael was taken prisoner However the Rutherfords and the men of Jedburgh soon appeared and put the English to flight, freeing Carmichael and instead taking prisoner the English warden and a number of lieutenants.
The Lairds of Edgerston further distinguished themselves fighting for Charles I during the civil war
Rutherford raised a troop of horse at his own expense and fought in England until the king surrendered in 1646. He took up the cause again only to be severely wounded and have his whole troop wiped out at the battle of Dunbar in 1650.
General Andrew Rutherford was raised to peerage as Lord Rutherford in 1661. He was appointed Governor of Tangier in Morocco in 1663 and was killed in battle against the native forces in 1664
He had been advanced to the earldom of Teviot, but died without issue, this title became extinct, the title Lord Rutherford passing to a cousin. This title is also extinct.
Andrew Rutherford was a MP for Leith from 1839-1851. He held the office of Lord Advocate and was raised to the bench with the judicial title of Lord Rutherford. Earnest Rutherford discovered the alpa particle and developed the nuclear theory of atomic structure, laying the groundwork for the development of nuclear physics in the 20th century. He was knighted in 1914 and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1925 and died in 1937.
The lands of Rutherford in Roxburghshire near Maxton The first is that a man named Ruther guided an ancient king of Scots (Rhyderch Hael?) over a little known ford in the river tweed, giving him a victory over the Northumbrians. He was given a grant of land there after, named after the crossing.
Another story tells of an English army which foolishly abandoned a strong position on heights above the River Tweed to attack a Scottish force on the opposite bank The English attempted to force a crossing of the river and were defeated. The Scots named the place Rue the Ford, To commemorate the disaster at that spot
[John C. POTTS & Descendants.FTW]
Dates and places from RMR.
More About Bruce Nelson Rutherford:
Event 1: 1969, SERVED IN VEITNAM WAR
