Cuthill

The surname Cuthill comes from the Celtic (pre-Gaelic) word "cet," still recognisable in Welsh "coed." It is possible that there is a link to Christianity, when it was first introduced into the Celtic world, it made use of existing religious sites, such as groves and wells. The name may have descended from the Boernicians, an ancient race of the North of the United Kingdom. They were a mixture of Scottish Picts, Angles and Vikings (a race from about 400AD.)

"Coed" means 'trees, timber, wood,' and with a religious tone would refer to a "Holy Wood" and this is a possible origin to the name as well as the possible link to Cuthill, a place in East Lothian where it is suggested that Cuthills have been since the 12th Century.

There have been various places especially in Scotland, where Cuthill forms part of the place name, one or two have since disappeared or have been swallowed up into larger villages or towns. Cuthill nr Prestonpans and Cuthill Rocks.

The surname is a 'Lowland' name and therefore has no link to the tartans of their Highland counterparts.

The name was recorded from about 1400. Thomas and George Cuthill were recorded as witnesses in 1536. In 1681, William Cuthill of Borrowstoun Ness (Bo'Ness) was a covenanter (signatory of the Solemn League and Covenant) and persecuted by the Crown for attending outlawed Protestant Church Service. He was arrested hung with Donald Cargill in the Grassmarket and his head impaled on a stake in the West Bow in Edinburgh, Scotland on July 27th of that year. This was in the days of the Killing Time in Scotland where the covenanters were hunted down as outlaws and brought to trial as traitors. Thousands of Scots were tortured, hung, decapitated, drowned at the stake, sent into white slavery in the New World, shot, or died of wounds or cruel treatment in jail.

In 1708, Mrs. Cuthel's home in Edinburgh was damaged by fire.

By the 18th Century, the family name had also branched out into the Stirling area, and to Dumbarton by 1825.

One of the earliest New World immigrants considered as kinsman to the family name was Joseph Cuttel who settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Such immigrants became the backbone of the first settlements from Maine to the Cumberland Gap. In Canada, they settled in Nova Scotia, the Saint Lawrence and the Ottawa Valley. During the American War of Independence, those loyal to the Crown moved northward into Canada and became known as the United Empire Loyalists.

The most ancient grant of a coat of arms found was a gold background with a red diagonal stripe, the crest was a leopard emerging from a crown.