The Calhoun name originated in Scotland, where it was typically spelled Colquhoun and pronounced “ca-HOON”. As the family spread to Ireland, America, and elsewhere, the name Colquhoun was shortened to Colhoun, Calhoun, Calhoon, Cahoon, and other forms. In America, the most common spelling is Calhoun, and so being an American myself, that is how I will refer to the family generally in this blog.
The surname is derived from a place name: the lands of Colquhoun (a Gaelic word of uncertain origin but often translated as “narrow woods”), located in the parish of Old Kilpatrick in Dunbartonshire, Scotland. As in many parts of Europe, the earliest Scottish surnames were adopted by wealthy landowners who often called themselves after lands in their possession. The surname Colquhoun was of this type, first adopted by a man formerly called Humphrey of Kilpatrick. After receiving the lands of Colquhoun by charter from Maldouen, third Earl of Lennox, he afterwards re-styled himself after his new holdings, Humphrey of Colquhoun.
The charter was translated from the original Latin to English by Sir William Fraser, who then included it in his book on the Colquhoun family. For some reason, Fraser opted not to translate Humphrey’s name from the Latinized version, Umfridus de Kilpatrick, as it was written in the charter. As a result, many people still refer to Humphrey as “Umfridus” even though that’s almost certainly not how he would have referred to himself. Fraser’s translation of the charter reads:
To all his friends, and men present and to come, Maldouen Earl of Lennox, greeting: Let all men present and to come know, that I have given, granted, and by this present charter have confirmed to Umfridus de Kilpatrick the whole land of Colquhoun, by its right divisions, with all its just pertinents, to be held by him and his heirs of me and my heirs in feu and heritage, freely, quietly, fully and honorably, in wood and plain, in meadows and pastures, in pools and mills, in fishings, and in all other easements belonging to the foresaid lands; he and his heirs rendering therefrom to me and my heirs the third part of the service of one knight for every service and exaction; before these witnesses, Sir Walter, Steward of our Lord the King, Malcolm my son, Gillaspec Galbraith, Hamelyn, Malcolm, Duncan, my brothers, Malcolm Beg, Doven my chamberlain, Fergus Makcomyng, and many others.
Fraser vol. 1, pp. 4-5. Original Latin text in Fraser vol. 2, p. 272.
Several important and interesting facts about the family can be determined from this one document.
First, the Calhoun family originated in the first half of the 13th century. No date appears in the charter, but Maldouen ruled as earl from roughly 1220 to 1250, and the first witness, Walter Stewart, third High Steward of Scotland, died in 1246, so the charter must have been written between about 1220 and 1246. Fraser estimates that Humphrey lived about 1190-1260, with the charter written about 1240, and these seem to me like reasonable guesses.
Second, the Calhoun family originated with a name change from Kilpatrick to Colquhoun. According to Fraser, little or nothing is known about Humphrey of Kilpatrick’s ancestry (see Fraser vol. 1, pp. 3-4). However, if Humphrey had brothers or cousins who retained the name Kilpatrick, the closest relatives of the earliest Colquhouns would have been Kilpatricks or Kirkpatricks. (Kilpatrick and Kirkpatrick are two forms of the same name, both meaning “church of St. Patrick”. Kilpatrick is the Gaelic cognate, and Kirkpatrick is the Scots cognate.) This will be important when we consider genealogical genetic testing results in a future post.
Third, the Colquhoun surname probably originated only once, at least in medieval times, and that is with the land charter above. Like those of many countries, Scottish surnames could be derived from a father’s given name, from an occupation, from a nickname pertaining to a personal characteristic, from a topographical feature of the place where a person lived, or from a specific place name. Names derived from a father’s given name (like Williamson or MacDonald) often were adopted by many people independently, since there were many people with the same given name (like William or Donald). The same is true of occupations and personal characteristics, which can be shared by many people, or topographical features (brooks, trees, mountains, etc.), which can be found in many places. Even some place names are not unique, again leading to independent adoption of the same name. (For example, there are several churches in Scotland dedicated to St. Patrick, meaning there could have been several unrelated families by the name of Kilpatrick or Kirkpatrick.) However, the place name Colquhoun is, as far as I know, unique to the lands in Dunbartonshire that were granted to Humphrey. As a consequence, the family name Colquhoun is probably unique to Humphrey’s descendants.
Fourth, the founder of the family, Humphrey, was probably of Anglo-Norman, Flemish, or French ancestry. Why? For one thing, the given name Humphrey was not Scots or Gaelic in origin, but rather was introduced to Britain by the Normans in the 11th century. For another, Humphrey of Kilpatrick appears to have been a knight, given that he was to render knight service to the earl as part of the deal for the land. Knights in Scotland at that time were typically of Anglo-Norman or French extraction.
King David I of Scotland introduced sweeping reforms during his reign (1124-1153), the so-called Davidian Revolution. He remade the Scottish government over in the style of Anglo-Norman England, and in doing so introduced French language and customs to the Scottish court. He also introduced feudalism to Scotland. However, instead of building the feudal hierarchy around Gaelic clan chiefs, whose primary loyalties were to kin, he instead imported French, Flemish, and Anglo-Norman knights as a new feudal class, loyal to himself. Humphrey of Kilpatrick was probably a descendant of one of these imported knights.
The Colquhouns as a Scottish Clan
The clans of medieval Scotland were socio-political structures that developed in the heavily Gaelic Highlands. Each clan was associated with a specific territory and named for the dominant family in that territory, the head of which was known as the chief of the clan. From a genealogical perspective, it is important to note that membership in a clan was based on pledged loyalty to the dominant family and not necessarily on blood relationship to it. To wit, starting in the 15th century, when commoners in Scotland began to adopt surnames, tenant farmers and other residents of a clan’s territory often took the surname of the clan chief, even when not related to him. (See here for an excellent discussion of clans.)
How do the Colquhouns fit with this traditional clan model? The Colquhoun family’s medieval possessions, located in Old Kilpatrick and near Luss and Loch Lomond, are situated virtually on top of the Highland Boundary Fault, and so the Colquhouns are sometimes described as Highlanders and other times as Lowlanders. If Humphrey of Kilpatrick, as I argue, was of Flemish or Norman extraction, most probably, he neither spoke Gaelic nor followed Gaelic customs. However, his Colquhoun descendants likely became an admixture of different ethnicities through intermarriage with Gaels and other groups. In doing so, the family evolved from its foreign, feudal origin to become a recognized Scottish clan despite being neither definitively Highlanders nor purely Gaelic.
At the risk of getting ahead of myself, genetic genealogical data suggests that most Calhouns today are the literal descendants of Humphrey of Kilpatrick. Although I cannot rule it out entirely, I see little evidence of widespread adoption of the Colquhoun name by unrelated “commoners” in the clan’s territory in the 15th century. Why this was the case, I don’t know. Could it be due to the family’s non-Gaelic origins, or that this practice was less common near the border with the Lowlands? I intend to devote upcoming posts to the genetic results, but for now I leave it to others who know Scottish history better than I do to speculate.
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Special thanks to Paul Calhoun for critical reading of this post and helpful edits.
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© 2023 Brian Anton. All rights reserved.
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Genealogy of the Calhoun Family 
