"GREER
FAMILY HISTORY In order to understand who we are, we need to know the
history of our beginnings. A good place to start is when the Romans
invaded the British Isles in the year 43 A.D. They dominated the southern
portion of the Isles but never got far into Scotland. The main reason for
this failure was the warrior tribes of the north, the Picts and Scots,
who inhabited that part of the world. The Picts got their name from the Romans
because of their many tattoos. In the year 120 A.D. the Romans decided to
build a defensive wall across their Empire Britannia. The wall was named
after the Roman governor Hadrian (portions of this wall are still in
existence today). The Romans crossed the wall several times to win the
north but never accomplished much. After failing to beat the barbarians
over the years and along with civil strife at home they finally left the barbarians
alone after 150 A.D. In the year 410 A.D. the shrinkage of the Roman Empire
forced them to leave altogether.
In about 830 A.D. the Scots and Picts were
united under King Alpin. After his death in 843 A.D. his sons Kenneth
then Donald ruled until the year 859 A.D. Alpin also had two other sons Gregor
and Achaius. Our family comes from the Gregor line. After two generations
and grandsons named Gregor, the MacGregor Line had begun. The MacGregors
lost their land first to the Campbells, then the British Lords who took
over. A rogue, MacGregor by the name of Rob Roy, fought back by promising
the Lords he would burn two homes for every home they burned. He ran an
insurance protection business for cattle owners by protecting their herds
for a fee. If the owners failed to pay he took the cattle and sold them. The
MacGregor's fight against the Crown caused their name to be proscribed,
which meant the name was no longer allowed or recognized. The name was
proscribed from April 1603 until 1661, but due to the continuing fight with
the Campbells, the Earl of Stair (a Campbell nobleman) again imposed a
severe proscription in 1693 which was not lifted until the year 1775 when
once again the name of Macgregor was allowed to be used.
On 17 May 1410 long before the
proscription was enforced Gilbert Gregorson, the Laird of Lag took the name
Grierson. In 1653, a descendent, Henry Greer, moved to County Tyrone, Ireland
and the name was changed to Greer… Keep reading here…
1 comment:
What a wonderful resource! My name is Gayle Greer Clutter & I am an avid international Greer researcher. I would like to let you know of some new Greer research that was recently published. In 2012, "A Short Account of the Grierson Family" by Robert Grierson was edited & re-released. It addresses the claim that Griersons are descended from MacGregors. There is a discussion in a section titled "The MacGregor Descent" and the "Afterword" states: "The tradition that the Griersons are descended from the MacGregors is repeated in most of the books that touch on Galloway or its history, but it never seems to have taken a special hold on the members of the family that remained in Scotland. They knew its undoubted position as one of the old feudal families, and this was of more interest to them. Those who went to Ireland and America seem to have lost touch with the real history of the family as feudal barons, and have thought themselves as much MacGregors as Griersons; over looking the fact that this part of their history may
or may not be true."
https://archive.org/stream/shortaccountofgr00grie/shortaccountofgr00grie_djvu.txt
My email address is gclutter@tampabay.rr.com if you would like to contact me for more information.
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