 |
 |
|
|
|
Product No.: |
|
|
Order options:
Cap Badge
Kilt pin
Plaid Brooch
Tie pin
Cuff links
Sgian Dubh
The Oliphants were a Norman family who first held lands in England around Northampton. The name appears on the 1296 Ragman Roll of Scottish nobles submitting to Edward I of England. In common with most of those forced to swear fealty to the English king, the Oliphants quickly took up the cause of Scottish independence, and defended Stirling Castle. Oliphant was captured at the fall of the great royal fortress and was sent to the Tower of London. He was subsequently released, and appears as one of the nobles appending their seals to the famous Declaration of Arbroath, asserting to the pope the historic independence of Scotland. The family received the lands of Gask in Perthshire which were erected into a barony. Sir John Oliphant was knighted by Robert II and his son, Sir Laurence of Aberdalgy, was created a Lord of Parliament by James II in 1458. He was ambassador to France in 1491 and later keeper of Edinburgh Castle. The fourth Lord Oliphant was a staunch supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots, and was a member of the inquiry which acquitted Lord Bothwell of the murder of Darnley, the queen’s second husband. He attended the queen’s wedding and fought for her at the Battle of Langside in 1568. The Oliphants were devoted to the Jacobite cause, and the ninth Lord fought at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, and was afterwards imprisoned. He joined with his cousin, Oliphant of Gask, in the rising of 1715. The tenth and last Lord Oliphant played an active role in the campaign of Bonnie Prince Charlie in the Forty-five, escaping first to Sweden and then to France after the defeat at Culloden. The principal seat of the family is now at Ardblair Castle near Blairgowrie in Perthshire, the home of a direct descendent of the first Lord Oliphant. |
|
