Thurston Livingston (abt. 1124 - 1153)

Born about 1124 in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland

Descendants

Died 1153 at about age 29 in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland

Biography

Thurston Livingston is a member of Clan Livingstone.

Thurston Livingston was a member of the aristocracy in Scotland.

Thurstanus Of Livingston Birth: 1124 Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland Death: 1153 (29) Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland Immediate Family: Son of Leving Levingstoun and Mrs. Leving Husband of (wife) ??? Father of Alexander Livingston, Livingston; William Levingstoun and Henry Livingston Brother of Hugh Livingston[1]

Livingston The Ancient Livingstons The ancient arms of Livingston are described as: “Argent, three cinquefoils Gules” which means “Silver with three red five pointed leaves.” The Livingston of Callendar Arms shown here are the Livingston arms quartered with the arms of Callendar: “Sable, a bend between six billets, Or” which means “Black with a gold diagonal between six gold bars.”

Edward the Atheling or “Royal Prince” (1016 – 1057) was the eldest son of King Edmund (II) Ironside of England. He fled to Hungary during the reign of Canute (1016 – 1035) where he married Agatha of Hungary. Their daughter, St. Margaret the Exile, was born in Hungary in 1045. After the death of her father in 1057, St. Margaret arrived at the English court of Edward the Confessor. With her, according to legend, came the forebearer of the Livingstons: a nobleman named Baron de Leving. Ten years later following the defeat of Harold Godwinson at Hastings in 1066, St. Margaret was in exile again. This time, she fled to Scotland, and Baron de Leving accompanied her; or so the story goes. St. Margaret married King Malcolm (III) Cænmore of Scotland in 1068, and was canonised in 1250. (See Scotland, Generation Twenty-two)

Perhaps Baron de Leving (or more likely his forebear) accompanied Edward the Atheling into exile in the early 11th century; for as Mr. E.B. Livingston argues so convincingly on the first page of The Livingstons of Callendar, Baron de Leving was doubtless of Saxon lineage: “. . . in England, long before the Norman Conquest, the patronymic Leving, Living or Lyfing, derived from Leofing, which in modern English means ‘the son of Leof’ – namely ‘son of the Beloved’ – was borne by numerous persons of rank and positon as their family or tribal name. It occurs as early as the middle of the ninth century as the name of one of the witnesses to a charter of Berthwulf of Mercia; and the Archbishop of Canterbury who crowned Edmund Ironside in 1016, and who likewise crowned his rival and successor Canute a few months later, also bore that name. So did another famous Saxon churchman, the Bishop of Crediton and Worster, and the friend of Earl Godwine, who has come to us in the words of the old Saxon chronicler as ‘Lyfing se wordsnotera biscop,’ namely ‘Living the eloquent bishop’. Besides these two great churchmen, there are many other persons bearing this name mentioned in, or witness to, Anglo-Saxon charters; one of these Levings or Livings being the Staller or Master of the Horse to Edward the Confessor.”

The Highland Livingstones were from the Isle of Lismore in the centre of Loch Linne off the coast of Western Scotland and were perhaps of a different origin from the Lowland Livingstons. However, there is a possiblity that Baron de Leving was a highlander with close family ties to the Mac an Ollaimhs of Lismore.

Regardless of the exact origin of Baron de Leving, he settled in in the area of West Lothian, just to the southwest of Edinburgh, sometime during the reign of Edgar (1097-1107) and it is from him that we get the name “Leving’s Town” or “Livingston”. The story of the Livingston Family begins, as do many families, with a legend: the Saxon or Hungarian or perhaps Highland Scottish nobleman Baron de Leving.

Livingston, Some of the dates suggest that some generations may be missing. Baron de Leving circa 1057. Legend tells us that Baron de Leving accompanied St. Margaret the Exile when she arrived at the Court of St. Edward the Confessor in 1057. It has been suggested that Baron de Leving, or more likely his forebear, accompanied the family of Edward the Atheling (St. Margaret’s father) when they were forced to flee England following the victory of Canute over Edmund Ironside (St. Margaret’s grandfather) in 1016.

Leving Legend tells us that Leving’s father was Baron de Leving and his son was Leving de Levingstoun.

Leving of Levingstoun circa 1100; shown in E.B. Livingston: The Livingstons of Callendar, p. 3 & 4. Leving settled in West Lothian, southwest of Edinburgh during the reign of King Edgar (1097 – 1107) and is also known to have been there during the reign of King Alexander I (1107 – 1124) and King David I (1124 – 1153). It is from Leving that we get the name “Leving’s Town” or “Livingston”. His name was recorded in the latinised form “Levingus” when he presented the church of his manor to the newly founded Abbey of Holyrood in 1128. Leving of Levingstoun had the following children: • • • Thurston of Levingstoun, mentioned next. Hugh of Balbard in Fife German, Burgess of St. Andrews in Fife Thurston of Levingstoun circa 1150; shown in E.B. Livingston: The Livingstons of Callendar, p. 3. In 1187, two of Thurston’s sons, Alexander and William, witnessed a charter in which Thurston was involved. Thurston of Levingstoun had the following children: • • •

1. Alexander of Livingston, who was known to have been living during the reign of King David I (1124 – 1153)^[1]
2. William the Lion of Livingston
3. Henry, who married Maria de Scalebroc

Note

Father confirmed via DNA to be Leving (Levingstoun) Livingston

Sources

1. ↑ shown in E.B. Livingston: The Livingstons of Callendar, p. 5. Alexander Livingston is said by Sir Bernard Burke in A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, London, 1866

• http://www.robertsewell.ca/livingston.html

Acknowledgements

This person was created through the import of Jim Walker gedcom 4 Wikitree may 22 2011.ged on 24 May 2011. The following data was included in the gedcom. You may wish to edit it for readability.