Clan Napier

History

Napier is a small Lowland clan with an old name, found in Scottish records before 1300. The modern spelling only settled in the late seventeenth century; earlier clerks set it down as Naper, Nepar, Napeir and many other forms. The clan society puts forward more than one theory of where the name came from, including an occupational one that ties it to the royal office of keeper of the table linen.

The society also argues that the Napiers almost certainly descend from the ancient Celtic earls of Lennox. It points to how closely the Lennox arms resemble those of the Merchiston Napiers. This rests on heraldry rather than a documented pedigree, so it is best read as likely rather than proved. The earliest Napiers in the records held Kilmahew, near Dumbarton.

The branch that made the name famous began in Edinburgh. Alexander Napier, a prominent merchant who rose to be Provost of the city, acquired the lands of Merchiston in the 1430s. Sources differ on the exact year, and on whether it came by charter or as a royal grant in payment of a debt. The family seat, Merchiston Tower, is a fifteenth-century L-plan tower house and a category A listed building. It now stands at the heart of Edinburgh Napier University's Merchiston campus, and the university took its name from the family.

The best-known Napier is John Napier, eighth Laird of Merchiston, who was born at the tower in 1550. He began work on logarithms around 1594 and published his first treatise on the subject in 1614. Britannica names him as their inventor, and the method made long calculation far quicker for astronomers and navigators. He died at Merchiston in 1617.

His son Archibald became the first Lord Napier. In 1625 he gave the heralds in London an affidavit confirming that certain Napiers settled in England belonged to the same stock as the Napiers of Merchiston. According to the clan society, the family has since produced provosts of Edinburgh, admirals and generals.

Today the clan has a chief recognised through the title Lord Napier, which is held with that of Baron Ettrick. The chiefship passed to the 15th Lord Napier in 2012, and he is patron of the two clan societies, one in Scotland and one in North America. The Council of Scottish Clans and Associations records the clan's lands as Fife and Midlothian.