Origins

Origins of the Lendrem Family Name

Comyn, Lendrum, Lendrem

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The original family name was Comyn and the family history goes as far back as William the Conqueror’s half brother Robert de Comyn who appears in the roll at Battle Abbey.  He was appointed Earl of Northumberland in 1068 but died in battle at Durham in 1069.  He had two sons John and William Comyn.  John in turn had four children William, Richard, Odo and Ydonea.  William became a trusted confidante of King David I and was appointed Chancellor of Scotland.  He was awarded the title Earl of Buchan in 1210.  William married Matilda Urquhart and had three children Richard, Margaret and Walter.  Richard had a son John Comyn who married Mary Buchanan.  They had four sons William, John, Alexander and Robert.  The third son Alexander was Earl of Buchan from 1242-1289.  William died in battle but the second son John married and in turn had a son John ‘Red’ Comyn.  Upon the death of his uncle, John in turn was awarded the title Earl of Buchan which he held from 1289-1306.  Following the death of Alexander III of Scotland the throne was contested by Robert Bruce, John Balliol and John Comyn.  John Comyn pledged his support to John Balliol's claim.  Angered by this Robert Bruce murdered John Comyn at a meeting in a Greyfriars Church in Dumfries in 1306.  Bruce then outlawed the family and the name Comyn was banned in Scotland.  Many fled to England to become the Cummins but some stayed in Scotland changing their name to Lendrum in order to avoid persecution.  Lendrum was the name of the family estate near Turriff outside Aberdeen.  The name is from the Celtic ‘lon’ and ‘droma’ meaning ‘sacred place on (or of) the ridge’.  Meanwhile John’s eldest son John ‘Black’ Comyn fled to England and sought refuge with Edward I.  In 1314 he took up arms and fought alongside Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn. Unfortunately for the Lendrums Bruce and John Balliol prevailed. 

The first recorded spelling of the family name is that of Alexander Lendrome, dated February 27th 1634, who married a Barbara Reid at St. Nicholas's in Aberdeen.  The Lendrum family thrived in this north east corner of Scotland.  Two Lendrum brothers served as captains in the army of William of Orange and were awarded lands in County Fermanagh during the Plantation of Ulster.  The English Lendrems are descended from this Irish line.  A coat of arms, depicting three gold garbs, with three black wool packs on a silver chief, on a red shield, was granted to George Lendrum, Jamestown, County Fermanagh, grandson of George Lendrum, Moorfield, County Tyrone.  Following the failure of the potato crop in 1845 many of the family left for America but George and his school teacher son George Robert left for Durham, England in 1850.  They ended up In Barnard Castle where George Robert met the local mill owner’s daughter Jane Wigham they married and George Robert took a job in the mill.  From this time onwards the Lendrum name is reported as Lendrum or Lendrem until the 1891 census after which it was consistently reported in the anglicised form as Lendrem.