Clan Rattray

History

Rattray is a name taken from land. The family held the barony of Rattray, beside Blairgowrie in Perthshire, and the Rattray Clan Society reads the name as a blend of words for a fortification and a settlement. Tradition holds that Malcolm Canmore confirmed a Rattray as laird in the 11th century, but nothing written survives to prove it.

The documented line starts later. Scotland.org names Alan as the first laird on record, and says his name appears as a witness on charters of both William the Lion and Alexander II. The clan society puts his life at about 1165 to 1210. Electric Scotland starts the story instead with Sir Thomas of Rattray, who married in 1253. Sources differ on the early names, so the first generations are best treated with care.

The family were caught up in the wars of independence. Scotland.org says that in 1296, the year of Dunbar, Sir Adam Rattray swore fealty to Edward I, while Eustace Rattray ended up a prisoner in England after the battle. By 1315 Alexander Rattray had a seat in the parliament held at Ayr. Sir Silvester Rattray went to England as ambassador in 1463. The Gazetteer for Scotland says he inherited lands around Fortingall, in Atholl, and that this set the family at odds with the Stewart Earls of Atholl.

That friction turned violent. Sir John Rattray, knighted in 1488, was killed at Flodden in 1513, the clan society says. Through his daughter's marriage, John Stewart, Earl of Atholl, then laid claim to Rattray land. Patrick Rattray gave up Rattray Castle and settled at Craighall, high on a cliff over the River Ericht. Even there Atholl's men found him. The clan society says they murdered him in his chapel at Kinballoch as he sought sanctuary, and 1533 is the year usually given. Sources disagree on when Craighall-Rattray became a free barony: the clan society says 1533, while Scotland.org gives a charter of 1648.

Loyalties in the 17th and 18th centuries were mixed. Scotland.org says David Rattray held Craighall through a short siege for the royalists, and his brother John was imprisoned in the Tower after Worcester in 1651. In the Jacobite years Thomas Rattray became Primus, the senior bishop of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, and a John Rattray served as physician to Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Electric Scotland calls John the chief's brother and says the chief himself stayed out of the 1745 rising. Scotland.org calls him the bishop's son, and says he was taken prisoner once Culloden was lost but later spared.

Electric Scotland says that in 1799 James Clerk inherited the Rattray lands and arms by way of his grandmother, and adopted the Rattray surname. Craighall is reputed to have inspired Tully-Veolan in Walter Scott's Waverley. A later laird, James Clerk Rattray, saw service in the Crimea and at Lucknow. A local heritage project says Craighall was home to twenty generations of Rattray chiefs before it was sold in 2010. The Rattray Clan Society, founded in 1993, now links Rattrays around the world, and COSCA records a chief styled Rattray of Rattray.