Clan Montgomery

Origins and History

The Montgomerys came to Scotland from Normandy, ultimately deriving their name from the town of Sainte-Foi-de-Montgomméry in Calvados, Normandy — the stronghold of a Norman lord named Roger de Montgomméry, one of William the Conqueror's most powerful lieutenants. Roger held enormous power in England after 1066 as Earl of Shrewsbury and Earl of Arundel, and branches of his family spread across the Norman world.

The Scottish branch arrived in the train of the Norman-influenced Scottish kings of the twelfth century. Robert de Montgomery received lands in Renfrewshire, on the south bank of the Clyde opposite Glasgow. From this base, the family extended into Ayrshire, where they became lords of Eglinton and eventually, in the fifteenth century, Earls of Eglinton. The Eglinton earldom made the Montgomerys one of the great Ayrshire families, with a history intertwined with the Kennedy, Cunningham, and Hamilton families who dominated that region.

The Eglinton Tournament and Romantic Scotland

The 13th Earl of Eglinton staged the famous Eglinton Tournament of 1839 — a romantic re-enactment of a medieval jousting tournament that attracted enormous crowds and became one of the defining moments of the Victorian Gothic Revival in Scotland. The tournament was partly a political statement against the Reform Act of 1832 and partly a genuine attempt to revive chivalric culture. It ended in a famous rainstorm that turned the jousting field to mud, but the event became legendary in Scottish cultural history.

The Ulster Plantation and the Scots-Irish Montgomerys

Hugh Montgomery, 6th Laird of Braidstane in Ayrshire, was the principal architect of one of the most significant Scottish settlements in Ulster. In 1605, through a complex arrangement with Con O'Neill, a Gaelic lord in County Down, Montgomery secured extensive lands in the Ards Peninsula and the area around Newtownards. He and Sir James Hamilton planted Ayrshire and other Scottish families in these lands, creating one of the densest concentrations of Scottish settlers in Ulster. The Montgomery presence in County Down remains strong to this day.

From County Down, Scots-Irish Montgomerys crossed to America in the eighteenth century, settling in Pennsylvania, the Appalachian backcountry, and the South. Montgomery County appears as a place name in numerous American states, reflecting the colonial-era prominence of these families.

Notable Montgomerys

• Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery — Britain's most celebrated Second World War commander — victor of El Alamein and commander at D-Day
• Roger de Montgomery — Norman Earl of Shrewsbury and Arundel, one of William the Conqueror's most powerful lieutenants
• Hugh Montgomery, Viscount Montgomery of the Great Ards — Pioneer of the Ulster Scots settlement in County Down