Sir William Wallace is chronicled as descended from the first Wallaces of Riccarton in Ayrshire, and thus closely related to the later (after 1371) line of Wallaces of Craigie of Ayrshire. He is noted in a 1480 literary account by Blind Harry (Henry the Minstrel), which described him as the son of (Sir) Malcolm Wallace and as being of “Elrislie.” Malcolm Wallace was the first of this cadet branch—the line of a younger son. He “received as his inheritance the five-pound lands of Elderslie in the shire of Renfrew, also the five-merk lands of Auchinbothie in the county of Ayr” (Rogers 1889 v. 1, 19). Rogers also states unequivocally, “William Wallace was born in the manor house of Elderslie” (v. 2, 89), but even this has become equivocal.
Over time, the extended Wallace family was noted to have held various lands in Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and Haddingtonshire in Scotland, as vassals of the High Stewards of Scotland, who would become the Stewarts. The records of these landholdings and knighthoods easily eliminate the common-man-origin argument for William Wallace, and this “gives him a much higher status” (Grant 2007).
The Wallaces of Craigie are the ancestors of my mother, a Morrison, on eight separate lines, and William Wallace is thus either an uncle or cousin, many times great-grand or removed. So it is likely that I descend from a Wallace who fought, suffered, and may have died, like William Wallace, at the hands of the English.
Depending on the information sources, the Craigie Wallace lines are interwoven with many other esteemed Scots surnames, among them Maxwell, Douglas, Cunynghame, Kennedy, Hamilton, Campbell, Cathcart, Dunbar, Crawford, Lindsay, and, many times over, Stewart. No matter where they originally came from, the Wallaces certainly later married into prestigious families.
I have researched the Wallace lines well. It does get very tangled, the further back one goes. So there’s no wonder that it has been hard to undo. But I am doing my best to live up to my heritage as the descendant of warriors. My gauntlet is now thrown down into the Wallace morass.
James Mackay is adamant in his position about William Wallace’s social status: “the landless son of a minor nobleman, who, without power, privilege or patronage, rose metorically” (1995). While William Wallace is seen to have risen to prominence through his heroism, my theory is that he was there to start with, that William Wallace wasn’t a commoner or even close to being an outlaw, except in the eyes of the English. I believe he and his Wallaces originated as a cadet branch of the fitz Alan family and were thus once brother and later cousins to the fitz Alan line of High Stewards of Scotland who became the Stewarts and to the fitz Alan Earls of Arundel.
If I am correct, William Wallace’s education, military skills, and his meteoric rise to prominence—from the killing of High Sheriff William de Heselrig in May of 1297, to Stirling Bridge in September 1297, to his knighting at Selkirk before the end of 1297, to assuming guardianship of Scotland—were based on his status as a fitz Alan and his family ties to the High Stewards of Scotland.
The Fitz Patronymic
The prefix fitz, meaning “son of,” is French in origin, from fils, son, from the Latin filius, son.
Up until this era, the Norman/French patronymics prefixed with fitz would change from generation to generation. When a son placed fitz before his own father’s first name, it became his own last name, with a new last name with each successive generation. For example, Richard, the son of John, would be Richard fitz John, and then Richard’s son William would be William fitz Richard.
The noted sources of the Wallace surname—Walays, Walis, Walais, and the like—all seem to indicate a similar pronunciation of what would eventually become generally standardized as Wallace. Many have concluded that this indicates “of Wales.”
The Wallaces are reported to have come from Wales with the first High Steward of Scotland, Walter fitz Alan, a brother of William fitz Alan, Lord of Oswestry. Both of these fitz Alans were sons of Alan fitz Flaad.
The descendants of William fitz Alan, Lord of Oswestry, continued to use the surname fitz Alan in the generations after William, breaking the tradition of the changing patronymic.
Once in Scotland, as the first High Steward of Scotland, William’s brother, Walter fitz Alan, signed documents as Walterus filius Alani, Walter son of Alan, that is, Walter fitz Alan. Walter fitz Alan’s son Alan, the second High Steward, used the patronymic as Alan fitz Walter.
