Fotheringham

The name in Scotland comes from the parish of Inverarity in Angus and is probably a corruption of Fotheringhay, a manor in Northamptonshire, because of the resemblance in ancient script between ‘ay’ and ‘m’. The manor was one of those held by David of Huntingdon, later David I of Scotland. By an unlikely tradition, the name of Fotheringay is supposed to belong to a Hungarian who came with the retinue of Edward Atheling whose sister, Margaret, married Malcolm III. Huwe de Fotheringeye rendered homage to Edward I of England, appearing on the Ragman Roll of 1296, in common with many of the Scottish nobility. During the reign of Robert III, John Fotheringhame acquired the lands of West Powrie in what was then part of Forfarshire. It is believed the land was acquired through marriage to a daughter of the Ogilvies of Auchterhouse around 1399. In 1481, Nicholas Fotheringham of Powrie attempted to deprive the widow of the Earl of Montrose of her lands at Dunbog in Glenesk. Nicholas was among the many Scottish nobles who died at Flodden in 1513. Sir Alexander Fotheringham of Powrie, an ardent supporter of Charles I, was taken prisoner at Alyth and sent to England in 1645. He died in exile in France in 1652. His grandson, David, was a renowned equestrian and was particularly fond of horse breeding. He matriculated the family’s coat of arms at the Lyon Court around 1677. Thomas Frederick Fotheringham, a captain in the Scots Fusiliers, served with distinction throughout the Crimean War (1853–56). He married Lady Charlotte Carnegie, sister of the ninth Earl of Southesk. Their son, Walter, succeeded to the handsome estates of Grandtully and Murthly in Perthshire, together with the two splendid castles which still stand on these estates. Murthly was originally a royal hunting lodge and its main tower was probably built at the beginning of the fifteenth century. It was substantially extended in a classical style in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The ballroom, in the east wing of the house, is particularly splendid.

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