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

Clan Pringle (Tartans, Crest) and The Story Behind

By ScotsTee Shop

Pringle

Clan Crest: An escallop Or

Clan Motto: Amiciatia Reddit Honores (Friendship Gives Honour)

Origin of Name: Possibly from ‘Pelerin’ (Pilgrim)

Clan Chief: None, armigerous clan

⇨ View All Pringle Tartan Products

Pringle Clan History

The Pringle Clan has been documented since 1270, with Hoppringill being an early form of the name. The family held many lands in and around Galashiels, where the name was first recorded in a charter granted during Alexander III's reign.

The Hoppringles served as squires for the Earls of Douglas; at the Battle of Otterburn, Robert Pringle was squire to James, Earl of Douglas. Later, Robert Pringle received a charter for land at Smailholm near Kelso, where the family built a tower that is still standing and has recently been refurbished.

David Pringle, son of the Laird of Smailholm, was assassinated at Flodden in 1513, along with his four sons.

Many of the Prioresses at the Coldstream Convent in the late 15th and early 16th centuries were Pringles.

Sir James Pringle, the sheriff principle of Ettrick Forrest in 1622, sold off a large portion of the land to pay his debts.

In 1653, Robert Pringle died without issue, leaving James Pringle of Whytbank to represent the family. Alexander Pringle of Whytbank, James's son, became sheriff principle of Selkirkshire and died without issue, leaving George Pringle of Balmungo to succeed him. During the Thirty Years War, George Pringle established a solid reputation.

More recently, in 1830, Alexander Pringle of Whytbank was elected MP for Selkirkshire and went on to serve in Sir Robert Peel's government.

The Torwoodlee Pringles were descended from William Pringle of Smailholm. Because of their adherence to the Covenant, they were subjected to frequent raids on their home near Selkirk.

After the death of the last Pringle of that ilk in 1737, the Pringles of Stitchill became the dominant family, and the name can be found in many parts of the world, including Ireland and South Africa.

Today, the name is most closely associated with the Pringle knitwear company, the origins of which can be traced back to 1540, when a Pringle was in charge of overseeing the production of wool from the King's sheep.

Pringle Places & People

People from the Pringle Clan

The late Sir John Pringle

Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet, FRS, lived from 1707 to 1882.

The Scottish physician known as the "Father of Military Medicine"

John Pringle received his education in St Andrews, Edinburgh, and Leiden. In 1730, he received his Doctor of Physics degree. He settled in Edinburgh as a physician and later as a Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University. In 1742, he was appointed physician to the Earl of Stair. Pringle, through the Earl of Stair, negotiated with the French commander around the time of the battle of Dettingen in Bavaria, that military hospitals on both sides be considered neutral, immune sanctuaries for the sick and wounded, and should be mutually protected. The modern Geneva Conventions established the International Red Cross as a result of this concept and agreement.

John Pringle was created a baronet on June 5, 1766, and in 1774 he was appointed Physician to His Majesty King George III. He was elected president of the Royal Society in November 1772, a position he held until 1778.

Pringle was a regular correspondent and friend of the Scottish philosopher James Burnett, Lord Monboddo. Monboddo was a major thinker in pre-evolutionary theory, and some scholars even credit him with the concept of evolution; however, Monboddo was also quite eccentric, which was one of the reasons he was not given credit for the evolution concepts. John Pringle was also a keen student of botany, which he learned primarily while sitting on the toilet.

He visited Edinburgh briefly after turning seventy in 1780, but returned to London in September 1781, where he died the following year.

Pringle, Thomas (1789-1834).

The father of South African poetry, he was the first successful English language poet and author to describe South Africa's scenery, native peoples, and living conditions.

Thomas Pringle was born in Blaiklaw (now Blakelaw), four miles south of Kelso in Roxburghshire, and attended Edinburgh University, where he discovered his talent for writing. Because he was lame, he did not follow his father into farming, but instead worked as a clerk and continued to write, eventually rising to editorships of journals and newspapers. One of his poems celebrating his Scottish heritage caught the attention of novelist Sir Walter Scott, through whose influence he obtained free passage and a British Government resettlement offer of land in South Africa, to which he emigrated in 1820 with his father and brothers.

An anti-slavery article he wrote in South Africa was published in the "New Monthly Magazine," drawing the attention of Buxton, Zachary Macaulay, and others, leading to his appointment as Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society. In March 1827, he began working for the Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society and stayed for seven years. He provided work to Mary Prince, an escaped slave, allowing her to write her autobiography, which caused a sensation due to failed libel actions and was published in multiple editions. He also published African Sketches and poetry collections like Ephemerides.

Thomas Pringle, 45, died of tuberculosis in December 1834.

In his honor, Josiah Conder's Biographical Sketch of the Late Thomas Pringle was published and sold together with Thomas Pringle's own Narrative of a South African Residence. His ashes were interred in Bunhill Fields, where a memorial stone with an elegant inscription by William Kennedy was erected in his honor.

John James Pringle (1855 - 1922).

Dermatologist from the United Kingdom. He was born in Borgue, Kirkcudbrightshire, and went to Merchiston Castle School. In 1876, he received his medical degree. He then studied in Dublin, Vienna, Paris, and Berlin before settling in London in 1882. We worked as a dermatologist at the Middlesex Hospital in London from 1888 to 1920. He contracted tuberculosis and spent six months in a sanitarium in 1903. He never fully recovered and died on December 18, 1922, in Christchurch, New Zealand, while on a trip to improve his health.

John Quinton Pringle (1865-1925).

Scottish painter who was influenced by Jules Bastien-Lepage and was a member of the Glasgow Boys.

Pringle was born in Dennistoun, Glasgow, the son of a railway employee, and later lived in Maukinfauld Road, Tollcross. He dropped out of school in 1876 to become an optical repairman, later establishing a small business. He took art classes in the evenings and on Saturday mornings, with subjects that frequently included his family, friends, backcourts, or local surroundings.

He was influenced by the French painter Jules Bastien-Lepage, who had exhibited in Glasgow in the 1880s alongside other French painters. Pringle exhibited at the Secessionist Exhibition in Vienna in 1902 and the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London in 1914.

He died in East Kilbride on April 21, 1925, and is buried in Sandymount, Shettleston, in Glasgow's east end.

Seth, Andrew (1856-1931)

A Scottish philosopher who changed his name to Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison to fulfill the terms of a bequest.

English Empiricism and the Anglo variant of Hegelianism were his opponents. According to Seth, both types of philosophy undermined an individual's independence. Seth's defense of personality had a significant impact on later anti-Hegelian and pluralist thinkers, particularly in the United States. His ideas were borrowed by William James, George Santayana, Bertrand Russell, and George Herbert Mead.

Pringle Tartans

Tartan of Pringle

These tartans are also suitable for Pringle:

Red Galloway

Galloway (Green) District

Pringle Crest & Coats of Arms

Clan Pringle Crest:

The crest is an escallop Or.

Coats of Arms of Pringle:

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.

Torsonce PRINGLE (Hoppringle) (formerly - of that Ilk)

Argent, three escalops, Or, on a bend of Sable.

These are the personal arms of the last Clan Chief of that Ilk and Torsonce, John Hoppringle, who died on December 21, 1737. Since then, there has been no chief.