One of the Foundation’s directors sent me a link to a blog posting on Leslie history. I thought the information would be of interest to Leslies, so here is the link to the blog.
The Leslies: Just one Duke of Rothes but many generals in Scotland, Russia and Austria by Jonathan Spangler posted June 23, 2025.
Surnames
The author starts his posting with the quote” You know nothing, Jon Snow.” This could be said by many Leslies who are just starting their journey in learning about Leslie history and genealogy. The author goes on to state that the Leslies of Warthill Estate are not Leslies of patrilineal descent, instead they are of the Arbuthnott patrimonial line. You see, George Abuthnott married Mary Rose Leslie who was the 12th Laird of Warthill Estate. Upon that marriage in accordance with the marriage agreement, George become the laird of the estate and adopted the Leslie surname.
Matrimonial Histories
To quote the author, “The story of Clan Leslie is an interesting one in that it demonstrates nicely how aristocratic names and titles could be passed around, across family lines, and that matrilineal histories should not be overlooked. It is also a good example of how in the early modern period, noble lineages could sometimes be quite fluid in their national identities.”
In the next generation of these Arbuthnott-Leslies, the William Arbuthnott-Leslie, in his will concerning the disposition of Warthill Estate, passed the estate onto his grandson Sebastian, providing he adopted the surname of Leslie. We are in the process of transcribing the complete will document.
The blog posting goes on to provide a brief history of the Leslie family and some of its branches. The brief history is an excellent historical overview and explains how there became two significant branches of the Leslies, Balquhain Leslies of Aberdeenshire and Rothes Leslies of Fife. The Rothes line also passed the Leslie name through female Leslies. One example in a brief look at the Rothes Leslie line shows that Mary Elizabeth Leslie, 18th Countess of Rothes married Martin Edward Haworth, who adopted the Leslie surname.
The Work of the LGDF
As this blog posting comes to a conclusion, the question remains: Who are the patrimonial Leslies among us? It would seem that whether by a Leslie title or inheritance of Leslie estates, as stipulated in a last will and testament, that by any other name the person is a Leslie. The Foundation is updating Leslie family pedigree reports. We are looking first at the male lines of Balquhain and Warthill.
See the beginnings of our work at: https://lesliegdf.org/family-trees/
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