Clan Bethune

Clan Bethune Crest badge Crest: An otter’s head erased argent.[1] Motto: De bonnaire.[2] Profile Region Lowlands District Fife and Angus.[3] Gaelic name Macbheatha.[4]

Chief Clan Bethune has no chief, and is an armigerous clan Arms of the last Chief of Clan Bethune Last Chief: The Bethune of Balfour Historic seat Balfour in Fife.[5]

Clan Bethune may have its origins from the French city of Béthune,^[6] but another possibility is that the name is an Anglicization of the Gaelic name Macbheatha.^[7] Clan Bethune is a small armigerous clan, and in Scotland, but surviving in America under the name "Clan MacBeth".^[8]

It is thought that the Bethunes came from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066.^[9]

Relationship, if any, to Macbeth of Scotland (d.1057) is unclear.^[10] MacBeth is possibly the Anglicized surname Beaton, though the Scottish origin of the Beatons of Skye may be semi-legendary.^[11][12] As a clan they were particularly associated with the trade of medicine, and hereditary physicians to the Chief of the Clan Macdonald. No less than seventy-six physicians called MacBeth or Beaton are found practising medicine in the Gaidhealtachd between 1300 and 1700.^[13] According to Black^[14] Bethune was confused with Beaton in the sixteenth century and Beaton was merged in English from Macbeth and Bethune.^[15] Two "Beaton" families were hereditary doctors practicing in the in Mull and Sky.^[16] Those on Mull were doctors to Clan Maclean and later Clan Fraser of Lovat, they seemed to have eventually been known as Beaton.^[17] Also according to Black, the other Beaton family of hereditary doctors, those of Sky, were Bethunes, descended from the Bethunes in Fife, the Bethunes of Balfour.^[18] This group were descended from the 5th Bethune of Balfour and settled Sky in the sixteenth century.^[19]

The clan Crest as borne by the "Clan MacBeth" Society of North America blazon is a wyvern "holding in the dexter claw a sword in pale proper, the hilt entwined with two serpents argent and vert". The motto is Conjuncta virtuti fortuna.^[20]

The official^[21] Clan Bethune Scottish crest badge as recorded by the Lord Lyon King of Arms incorporates the last chief's crest: An otter’s head erased Argent with his motto De bonnaire (Gracious).^[22]

Arms of the last clan chief, The Bethune of Balfour: Quarterly, 1st & 4th, Azure, a fess between three mascles Or (Bethune); 2nd & 3rd, Argent, on a chevron Sable, an otter’s head erased of the First.^[23] These arms are now held by the Earls of Lindsay^[24] whose surname is Lindesay-Bethune.

Other uses

• SS Clan Macbeth^[25]

See also

House of Bethune

External links

• Clan Macbeth
• The Clan MacBeth Pipe Band, Groningen, The Netherlands

References

1. ^ myclan.com
2. ^ myclan.com
3. ^ myclan.com
4. ^ myclan.com
5. ^ myclan.com
6. ^ myclan.com
7. ^ myclan.com
8. ^ Terry L. Griest Scottish tartans and family names 1986 "MacBeth Clan MacBeth has an active Society in North America. The Office of Chief is not filled at this time and the clan genealogists are actively seeking the rightful heir.".
9. ^ clanchiefs.org official web site of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs
10. ^ John MacBeth Macbeth: king, queen and clan 1921
11. ^ The Celtic Monthly 1903 Article suggesting that the Mac- was dropped to sound more courtly and Norman Page 120; reply following issue Page 210 suggesting Flemish descent from Bethune.
12. ^ George Fraser Black The surnames of Scotland: their origin, meaning, and history, New York Public Library - 1946 - 838 pages "1685 BEATON. Two learned families named Macbeth and Beaton or Bethune practised medicine in the Isles in the sixteenth Century... The Macbeths practised in Islay and Mull, and the Beatons in Skye."
13. ^ Paul Henderson Scott Scotland: a concise cultural history 1993 p327
14. ^ The surnames of Scotland: their origin, meaning, and history by George Fraser Black; New York Public Library, 1946
15. ^ The surnames of Scotland: their origin, meaning, and history by George Fraser Black; New York Public Library, 1946
16. ^ The surnames of Scotland: their origin, meaning, and history by George Fraser Black; New York Public Library, 1946
17. ^ The surnames of Scotland: their origin, meaning, and history by George Fraser Black; New York Public Library, 1946
18. ^ The surnames of Scotland: their origin, meaning, and history by George Fraser Black; New York Public Library, 1946
19. ^ The surnames of Scotland: their origin, meaning, and history by George Fraser Black; New York Public Library, 1946
20. ^ McLaren, Mike Book of Crests of Scottish-America 1991 Page 135
21. ^ clanchiefs.org official web site of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs
22. ^ myclan.com
23. ^ myclan.com
24. ^ clanchiefs.org official web site of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs
25. ^ Ships and ship models: Volume 6, Issues 61-72 1937 "Clan Macbeth. Clan Line steamer, 4647 tons gross, built 1913. Sold to the Nailsea SS Co. for about 16，250 and renamed Nailsea Vale."