Who are the Scottish Bartholomews?
Early Beginnings: Migration from Scandinavia into Scotland and beyond
Click on map to explore this interactive map tool by scaledinnovation.com on their website.
The early origins of the male line of Scottish Bartholomews is no longer a mystery. Thanks to recent results of Y-DNA genetic analysis of samples taken from a pool of family members, we now know the family came to Scotland directly from Scandinavia, probably as Viking settlers.
The map above suggests that the ancestral branch (Y-DNA subclade I-FTD91900) came into the Scottish Lowlands. Many living Bartholomews in North America today are descended from Bartholomews of Oxfordshire (Warborough/Burford). From their Y-DNA, they are also believed to have branched from the same Scottish/Scandinavian migrants. Also from the same group are a substantial number of Barclays (or Berkeleys) who migrated to the New World and colonies from Scotland and Ireland.
The first named Bartholomews
The Bartholomew surname is almost certainly a patronymic. In Scotland, the name became increasingly common in the Lothians and elsewhere nearby from the fourteenth century. The earliest recorded members of the family are as follows: (1) Bartholomew, provost of Edinburgh – appears as witness to an undated grant by William de Salle to Coldstream Abbey of the first half of the thirteenth century, possibly dating to the 1220s or 1230s.(2) William fitz Bartholomew, burgess of Edinburgh – appears as witness to an undated grant by Fergus de Comyn, lord of Gorgie, to the monks of Holywood Abbey, c.1260. (3) After this, land ownership or tenancy transaction records (sasines) thoughout the 1300's show a succession Bartholomew descendants settling mostly as farmers in the Central Lowlands: West Lothian, Linlithgowshire, Falkirk and Stirlingshire.
We identify three distinct major family groups of Bartholomews in Scotland, all related through Y-DNA (incl. Barclays, Bartlemans, Bartilmos and other variants). This website is focused on (A) The Bartholomews of Linlithgow but also includes sections and genealogical records on (B) The Bartholomews of Falkirk and Muiravonside and (C) The Bartholomews of Kirkliston and Duntarvie. A fourth small cluster (D) Bartholomews of Renfrewshire also exists since the 16th century. They have left the area and how they fit in historically with the other three groups is still uncertain.
The most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for all these different branches is not formally confirmed, but we believe Alexander Bartholomew of Caulicotts and Grugfut is the one.
Protocol books record the first land transfers to him in 1547 and again in 1564 involoving his son,On this website, you will discover that many people from each of these family branches emigrated in the 18th and 19th Centuries North America, Australia and New Zealand. Those migrations are presented on separte pages dedicated to each family branch.
