Ogilvy

Ogilvy is a surname derived from a barony in the parish of Glammis, Forfarshire, which, about 1163, was bestowed by William the Lion on Gilbert, ancestor of the noble family of Airlie, and, in consequence, he assumed the name of Ogilvy. He is said to have been the third son of Gillibrede, or Gilchrist, maormor of Angus. In the charters of the second and third Alexanders there are witnesses of the name of Ogilvy. Sir Patrick de Ogilvy adhered steadily to Robert the Bruce, who bestowed upon him the lands of Kettins in Forfarshire. The barony of Cortachy was acquired by the family in 1369–70. The “gracious gude Lord Ogilvy,” as he is styled in the old ballad of the battle of Harlaw, in which battle the principal barons of Forfarshire fought on the side of the Earl of Mar, who commanded the royal army, was the son of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Auchterhouse, slain in a clan battle with the Robertsons in 1394.

“Of the best amang them was

The gracious gude Lord Ogilvy,

The sheriff-principal of Angus,

Renownit for truth and equity—

For faith and magnanimity

He had few fellows in the field,

Yet fell by fatal destiny,

For he nae ways wad grant to yield.”

His eldest son, George Ogilvy, was also slain.

Lord Ogilvy, the first title of Airlie family, was conferred by James IV., in 1491, on Sir John Ogilvy of Lintrathen.

James, seventh Lord Ogilvy, was created Earl of Airlie, in 1639.

The title of Lord Ogilvy of Deskford was conferred, 4th October 1616, on Sir Walter Ogilvy of Deskford and Findlater, whose son, James, second Lord Deskford, was created Earl of Findlater, 20th February 1638. He was descended from Sir Walter Ogilvy of Auchleven, second son of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Lintrathen, high treasurer of Scotland.

The clan Ogilvy are called “the Siol Gilchrist,” the race or posterity of Gilchrist. In 1526, the Mackintoshes invaded the country of the Ogilvies, and massacred no fewer than 24 gentlemen of the name. A feud between the Campbells and the Ogilvies subsisted for several centuries. In Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials we find James Ogilvy complaining, on 21st October, 1591, that a body of Argyll’s men had attacked him when residing peaceably in Glenisla, in Forfarshire, which anciently belonged to the Ogilvies, killed several of his people, ravaged the country, and compelled him and his lady to flee for their lives.

The Ogilvies had their revenge in 1645, for the burning of “the bonnie house of Airlie,” and the other strongholds of the Ogilvies, when Castle Campbell, near Dollar, or the Castle of Gloom, its original name, was destroyed by them and the Macleans, and the territory of the Marquis of Argyll was overrun by the fierce and ruthless clan that followed Montrose, and carried fire and sword throughout the whole estates of the clan Campbell.