Clan MacDuff

History

The MacDuffs are tied by tradition to Fife and to its medieval earls. Tradition holds that Macduff, Thane of Fife, turned against Macbeth and joined Malcolm, Duncan's son, in the campaign that ended with Macbeth's death at Lumphanan. The story is told in the chronicle of Andrew of Wyntoun, and Shakespeare later made it famous. It is a chronicle tale rather than documented history, so we treat the details with care.

The same tradition says Malcolm rewarded Macduff's heirs with three privileges. They were to guide the king to his coronation chair at royal ceremonies, hold the front rank of the Scottish host in battle, and pay a fine to be pardoned for a killing. Electric Scotland presents these as traditional, and we cannot confirm them from records of the time.

The earls themselves are better documented. Electric Scotland names Gilmichael as 4th Earl, who died in 1139. It says his younger son Hugh was the forebear of the Wemyss family. The clan society and Electric Scotland both place the end of the old male line in 1353, with the death of Duncan, 12th Earl. His daughter Isabella passed the earldom on, and it later came to the Stewarts. The Crown forfeited it when Murdoch, Duke of Albany, was executed in 1425. Electric Scotland also tells of an earlier Isabella, Countess of Buchan. In 1306 she is said to have taken Robert the Bruce to be crowned at Scone, as her family had the right to do.

Another family took up the name much later. Electric Scotland says William Duff, Lord Braco, became Earl of Fife in 1759. It adds that the Duffs rose through trade and the purchase of land in the north-east. It also says Duff probably comes from the Celtic dubh, meaning dark, and that the many Duff families may not all descend from the thanes of Fife. The clan society, by contrast, treats the later Duffs as part of the story. Alexander, 6th Earl, was made Duke of Fife in 1889 after marrying Princess Louise, and died in 1912.

Who might be chief is disputed. The clan society quotes a Lord Lyon letter of 1982 saying the first Duke represented the Duff of Braco family and was not chief of the clan. The society also says the direct line of the ancient house passed to the Wemyss family, though it notes the name never reverted to MacDuff. Its own account is not fully consistent, and the sources give no settled answer.

Near Newburgh, above the Firth of Tay, stands the base of an old stone cross known as Macduff's Cross. The Gazetteer for Scotland says it is thought to have served as a place of sanctuary for the clan. Electric Scotland adds that, by old tradition, a MacDuff kinsman could seek refuge there. Neither source gives a date, and we treat this as local tradition.