Home / Scottish Clans - Histories, Tartans Crests and much more / Clan Melville (Tartans, Crest) and The Story Behind

Clan Melville (Tartans, Crest) and The Story Behind

By ScotsTee Shop

Melville

Clan Crest: A ratch-hound’s head erased Proper, collared Gules

Clan Motto: Denique Coelum (Heaven at Last)

Origin of Name: Place name, France

Clan Chief: None, armigerous clan

⇨ View All Melville Tartan Products

Melville Clan History

The surname Melville comes from Normandy, where Guillaume de Maleville served as a companion to William, Duke of Normandy. In 1066, Guillaume fought in the Battle of Hastings.

During the reign of David I, the family moved to Scotland and was granted lands in Midlothian. Galfrid de Maleville was the 'vicecomes' of Edinburgh Castle during the reign of Malcolm IV in the 12th century. He later became the 'Justiciary of Scotland' during the reign of William the Lion. Agnes, Galfrids' granddaughter, was the only heir to the Barony of Melville. She married John Ross of Halkhead, and King James IV made her descendant Lord Ross. The family kept the barony until 1705.

Walter, the youngest son of Galfrid de Malevilles, became the Melvilles of Raith's ancestor.

Sir John de Melville signed the 'Ragman Roll' in 1296, pledging allegiance to Edward I of England. Sir John Melville of Raith, a favorite of King James V, was made Captain of Dunbar Castle and received lands in Murdocairnie, Fife. He was also an early supporter of the Scottish Reformation and knew some of those who plotted to assassinate Cardinal Beaton. He was falsely accused of murder by a forged letter and executed in 1550.

Sir John de Melville had two sons, Sir Robert Melville of Murdocairnie and Sir John de Melville.

Sir Robert was the Keeper of the Palace of Linlithgow under Mary Queen of Scots. Later, he served as an ambassador in Queen Elizabeth I's court, where he protested Queen Mary's death sentence and was threatened with imprisonment. Later, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Scotland, with the title 'Lord Murdocairnie'. Later, in 1616, he was elevated to the title of Baron Melville of Monymail, and his son succeeded him as Lord Monymail in 1627.

Robert Melville was succeeded as the third Lord Melville by his cousin John. George Melville, John's son, supported James, Duke of Monmouth's unsuccessful rebellion. Following the Duke's execution, he fled to Holland, returning with William and Mary of Orange in 1688. He was later appointed Secretary of State for Scotland, and he went on to become President of the Council and the first Earl of Melville.

When George Melville married Lady Catherine Leslie, the granddaughter of the Covenanting General, he also inherited the Earldom of Leven and the Castle of Balgonie in Fife.

They had two sons, Alexander, who died without heirs, and David, who inherited the Earldom and the title of 'Lord Balgonie'.

David Melville was a representative peer of Scotland in the new Parliament at Westminster from 1707 to 1710, later becoming a High Court Judge. David Melville's son David succeeded him as fifth Earl of Melville and sixth Earl of Leven. He had three other sons, one of whom died in the American War of Independence in 1777.

During World War I, the twelfth Earl of Melville served with the 2nd Dragoons (Scots Grays), fought, and was wounded. He later rose to the rank of colonel in the Lovat Scouts, Lord Lieutenant of Nairn, and Knight of the Thistle.

Alexander Leslie-Leven is the current fourteenth Earl of Leven and thirteenth Earl of Melville. David Balgonie, his eldest son, died in a skiing accident in 2007.

Melville Castle in Lothian was the original family seat, but it is now at Glenferness in Nairn.

Melville Places & People

Melville Clan Members

Melville, Andrew (1545-1622)

Scholar, theologian, and religious reformer from Scotland. Andrew Melville was born in Baldovy, near Montrose, Angus, the youngest son of Richard Melville, who died in 1547 at the Battle of Pinkie.

Melville was educated in Montrose before attending the University of St Andrews, where he demonstrated great promise. Melville graduated from St Andrews with the reputation of being "the best poet, philosopher, and Grecian of any young master in the land."In 1564, he traveled to France to finish his education at the University of Paris. He then went on to study civil law and was apparently made a regent in the college of St Marceon at the age of twenty-one.

