Re: Pringle (origins)
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In reply to:
Pringle
6/15/98
Eric
A tardy note in response to your query. My great grandfather emigrated to Manchester from the borders sometime in the latter half of the 19th century. At that time the name was extremely rare outside of the borders andUlster. I was always taught that the origin of the name was Danish, Prengle in its original form, one that is apparently still current in Scandinavia. The Vikings settled the NE coast of Britain during the 8th and 9th centuries, and the name dates from that time. The Pringles were never considered to be a true clan, nor did they have their own tartan. Various publications, such as "Clans and Tartans of Scotland" (circa 1930) list them as a sept of another clan (the Stewarts I think - but as the Stewarts were the Royal house this would be purely a political affiliation and not a blood relationship). They were (are?) a notedreiver family, ie. from about the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries their principle, if not sole, occupation consisted of looting and pillaging their neighbors. During the seventeenth century the power of the reiver families was finally broken by James I (of England, V(?) of Scotland) and a large numberof their members were transported to the nearest wilderness, which at that time was Ulster, hence the large number of Irish Pringles. The reivers were a very interesting, if never illustrious, people; virtually all of the early American frontiersmen, gunslingers, outlaws and general ne'er-do-wells, as well as Twain's famous fueding families, came from this stock. The definitive work on the subject is George MacDonald Fraser's "The Steel Bonnets"; the appendix in particular as it provides details of reivers hanged at Carlisle and Berwick, including a goodly number of Pringles.
Regards,
Regards,Julian Pringle.
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Re: Pringle (origins)