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From: "David Ewing" <>
Subject: [DNA-R1B1C7] R1b1c7 in Scotland
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 09:00:55 -0700


We believe that "Ewing" was first used as a surname in the eleventh century
or so in the Lowlands of Scotland by some of the people who had descended
from the Dumnonii, Brythonic Celts of Alt Clud, later known as Strathclyde.
There is some reason to think that some of the first Ewings may have
been centered around the southern end of Loch Lomand in the northern part of
that region, on the north side of the Firth of Clyde. This area was taken
over by Gaels in the eleventh century and came to be known as Lennox. One
would assume the Gaels who moved in were Dal Riata, and came into Lennox
from Argyll, but I've just read something that makes me think things are
more complicated.

Let me quote from Early History and Languages of West Dunbartonshire, an
article by Simon Taylor, which appeared in Changing Identities, Ancient
Roots, the History of West Dunbartonshire from Earliest Times, edited by Ian
Brown and published by Edinburgh University Press, 2006:

As for Lennox, our earliest reference comes from the early
twelfth-century Irish text about the wars between the Irish gaels and the
Norse, usually referred to in English as 'The War of the Gaedhil with the
Gaill.' Its heroic central character is the famous Irish king Brian Boruma,
who died in battle in 1014. However, it is more about the politics of
Ireland and the Irish Sea world at the time it was written, about a century
later, than about the time of Brian. It was commissioned by Brian's
great-grandson Muirchertach son of Tairdelbhach, who dominated Irish Sea
politics for many years before his death in 1119. One passage purports to
describe Brian's levying tribute and hostages in 1005 from peoples
surrounding the Irish Sea, that is 'from the English and Britons, and the
people of Lennox, that is [Lennox] of Scotland, and Argyll.' Tis suggests
that Lennox fell within Muirchertach's sphere of lordship, or at least
within his sphere of ambition, around the year 1100.
It might be to this obscure period in Lennox's history that the roots
can be traced of the mormaers or early earls of Lennox, as they are
portrayed in a poem by the Irish poet Muireadhach O Dalaigh, written around
1200. This poem is written in Gaelic, and addressed to Alun or Alwyn son of
Muireadhach, the first recorded mormaer or earl of Lennox, who died c. 1200.
It is one of two poems by this poet that were addressed to Lennox patrons...
Both show not only that the language and culture of the ruling kin of Lennox
was still thoroughly Gaelic in the early thirteenth century, but also that
this ruling kin were proud to see their origins in terms of the mythological
history of Ireland, more precisely of Munster (south-west Ireland). The
family of Ui Briain (to whom Muirchertach son of Tairdelbhach belonged)
originated in Munster, and these Munster connections of the earls of Lennox
celebrated in poetry around the year 1200 may be an echo of close Ui Briain
involvement a century earlier.

It sounds as though there certainly may have been enough contact with Irish
Gaels to spread a little DNA around not just with Irish from Ulster, but
also some from Munster.

David Ewing

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