Clan

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

a tribe of related families having the same name. The word is Gaelic, signifying children, or descendants, and is expressive of a belief that all the members have a common ancestor. The term was used by the large septs into which the Irish were divided, but more particularly by the numerous families in the Cheviots and in the Highlands of Scotland. It is equivalent to the Latin or Greek gens. As our account of the Scotch clans is derived largely from Lowland sources, it is not surprising that these clans are described as so many associations of thieving freebooters who raided the fertile portions of the country, carried off every article they could lay their hands on, and drove the cattle into their mountain pastures. Scott in his Lady of the Lake puts the case more fairly. Roderick Dhu speaks: These fertile fields, that softened vale, Were once the birthright of the Gael; The stranger came with iron hand, And from our fathers reft the land. ..... Pent in this fortress of the North, Think'st thou we will not sally forth, To spoil the spoiler as we may, And from the robber rend the prey? ..... Where live the mountain chiefs who hold, That plundering Lowland field and fold Is aught but retribution true? The clans of the Highlands were numerous, theoretically one for each Highland name beginning in Mac, as well as many others--Clan McPherson, Clan MacDougall, Clan MacGregor, Clan Gordon, Clan Alpine, and the rest. See Celts ; Bagpipe ; Mac ; Scotland Clarendon (1608-1674), an English earl. Under his proper name of Edward Hyde he was a member of the famous Long Parliament in which he at first supported the popular cause, but apparently becoming afraid of anarchy or of the ruin of the church, he became the leader of the royalists. On the outbreak of hostilities, he took the field for the Stuarts. When Cromwell's dragoons proved too much for the Cavaliers, Clarendon fled to the Isle of Jersey. After Cromwell's death, he arranged with General Monk for the return of Charles II to the throne. He became prime minister and was made Earl of Clarendon. His daughter became the wife of the king's brother, afterwards James II ; Mary and Anne, afterwards queens of England, were granddaughters of Clarendon. Later Clarendon, himself an honest, humane man, and a supporter of constitutional government, fell into difficulties with the licentious, corrupt, and despotic court, and was driven into exile,--a shining illustration of the ingratitude of monarchs. He wrote a "History of the Rebellion from 1641 down to the Restoration of Charles II." It gives the Cavalier side of that period, and is still an authority. Clarendon, the name of the earldom, is derived from a village near Salisbury. It has been adopted by a number of American towns,--one in Arkansas, one in Vermont. An unsuccessful colony at Cape Fear River, North Carolina , was known by the name of Clarendon.