The third High Steward, Walter Stewart, who held that position from 1204 to 1246, apparently dropped the patronymic and adopted his title, steward, as the surname Stewart, but he also “witnessed a charter by King Alexander II, under the formal designation of ‘Walterus filius Alani, Senescallus, Justiciar Scotiae’” (Wikipedia, s. v. “Walter Stewart, 3rd High Steward of Scotland”).
By the time of the Ragman Roll in 1296, it is clear that the patterns of last names were changing in Scotland, yet still mixed:
One of the earliest sources for surnames in Scotland is the Ragman Roll. This document records the deeds of homage pledged by Scots nobles to Edward I, King of England in 1296. The surnames recorded within are for the most part very similar to those found in England at around the same date, consisting of local, patronymic and occupational names, and nicknames. Some of the local surnames with the roll are derived from places within Scotland; there are very few Gaelic surnames recorded in the roll (Wikipedia, s. v. “Scottish surnames”).The Question of His Family
William Wallace was known, according to some historical and legendary accounts, as the son of Sir Malcolm Wallace, thus the son of a knight.
However, an official seal attributed to William Wallace was found on a letter sent to the Hanse city of Lübeck, Germany, on 11 October 1297. It appears to read W[ILLELM]VS FILIVS ALANI WALAIS, a Latin inscription, which has been variously interpreted to mean William, son of Alan of Wales, or William, son of Alan Wallace (Duncan 2007). A. A. M. Duncan relates that an Alan Wallace and the seals S ALANI WALAYS and S’ ALANI WALIS are found in the Ragman Roll.
Duncan then asserts that this Alan would be “a strong claimant to be a father of William.” He goes on to state, “[a]nd it demolishes the names given by literary sources for William’s father; he was, we can be sure, Alan Wallace” (2007).
Despite Duncan’s certainty, I contend that William Wallace’s seal is subject to multiple interpretations. Duncan appears charged with quelling the rampant speculation that accompanied the movie Braveheart, released in 1995, and rightly so. His essay is critical of Wallace, yet, while he has done much research, he skims the surface to reach his conclusions on this. While I disagree on other points, I am not going to counter them, save this one: “we can be sure.”
I contest this. I don’t believe Duncan has proven this point. I believe that other positions exist besides his assumption that Alan was William Wallace’s father.
One is that William Wallace was a fitz Alan. It bears serious consideration.
In the 1297 letter, William Wallace was acting in an official capacity in the use of this seal, as Guardian of Scotland. I believe he would use his formal surname in this case, and if he were fitz Alan, it would have been in the same manner as the fitz Alans of Oswestry and Walter Stewart had done, as filius Alani. It is my contention that the seal for W[ILLELM]VS FILIVS ALANI WALAIS asserts his identity, that he was a fitz Alan.
The translation from the Latin is exact and supports this. I believe he established and traded on his authority via his relationship to this powerful family name.
I contend, too, that the seals S ALANI WALAYS and S’ ALANI WALIS could easily be implied forms of fitz Alan and that this is evidence there were other, related fitz Alans using the same surname during this period:
In early Latin documents, such names were formed by the genitive case of the father’s name preceded by forms of filius, meaning “son” . . .; later the filius was only implied.and
[n. 1] In names where filius is implied, it is sometimes difficult to know whether the name refers to a Dugald who is actually a son of Nigel, or if he is just a Dugald who is descended in several generations from a Nigel (Wikipedia, s.v. "Scottish surnames," citing Black 1946).These two seals could serve, for instance, as the seals of Malcolm Wallace and John Wallace, of the same line as William Wallace, or for any other fitz Alan descendant.
The DNA Evidence
There are many possibilities via DNA research for clarification of historical data. Each male descendant carries the same or very similar Y chromosome markers as his forefathers, leaving a verifiable trail of heredity.