During his time in Geneva, the massacre of St. Bartholomew in 1572 drew a large number of Protestant refugees, including several of the most distinguished French writers of the time. Among these were several men educated in civil law and political science, and Melville's association with them broadened his knowledge and expanded his ideas about civil and ecclesiastical liberty. Melville returned to Scotland in 1574 and was almost immediately appointed Principal of the University of Glasgow, where he began its renewal.

In 1582, he served as Moderator of the General Assembly and was involved in the formation of the Church and the Presbyterian method. The court's attempts to impose a system of episcopacy on the Church of Scotland caused controversy, and Melville prosecuted one of the Tulchan Bishops (Robert Montgomery, d. 1609). In February 1584, he was summoned before the Privy Council for this, and he had to flee into England to avoid being charged with treason.

He returned to Scotland after twenty months and resumed his lectures in St Andrews, where he remained for the next twenty years, becoming Rector of the University in 1590. He frequently disagreed with King James on ecclesiastical matters, which landed him in the Tower of London for four years. He was freed but refused permission to return to his home country, so he accepted a professorship at the University of Sedan, where he spent the next eleven years of his life.

George Melville, 1st Earl of Melville (1636-1707).

During the reigns of William and Mary, he was a Scots aristocrat and statesman. Melville was a Presbyterian and a moderate Whig.

In 1683, Melville and his son, Earl of Leven David Leslie-Melville, were charged with complicity in the Rye House Plot, a Whig plot to assassinate King Charles II and his brother, Duke of York (the future James VII).

Melville was a prominent figure in Scots and English politics following the 1688 revolution, most notably in the Convention Parliament that offered the crown of Scotland to William of Orange and his wife, Mary, daughter of the deposed James VII. In 1689, William appointed him as Scotland's sole Secretary of State, and in 1690, he was created Earl of Melville, Viscount Kirkaldie, and Lord Raith, Monymaill, and Balewarie (all in the Peerage of Scotland).

Leslie-Melville, David

3rd Earl of Leven David Leslie-Melville (1660-1728)

Aristocrat, politician, and soldier from Scotland. He was the third son of George Melville, 1st Earl of Melville and his second wife Catherine Leslie-Melville, and he shared his father's Whig political and Presbyterian religious sympathies. With the death of John Leslie, 1st Duke of Rothes, in 1681, he was granted the Earldom of Leven.

Leven and his father were suspected of involvement in the Rye House Plot, a Whig plot to assassinate Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York, in 1683. To avoid arrest, they fled to the Netherlands, where they joined the band of British Protestant exiles at Prince William of Orange's court.

William used him to secure the support of German princes for his invasion of England in 1688. He was named one of the Commissioners for the Union of England and Scotland in 1706.

In 1707, he succeeded his father as Earl of Melville.

Arthur Melville (1858-1904).

Scottish painter who is best known for his Orientalist subjects.

Melville was born near Haddington, Scotland. He began painting while working as a grocer's apprentice, then went on to study at the Royal Scottish Academy Schools and in Paris and Greece. The remarkable color sense that distinguishes his work, whether in oils or watercolour, came to him during his adventurous travels in Persia, Egypt, and Turkey from 1880 to 1882.

Melville, though little known during his lifetime, was a major influence on the Glasgow Boys and other contemporary artists of the time. One of his watercolours, The Little Bull-Fight Bravo, Toro!, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and others, such as An Oriental Goatherd in the Weimar Museum, are in many museums, particularly in Scotland. However, many of his photographs are still in the hands of private collectors.

Melville Tartans

The Melville Tartan

Melville Crest & Coats of Arms

Clan Melville Crest

A ratch-hound's head erased Proper, collared Gules, is the description of the crest.

Coats of Arms of Melville:

A word about Coats of Arms:

A coat of arms is granted to an individual under Scottish heraldic law (with the exception of civic or corporate arms). A 'family coat of arms' does not exist. With the exceptions noted above, the arms depicted below are personal arms. Only the person who has been granted these weapons has the right to use them.