'The Ged's land-ees is fair to see
With valleys broad and rivers three
Where Eske and Annan, and the Nith
Flow softly to the Solway Frith.'

(Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes, The Forging of a Family, Geddes.
London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 19211, p. 12.)

Origins of the Geddes

Here in the upper Nith Valley, the Scottish Geddeses - chidren of Niall -  made their first home in Caledonia. So wrote The Right Honorable Auckland Campbell "Baron" Geddes in his book, The Forging of a Family, Geddes. In his painstaking research into the earliest beginnings of the 'family', Sir Auckland has found references as early as the fourth century. He writes, "...these people of mixed racial origin were found in Hibernia, now called Ulster." The fathers were raiding Northmen; the mothers, indigenous Hiberians of dark Iberian stock or Romano-British girls captured on the coasts of Britain or Gaul. Having organized themselves into seven septs, each took the name of some animal or thing they especially admired. One group chose the pike, the most ferocious of fresh water fish. In Gaelic a "ged" is a pike.

These warrior pirates, under their leader Niall, 'High King of Hibernia', lotted Gaul and Britain. Strategic and safe north of Hadrian's Wall they established settlements. One such settlement was in the Nith Valley.

In time the whole of Southwest Scotland was peopled by Scots and that district was called Galloway, meaning 'Land of immigrant strangers'. 

Other Scots moved into Ayshire, up the Clyde Valley, occupying Cantyre, and spreading out into Dumbarton and Argyll. In time they consolidated themselves into the first Scottish kingdom in Caledonia, called Dalriada. Before long, one group of Scots in the Clyde Valley, Cumbria, pushed to the sea and cut the Geds of Galloway from their kinsmen in Scotia, north of the Clyde estuary. This forced isolation influenced the Geds into a way of life which was to characterized them throughout the Middle Ages. The sea was forsaken and the men of Moss Hags, 'rode, reived and raped with impartiality to acquire cattle, sheep and horses.' This highly mobile 'light cavalry' raided into the forests, marshes and moors of northern England as well as Scotland.

For many generations, perhaps thirty, Sir Auckland states, the Geddes' stock produced no man of note. They remained 'reivers, and cattle lifters until neither Scotland or England could tolerate them any longer, and they were dispersed. One small group took to the sea and escaped to the far north of Scotland, there offering their swords and services to the Clan Mackay. Others fled to England and changed their name to Pike, Luce or Lucy. Some settled down in the lowlands of Scotland and became respectable, appearing later in the Scottish history.

"None of the scattered Geds took any material wealth with them, only the richness of their traditions. They were Scots of the original Scottish stock, the Children of Niall and their badge was the free swimming Pike." (Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes, The Forging of a Family, Geddes.)

The wide dispersal of the Geddeses caused the name to be recorded over the length and breadth of Scotland. Through the centuries references to Geddes' lands and houses, hills and fairs, chapels and friars have found their way into the proud history of Scotland.

Dr. George Black, in his research into the history and origins of Scottish surnames, mentions the name of Geddes as "having territorial origins from the Lands of Geddes in Nairnshire, which were in the possession of the family of Rose before they obtained Kilravock." (Black, George F. The Surnames of Scotland. New York: Library of Congress #a47-1716, 1962, p.293.) The date of 1230 is given by still another historian as the time Rose settled at Geddes. By 1293, the Roses had become proprietors of the neighboring lands of Kilravock and Geddes. (Rampini, Charles L.L.D., History of Moray and Nairn, Edinburg: 1923, p. 257.)

An ancient hill called Geddes can be found in Nairnshire. That and many other interesting references to the Geddes' "fortunes and connections" are given in a history of Nairnshire. Some excerpts from that book follow. (Bain, George, History of Nairnshire, Nairn: Telegraph Office Printing, 1893.)

Although the Geddes stock had been widely scattered over the British Isles, a handful of Geds managed to stay in the old homeland near Solway Firth. Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes writes that "in the second quarter of the 16th century they had settled sown and begun to be country gentlemen, built houses, and accepted grants of arms." He quotes a description by Sir Walter Scott in Preface to Redgauntlet, of a visit to the house and grounds of "Sharing-Knowe", a place where garnered loot had been portioned out by the Geds of other days. The current owner was a Quaker, Joshua Geddes, who was ashamed of the past and had renamed the house Mount Sharon. 

In Nairnshire also the Geddes name is found in early charters and linked with the Roses of Kilravock through marriages, lands, and titles. The Geddeses proudly took their place in the Rose Clan and wore the tartan and held the motto "Constant and True" in battle as well as in affairs of state. (Adam, Frank, The Clans, Septs and Regiments of the Scottish Highlands, Edinburgh and London: W. & A. K. Johnston, 1952, p. 284.)

The Famous Jenny Geddes

During the centuries which followed, there were several Gedesses who made contributions to their country through service to the church and state. Some rose to high positions. But the only one who is best remembered and held in the highest esteem is Jenny Geddes, "the brave Scotch woman who struck the first blow in the struggle for religious freedom" (these words appear on the Memorial Brass Plaque in St. Giles Cathedral.) There are many accounts of the events in St. Giles' Cathedral where Jenny threw her cutty stool at the Dean's head protesting the reading of the Episcopal Common Prayer Book. One record reads:

"Dr. Hanna, the Dean of Edinburg, began to read the prayers from the hated service book. The scene which ensued is well known. It was caused chiefly by a number of serving maids, who were keeping the seats which their mistresses, who cared nothing for the prayers, intended to occupy when the time for the sermon came. The disorder was put down by the Magistrates, who turned the unruly out of the building and locked the doors." (Metcalfe, W. M., A History of the County of Renfrew, Alex Gardener Printer, Paisely: 1905, p. 295.)

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland preserves in its museum Jenny's formidable weapon, the cutty stool. Sir Daniel Wilson, in his book, Memorials of Edinburg in the Olden Time, shows a picture of the stool with this caption: '"De'il colic the wame o'thee," she cried, hurling the stool on which she sat, "out, thou false thief, dost thou say mass at my lug?"'

Twenty-three years after these events, Jenny Geddes was still revered and referred to as "Princess of the Tron." There was a great celebration at the Restoration (1660) where Jenny threw her "creels, baskets, and cutty stool" into the great bonfire. (Whitley, Very Rev. H.C., The Pictorial History of St. Giles' Cathedral, London: Pitkin Pictorials Ltd., 1971.)

The above information courtesy of Barbara Geddes Price, 1973.

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