Testing of contemporary Wallace Y-DNA is now illuminating both Wallace and Stewart origins. There are multiple lines of Wallaces identified, as well as multiple Stewart lines.
While there is no record of a son for William Wallace, the Y-DNA he carried would have been preserved in the male lines of the Wallaces of Craigie. In Family Tree DNA’s Wallis-Wallace Y-DNA Project, some descendants of Matthew Wallace, of the Craigie Wallace line, have been found to be in Haplogroup I Subclade M170 P215.
In Family Tree DNA’s Stewart-Stuart Y-DNA Project, Stewart Y-DNA can be quite varied, but there are numerous identified in Haplogroup I, some defined in subclade M170, and one defined as P215, close in many ways to that of Matthew Wallace. While this last is not definitive proof of a DNA link between William Wallace and the fitz Alans and Stewarts, it opens a door to the option that a blood relationship existed between them.
Blind Harry’s Poem
This link to the Stewarts may shine a light on Blind Harry’s puzzling lines describing William Wallace’s heritage:
The secund O he was of gud Wallace;
The quhilk Wallas fully worthely at wrocht,
Quhen Waltyr hyr of Waillis fra Warayn socht.
Quha likis till haif mar knawlage in that part,
Go reid the rycht lyne of the fyrst Stewart (Jamieson 1869, 2, 30-34).
The second, oh, he was of good Wallace;Moir (1889) suggested from his reading of this that “[t]he Wallaces seem to have been associated with the Stewarts, and may probably have come to Scotland with them” (xxv-xxvi).
That which Wallas fully worthily had wrought,/
When Walter, heir of Waillis, from Warren sought./
Who likes to have more knowledge in that part,/
Go read the right line of the first Stewart (Author’s translation and emphasis).
While this last line and its rycht lyne may refer to the history of the Stewarts, this could also indicate that the ancestral line of the fitz Alans would be a source of more knowledge about William Wallace’s heritage. Blind Harry celebrated William Wallace’s heritage many years after the fact. While Harry’s epic poem is critiqued for its errors, it holds substantial kernels of truth that allow a detailed view of the times. It cannot be completely discounted and dismissed. Harry is specific in his introductory lines to describe the patriot’s descent, “Of hale lynage, and trew line of Scotland” (Jamieson 1869, 2).
I argue that the door needs to be open in this regard and that my alternative reading of this challenges Duncan’s and others’ assurances of historical certainty in the case of William Wallace’s family.
William Wallace’s Birthplace
From my questions over Duncan’s interpretations of William Wallace’s seal, a corollary challenge also arises regarding the birthplace of William Wallace, with the usual choices debated to be Elderslie in Renfrewshire or Ellerslie in Ayrshire.
This issue had also been thrown into premature conclusion by the reading of the Wallace seal as “son of Alan.” Since the purported father, Alan Wallace, on the Ragman Roll in 1296, was of Ayrshire, the resultant argument was that William Wallace would have been born in Ayrshire if he were the son of Alan. A specific place has been also been claimed, Ellerslie in Ayrshire.
Multiple authors have rushed to conclusions on this point. James Mackay (1995) posits that the “most glaring of all is the mistaken assumption that Wallace was born in Renfrewshire.” Andrew Fisher, author of William Wallace (2002), writes that “[t]he evidence is indisputable,” and “[i]f the Alan of the Ragman Roll was indeed the patriot’s father, then the current argument in favour of an Ayrshire rather than a Renfrewshire origin for Wallace can be said to be settled.”
It is obviously not settled nor indisputable, as I am here disputing it. As discussed above, the argument about his being the son of Alan is now tenuous, and to extend that argument further to decide birthplace on that basis is extremely so.
Both spelling and transcription are subject to error in old documents such as these referenced here. Ellerslie is merely a different spelling of Elderslie, both meaning “a field of elder trees.” A fair assertion is that Blind Harry’s Elrislie is also a phonetic equivalent to the names of both Elderslie and Ellerslie and means the same.
