Clan Douglas Membership

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

Who is member?

According to the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs,

Every person who has the same surname as the chief is deemed to be a member of the clan. Equally a person who offers allegiance to the chief is recognised as a member of the clan unless the chief decides that he will not accept that person’s allegiance.

There is no official list of recognised septs. This is a matter for each chief to determine. But where a particular sept has traditionally been associated with a particular clan it would not be appropriate for that name to be treated by another clan chief as one of its septs.

The Clan Douglas Society of North America elaborates:

The criteria used for determining what surnames are (or can be) Septs or Allied Families of Clan Douglas (as published in the August 2005 Dubh Ghlase) are as follows:

[A] Those of the surname of Douglas, in all of its many and varied forms, are not Septs: they are FAMILY and are to be treated as such.

[B] Those families whose surname was originally Douglas but have suffered a change of name due to the conditions prevailing at some point in history; i.e. Drysdale.

[C] Those families who were known to be followers of the Douglas family in the past.

[D] Those families who are known to have served the Douglas family in times past as either estate managers, farm workers, men-at-arms, scribes, chancellors; i.e. Bell, Symington, Young, etc.

[E] Those descendants of a female line of the Douglas family who are able to prove their descent and do not owe allegiance to any other family or clan.

[F] Those descendants whose families originated within the known Douglas territories but were too small to have a family status and have no allegiance to any other family or clan.

[G] Those descendants of families who are known to have broken away from their accepted group and are also known to have re-settled within the Douglas territories.

Current List of Septs

The current list of Septs of Clan Douglas. A couple of these, like Hamilton, are Clans in their own right. These are considered Allied Families/Clans in addition to being a Sept.

AGNEW

BELL

BLACKADDER

BLACKETT

BLACKLOCK

BLACKSTOCK

BLACKWOOD

BLAYLOCK

BRECKINRIDGE

BROWN

BROWNLEE

CARMICHAEL

CARRUTHERS

CAVAN

CAVERS

CLELAND

CLENDENON

CROCKETT

DALYELL

DALZELL

DEAL

DICK

DICKSON

DICKEY

DRYSDALE

FOREST

FORRESTER

FOSTER

GALBRAITH

GILPATRIC

GLENDINNING

GLENN

HAMILTON

HARKNESS

HOME

HUME

INGLIS

KILGORE

KILPATRICK

KIRKLAND

KIRKPATRICK

LOCKERBY

LOCKERY

LOCKHART

MACGUFFEY

MACGUFFOCK

MCKITTRICK

MAXWELL

MOFFAT

MORTON

PRINGLE

ROWELL

ROWLE

RULE

RUTHERFORD

SANDILANDS

SANDLIN

SIMMS

SOULE

STERRETT

SYME

SYMINGTON

TROUP

TURNBULL

WEIR

YOUNG