Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
Buchan Coat of Arms / Buchan Family CrestThe first people in Scotland to acquire fixed surnames were the nobles and great landowners, who called themselves, or were called by others, after the lands they possessed. Surnames originating in this way are known as territorial. Formerly lords of baronies and regalities and farmers were inclined to magnify their importance and to sign letters and documents with the names of their baronies and farms instead of their Christian names and surnames. The abuse of this style of speech and writing was carried so far that an Act was passed in the Scots parliament in 1672 forbidding the practice and declaring that it was allowed only to noblemen and bishops to subscribe by their titles. BUCHAN was of local origin, from the district of the name in Aberdeenshire. Local names usually denoted where a man held his land, and indicated where he actually lived. Early records of the name mention Ricardus de Buchan, 1207, Aberdeen. William de Buchan held land in Aberdeen in 1281. Thomas de Boghan was documented in Edinburgh in 1296. Walter de Bochane of Bucchan, canon of St. Magnus cathedral in 1369. William de Buchane, was burgess of Aberdeen in 1436. The Buchans of Auchmacoy (Logie-Buchan parish) were one of the principal families of the name. Androw Buchan of Achmakwy was on the assize for settling the boundaries between the lands of St. Peter's Hospital in Old Aberdeen and the neighbouring property of the Cottoun in 1446. A notable member of the name was William Buchan (1729-1805) the Scottish physician, born in Ancrum, Roxburghshire. He was the author of the popular 'Domestic Medicine' or 'The Family Physician' (1769). Elspeth Buchan (1738-91) was the Scottish religious, the wife of a potter. In 1748 she founded at Irvine a fanatical sect, the Buchanites, announcing herself to her 46 followers as the Woman of Revelations. The lion depicted in the arms is the noblest of all wild beasts which is made to be the emblem of strength and valour, and is on that account the most frequently borne in Coat-Armour. |
