Learmonth

This is a name arising from lands in Berwickshire. The earliest family of note were the Learmonths of Ercildoune in the Merse, to which family Anderson attributes the early Scottish poet, Thomas the Rhymer. Sir Walter Scott, who named Thomas the earliest Scottish poet, believed that he was born between 1226 and 1229 near the village now named Earlstoun in Berwickshire. The prophesies of Thomas the Rhymer were published in 1691. The family married into the Dairsies of Fife and thereby established the principal line of the family in that county. Sir James Learmonth of Dairsie was Master to the Household of James V, and provost of St Andrews in 1446. The family also acquired the lands of Balcomie in Fife, and in 1604 Sir James Learmonth of Balcomie was one of the commissioners appointed to consider a pos-sible political union with England. Alexander Learmonth was a prosperous merchant in Edinburgh and Leith. The family acquired the estate of Parkhall in the early nineteenth century. They latterly assumed the compound surname of Livingston-Learmonth, but still used the ancient Learmonth arms. There is still a substantial residential district of Edinburgh named after this family.

Leave a comment

You are commenting as guest.