Names are also subject to change over time. Both Elrisle and Ellerslie appear to contain later elisions, skipping the hard d of the original derivation, “of elders.”
David Ross and Duncan Fenton make careful and substantial arguments for Elderslie, Renfrewshire and against Ellerslie, Ayrshire (http://www.thesocietyofwilliamwallace.com/williamwallaceofelderslie.htm). Among their arguments, the old ruins of the Wallace family’s fortified dwelling at Elderslie stand “close to Paisley in Renfrewshire.” Craigie in Ayrshire was not acquired by the Wallaces before 1371, and thus could not have been William Wallace’s birthplace. The two famous trees associated with William Wallace were at the Elderslie, Renfrewshire site; the Wallace Yew remains there still. The house of Ellerslie in Ayrshire was unknown on maps before 1835. There is no evidence that the Wallace family ever owned the property where the Ellerslie house stands, and it may have only been named in William Wallace’s memory.
It would not be the only time that Elderslie has been preserved in memory. There is an Ellerslie in Auckland, New Zealand and one in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In the United States, there are Ellerslies in Georgia, Missouri, Alabama, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and Kentucky. At least three of these locations are said to be named, since the mid-1700s, by Wallaces descended from these lines: “The name Ellerslie was adopted in this country by the Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey Wallaces, instead of Elderslie” (Reader 1902, 11).
Both the Elderslie lands “in Renfrewshire” and the Auchinbothie lands in Ayrshire came to Sir Malcolm Wallace as the younger son of Adam Wallace. If indeed the Elderslie lands were delivered into Malcolm Wallace’s hands before his wife was delivered of her second child—and if the family wasn’t in residence at Auchenbothie or somewhere else—then it is probable that William Wallace was born at Elderslie in Renfrewshire, as the legends have it. There is a traditional attachment to this place that does not persist for Riccarton—the first Wallace holding in Scotland—or Auchinbothie.
However, absent any conclusive evidence, this challenge raised about William Wallace's birthplace being Ellerslie in Ayrshire stands unproven and perhaps should be considered moot.
The obscure distances of the past have allowed for mystery to envelop Sir William Wallace’s memory among us. I expect that the future will shine more light on these contests over his heritage. May they be as worthy as he was.
References
Black, George Fraser. 1946. The Surnames of Scotland: Their Origin, Meaning, and History. New York: The New York Public Library.
Duncan, A. A. M. 2007. “William, Son of Alan Wallace: The Documents.” In Cowan, Edward J., ed. The Wallace Book. Edinburgh, Scotland: Berlinn Limited.
Fisher, Andrew. 2012. William Wallace. 2nd ed. Originally published in 1986. Edinburgh, Scotland: Birlinn Limited.
Grant, Alexander. 2007. “Bravehearts and Coronets: Images of William Wallace and the Scottish Nobility.” In Cowan, Edward J., ed. The Wallace Book. Edinburgh, Scotland: Berlinn Limited.
Jamieson, John. 1869. Wallace; or, The Life and Acts of Sir William Wallace of Ellerslie. By Henry the Minstrel. Published from a Manuscript Dated M.CCCC.LXXXVIII [1488]. With Notes, and Preliminary Remarks. Maurice Ogle & Co., Glasgow.
Mackay, James. William Wallace: Brave Heart. Edinburgh, Scotland: Mainstream Publishing Company.
Moir, James, ed. 1889. The Actis and Deidis of the Illustere and Vailȝeand Campioun Schir William Wallace Knicht of Ellerslie, by Henry the Minstrel Commonly Known as Blind Harry. Edinburgh, Scotland: Printed for The Scottish Text Society by William Blackwood and Sons.
Reader, Francis Smith. 1902. Some Pioneers of Washington County, Pa.: A Family History. New Brighton, PA: Press of F. S. Reader & Son.
Rogers, Charles. 1889. The Book of Wallace. Vols. 1 and 2. Edinburgh, Scotland: Grampian Club.
