Over the years there has been some speculation on the origins of the Carruthers name and in fact the Chiefly line. This included interestingly some debate during the tour to Carruthers sites during the gathering. However, our current research has shown us that what we now believe is in fact the definitive origins of the Carruthers name.
This puts to bed any misconceptions of a Norman, Norse or Gaelic/Irish origin or in fact any of those blood lines, but rather that the evidence clearly shows that we are an ancient Scottish Border name from Annandale, nothing more and more importantly, nothing less.
What the facts tell us is that like many other Scottish border names, Carruthers is a topographical name taken from the lands of Carruthers. These lands took their name from an ancient Brythonic/Celtic fort called Caer Rydderch, where Caer means fort and Rydderch a persons name.
To better understand the Celtic tribes on the island of Britain, the Celts have been divided into two main streams based on their pronunciation of the language they used. These were the Q Celts who inhabited the island of Ireland/Hibernia ie the Gaels, and the P Celts who inhabited the length and breadth of the island of Britain/Britannia to include Caledonia. Britannia itself was split into 5 regions; Britannia Prima, Britannia Secunda, Flavia Caesariensis, Maxima Caesariensis and the lands between Hadrian’s Wall and Antonine’s Wall were called Valentia. It is in the latter part of Britannia that the Selgovae inhabited and it is on their lands that Caer Rydderch was located. The ground works for the Caer can still be walked up on Birrens Hill. They sit above Carruthers farm with a back drop of Carruthers Fell. It has been suggested that the Caer was on the fell but this is inaccurate and is in fact on Birrens Hill.
But how do we translate Caer Rydderch into the surname Carruthers. In the ancient Cumbric dialect of the P Celtic language, of which the closest modern language is modern Welsh, Rydderch is pronounced as Ruthers, and combined with Caer, meaning Fort, it becomes Carruthers.
In fact standing on the Hill and looking over the farm, laid before you is the ancient parish of Carruthers. It is from these lands that we take our name. What is also quite interesting, due to the dating of the fort groundworks which are deemed to be in and around 200AD, is that ‘our’ Rydderch which was a common enough name during that period, was not taken from Rydderch Hael (560-614 AD) the king of Strathclyde. As you can see there is around a 300-400 year difference and as such Caer Rydderch was the home of a local war-chief of the Celtic Selgovae tribe who inhabited the area at the time.
Roman Fort or Celtic Settlement?
Some have confused that the site on Birrens Hill as being the site of a Roman Fort called Blatobulgium and not a Celtic settlement and therefore not the site of Caer Rydderch.
The confusion comes because the Roman fort sits in an area called Birrens, just south of the hamlet/village of Middlebie and 2 miles (3.2 km) east of Ecclefechan from which the parish took its name, the Roman fort still sits on old Carruthers family lands, but is not the origin of our name.
After the reformation the parishes of Carruthers and Pennersaughs/ Pennersax were conjoined with Middlebie in 1609, as it was the seat of the Presbytery. This was maintained until 1743 when it was changed and Middlebie parish now sits in the Presbetary of Annandale and Eskdale. What is important to us is the village and lands of Waterbeck, on which the Carruthers farm sits, still comes under this designation as part of the ancient parish of Carruthers explained above.
So what was the Roman Fort situated at Birrens?
This fort formed the Roman terminus and was functional from AD 138-161. It was included in the Antoinine Intinary of the late 2nd century and was built in part, by the 20th and 6th Legions. Blatobulgium was the first Roman fort in Scotland being an outpost of Hadrians wall on what was at the time, the main route into the country.
The Caer/settlement on Birrens hill is of course, as previously described, not to be confused with the Roman fort at Birrens with the difference in sites clearly shown on the map.
Chiefly Line
Accepting that the concept of Scottish surnames were only introduced with the invitation of Norman Lords into Scotland during the reign of David I (1084-1153) the use of surnames were influenced by their arrival. The Normans brought with them a socital
Although our DNA research team has traced our Chiefly line arriving in Scotland as far back as 500 BC, the first documented evidence of the name Carruthers being used was not until the reign of Alexander II (1214-1249). William de Carruthers, de meaning ‘of’ the land of Carruthers i.e the ‘owner’, gave a donation to Newbattle Abbey, which sits south east of Edinburgh and is 72 miles away from his lands, around 6 days travel there and back.
Interestingly the snp of William has been located by our research team, headed by Steve Carruthers Colburn, and it is from here the Chiefly line is taken both genetically and genealogically, although it is only the latter, supported by documented evidence, that is considered valid in Scots law.
With this type of evidence, there is no doubt, whether following the genetic line or genealogiocally documented line of our chiefs, that there are no paternal links which would suggest any Norman, Viking (a profession not an ethnic group) or Gaelic/Irish involvement in that family line.
The evidence that we have suggests that the Chiefs line began with the first documented use of Carruthers, William great-grandfather of Thomas 1st of Mouswald and continued with that branch until the Mouswald line became extinct and the Holmains branch (senior cadets) took over where it remains to this day. The proginitor of Holmains was John, younger brother of Thomas of Mouswald.
Our Chief therefore traces his documented line back to William, and was confirmed by the Lord Lyon as such in 2019, and inaugurated in Annan, Dumfriesshire with oaths from and to the clan in 2014. The inauguration was represented by Carruthers from Australia, Africa, Canada, Europe, and as well as Carruthers local to Annan, from other parts of Scotland and the rest of the UK.
Carruthers Lines not of the Chief.
As we stated earlier, Carruthers is a topographical name and as such it does not come from a single male source ie patronymic. As well as the Chiefly line carrying the name and our current Chief is recognised as 22nd of that line, there are many who are not of that line. Progressively those who lived or worked on the lands of Carruthers also took the name as it became in vogue to use a surname as a form of identification. This would have been initiated partly stimulated by the judiciary to try to identify and account for individuals, and partly due to a need fpor individuals to attain protectinon in those violent times as part of a more powerful group.
Therefore, not all Carruthers are off the chiefly line, some are not but all have carried the name for 100’s of years, some have married in, some carry the name through adoption etc but they have all played their part in our familiy’s history.
So however and by whoever the name is carried, our origins of our name remains the same – Carruthers comes from the lands around the ancient Brythonic Fort of Caer Rydderch, in Annandale, south west Scotland.
In Summery
- The ruins/groundworks of Caer Rydderch are still visible on Birrens hill, sitting above and west of Carruthers farm, in Waterbeck.
- The ancient parish of Carruthers spreads out east from it.
- The timeline strongly suggests that ‘our’ Rydderch was not Rydderch Hael but a local Selgovae warlord.
- Bittens Hill is not to be confused with Birrens, where the ruins of a Roman Fort can be found.
- Nor to be confused with the hill fort of Burnswark(more on that later)
- The Carruthers Chiefly line, according to DNA research, arrived in what is now Scotland in 500BC, progressing to settle in Annandale where our records began.
- Carruthers as a name, like many other Scottish surnames, never existed before the 11th century.
- Carruthers were never of the Bruce family, who were of Norman descent.
- Carruthers, many still living on the lands and in the area to this day, can trace their patronymic (male) lineage back to that era.
- All of those carrying the name and derivations of the name, are recognised by the Chief as being part of his clan and family.
