Let me share the fascinating history of your family, the Glendinning, passed down through generations. Your family takes its name from the ancient territory of Glendinning, which encompassed a significant portion of Teviotdale and Dumfries. In the reign of Alexander III, a charter was granted to Adam de Glendonwyn, bestowing part of the lands and baronies of Clifton and Merbottle in Roxburghshire. Adam de Glendonwyn staunchly supported Robert the Bruce and accompanied Sir James Douglas on his sacred journey to carry Bruce’s heart to the Holy Land. The connection with the esteemed House of Douglas remained strong, and Sir Adam’s son, Sir Simon, tragically fell in the battle between the Douglases and the Percys at Otterburn in 1388.

Sir Simon Glendinning, a favored figure of James II, saw his Borders land-holdings expand under the king’s patronage. The Glendinnings also held the hereditary position of baillies of Eskdale. In 1458, they acquired the barony of Parton in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbrightshire, which became the primary territorial designation of the main family. However, the Glendinning family faced hardships amid the religious and political conflicts that swept across Scotland in the early seventeenth century. In 1633, Glendinning of Kirkudbright, a respected divine of seventy-nine, devotedly serving the burgh magistrates of Kirkudbright, was deposed due to his Presbyterian beliefs under the orders of Charles I’s commissioners. William Glendinning, the Provost of Kirkudbright, sat as a Commissioner in the Scottish Parliament opposing the imposition of Episcopacy by the king in 1630. Yet, in 1644, John Glendinning, the eleventh Baron of Parton, joined Montrose in his campaign against the opponents of Charles I during the War of the Three Kingdoms. As a consequence, he was later branded a traitor and forced into exile.

Some members of the Glendinning family settled in Ulster as part of the Jacobean Plantation in the early seventeenth century. William Glendinning, who lived in the mid-eighteenth century, married into the Beatty family and established a residence at Brackagh near Omagh. The family retained possession of the property for 150 years. William’s son, also named William, chose not to take sides in the United Irishmen’s Rebellion of 1798. Consequently, his house became a place where individuals from both sides entrusted their money for safekeeping, earning it the moniker “Billy Glendinning’s Bank.” Several descendants in Ireland became Presbyterian elders and ministers. One notable recent bearer of the Glendinning name was Professor Nigel Glendinning, a renowned scholar specializing in eighteenth-century Spanish Art.