Earliest Lindsays of Scotland

The following summary of the descent of the Scottish Lindsays from their Flemish origin was created by Ron Lindsay using the three books of English historian Beryl Platts and Lord Crawford's "Lives of the Lindsays (1858 Edition)" as the referenced sources.

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For many, many years, the earliest Lindsays, found in the Great Britain and more specifically Scotland, were believed to be of Norman descent. The basis for this position came primarily from the work provided by Lord Lindsay (Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford) in his book Lives of the Lindsays first published in 1849. With access to many more sources of authentic documentation than was ever available to Lord Lindsay in 1849 and after more than ten years of exhaustive research, a noted English historian of medieval history, Ms. Beryl Platts, concluded in 1985 that the Lindsays of Scotland are of Flemish descent. Ms. Platts is careful to conclude her findings as they pertain only to the origin of the Lindsays in the region of Scotland which does not include the geography of England and the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey found in Lincolnshire several hundred years prior to the arrival of the Conqueror.

The current 29th Earl of Crawford, a descendant of the 1849 Lord Lindsay, and the current Chief of The Clan Lindsay, concurs with the findings of this historian. Ms. Beryl Platts of Greenwich, England should receive all the credit due for her findings and the apparent authentication of the Flemish origin of the earliest Scottish Lindsays.

Based on the following discoveries, Ms. Platts concluded that there was little room for doubt as to the Flemish origin of the Lindsays of Scotland.

The Lindsay family's immediate importance on its arrival in early-12th-century Scotland.
The honour with which it was received at the royal court.
Its close connections with the throne.
Above all its arms.

In her book, Origins of Heraldry, first published in 1980, Ms. Platts used the devices of heraldry as the springboard into years of detail study of the origin of these devices. It was during this time that she came to realize the importance of what she had uncovered. Ms. Platts discovered that few British historians who preceded her seemed to be aware of the extremely close relationship among the non-Norman men who helped Duke William in his conquest of England. Even those historians who sensed it, refused to put it in print. In this first 112-page volume, Ms. Platts, using basically the inherited heraldic devices used by certain individuals, set forth the following Flemish-Scottish relationships (page 111), while declaring much more research was to be done.

ALOST: Baldwin of Alost and his younger brother, Gilbert de Ghent, companion of the Conqueror, were sons of Ralph of Alost and cadets of Guines. Gilbert de Ghent, Earl of Lincoln, was father of Walter de Lindsay, ancestor of the Scottish family of Lindsay. These Flemish ancestors of Alost were descendants of Charlemagne.

On pages 70-71, Ms. Platts goes through the variations in the heraldic devices used by the Lindsays in Scotland with the Lindsay of the Byres keeping the Alost colours. The younger son left in Lincolnshire after the senior branch had finally moved to Scotland, yet another Gilbert de Ghent, "had perforce to make a change" and took the Vermandois (Stewart) colours.

In her second book, Scottish Hazard, Volume I, published in 1985, Ms. Platts, in Appendix Two, page 96, precedes to further analyze the conclusions drawn by Lord Lindsay, in his 1849 first edition of Lives of the Lindsays. Lord Lindsay compiled evidence that his ancestry originated from Ralph de Limesy, perhaps son, certainly kinsman, of a possible Anglo-Norman already in England, a man known as Angodus de Lindsay. In Lord Lindsay’s second edition (1858), he had discovered that Angodus died without heirs and thus discarded him as the prime parent. He had newly collected evidence to show that Baldric of Lincolnshire was the father of Ralph de Limesy.

Ms. Platts did note that there was a Ralph de Limesy in the Domesday Book as a companion to the Conqueror who was an inhabitant of an area in the Seine Valley of Normandy.

Ms. Platts uses 31 pages of Volume I supporting her position that Gilbert de Ghent, who fought with the Conqueror at Hastings, was the progenitor of the earliest Scottish Lindsays.

In her third book, Scottish Hazard, Volume II (155 pages), published in 1990, Ms. Platts devotes 25 pages of Appendix Two, page 118 to further support the Flemish origin of the Lindsays of Scotland.

* To see this Earliest Scottish Lindsay pedigree in graphical format, go to Lindsay Pedigrees / Europe / Scotland found at ...... http://www.clanlindsay.com/earliest_europe.htm