Pringle

The arms of this ancient family bear three scallop shells, the scallop being the traditional badge of those on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Nisbet conjectures from this that the name is a corruption of ‘pelerin’, or ‘pilgrim’. The name first appears in the form ‘Hoppryngil’ in a charter during the reign of Alexander III, around 1270. The family was long to be known as Hop Pringle, and it has been suggested that this is from the Welsh, ‘Ap’, which, like the Gaelic ‘Mac’, means ‘son of’. The Hop Pringles of Teviotdale may accordingly descend from the son of a pilgrim to the Holy Land, perhaps a crusading knight. The Hop Pringles of that Ilk held substantial lands around Galashiels. The Pringles of Whitsome were supporters of Bruce, and for this suffered the forfeiture of their lands at the hands of John Balliol. They were restored after the Battle of Bannockburn by charter of Robert the Bruce in 1315. The Lairds of Whitsome were allies of the great house of Douglas, and Robert Pringle was squire to James, Earl of Douglas, at the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. Robert survived the battle and received a charter to the lands of Smailholm in Roxburghshire, from Archibald the Grim, Earl of Douglas, in 1408. They built the Tower of Smailholm, perched stubbornly on the rocky hills at Sandyknowe, six miles west of Kelso. The tower still stands today, a lonely but impressive tribute to this family. The tower was well known to Sir Walter Scott, the novelist, whose grandfather owned the farm at Sandyknowe. The son of the Laird of Smailholm, David Pringle, was, together with his four sons, killed at Flodden in 1513. Sir James Pringle of Smailholm was sheriff principal of Ettrick Forrest in 1622. He is said to have sold off a considerable portion of his estates to pay debts incurred by living extravagantly at the court of James VI. Robert Pringle died without issue in 1653, when the representation of the family devolved upon the Pringles of Whytbank. Alexander Pringle of Whytbank was MP for Selkirkshire and a member of Sir Robert Peel’s government from 1841 to 1845. Alexander Pringle, thirteenth Laird of Whytbank, served in India throughout the Second World War. The Pringles of Stitchill were raised to the rank of baronet in 1682. Another prominent family descended from the Pringles of Smailholm are the Lairds of Torwoodlee. This family suffered much during the persecution of the Covenanters when their house near Selkirk frequently offered sanctuary to those forced into hiding for their adherence to the Covenant. Other cadets include the Pringles of Haining, Newhall and Lochton. Thomas Pringle, the border poet and writer, was born in Teviotdale in 1789. He became secretary to the Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1827, and died only a few months after the announcement of the abolition of slavery in 1834. The famous Scottish knitwear, which bears this family’s name, has carried its fame throughout the world.