Clan Walkinshaw

Clan Story

The Walkinshaw Legacy

Clan Walkinshaw is a Renfrewshire family said to descend from a branch of the Douglases who served as judges in the earldom of Lennox; tradition holds that in 1235 an ancestor exchanged lands at Knock, and gifted property to Paisley Abbey, in return for the lands of Walkinshaw, from which the family took its name. Ownership of Walkinshaw later passed through an heiress to the Walkinshaws of Little Fulwood and then to the Walkinshaws of Garturk, who styled themselves 'of that Ilk'; cadet branches included Walkinshaw of Burrowfield and Scotston. The family's heraldic role as hereditary foresters to the High Stewards of Scotland is reflected in its crest, a martlet, and its motto, 'In Season.' Clementina Walkinshaw (1720-1802), of this family, was the long-time mistress of Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie'). Clan Walkinshaw is today recognized as an armigerous clan, with no one currently possessing the chiefly arms.

The Walkinshaws take their name from the lands of Walkinshaw in Renfrewshire and trace their descent from a 13th-century judge of the Lennox, said to be Dugald son of Cristin, who exchanged his lands of Knock for Walkinshaw around 1235. The family held the hereditary office of forester to the High Stewards of Scotland in the barony of Renfrew (reflected in their coat of arms). Its best-known member, Clementina Walkinshaw, daughter of John Walkinshaw, 3rd of Barrowfield, became the mistress of Prince Charles Edward Stuart during the 1745 Jacobite rising and bore his only child, Charlotte, later created Duchess of Albany.