Clan Wallace

History

The name Wallace comes from the Old French 'waleis', meaning a Welshman. In Scotland it probably described a Briton of the old kingdom of Strathclyde rather than someone from Wales itself. Another view is that the family came north from the Welsh border in the following of the Stewarts. The sources do not settle the question.

The Scottish record of the family opens with Richard Walensis in the 1160s, when his name appears among the witnesses to a charter. He was a tenant of Walter fitz Alan, the High Steward, and his ground was in Kyle, in Ayrshire, not far from Kilmarnock. Riccarton, 'Richard's town', is said to be named after him. Two generations on, the inheritance was divided between the sons of his grandson Adam. Ayrshire stayed with the elder son. Malcolm, the younger, was given Elderslie and Auchinbothie across the county line in Renfrewshire. When Scots landholders swore homage to Edward I in 1296, the Ragman Roll listed an Adam de Waleys among them.

Tradition makes Sir William Wallace a son of Malcolm Wallace of Elderslie. Encyclopaedia Britannica says only that he was born around 1270, probably near Paisley. In 1297 he and Andrew Murray defeated an English army at Stirling Bridge. Wallace was made Guardian of Scotland. He was beaten at Falkirk the following year, and in 1305 he was captured and taken to London. He was executed there on 23 August 1305. He left no known line, and the later chiefs descend from his kinsmen, not from him.

The senior line became the Wallaces of Craigie, who are said to descend from William Wallace's uncle. They acquired Craigie in Ayrshire in 1371. Sir John Wallace of Craigie is credited with a leading part in the Scottish victory over an English force at the Sark. Accounts date the battle to 1448 or 1449. In 1669 Hugh Wallace of Craigie was made a Baronet of Nova Scotia. The baronetcy later passed through a granddaughter to the Dunlop family.

The chiefship came in time to the Wallaces of Cairnhill, who had inherited the Ayrshire estates of Busbie and Cloncaird. Captain Henry Wallace of Busbie and Cloncaird established his right to the chiefship in 1888. The thirty-fifth chief succeeded his brother at the start of the 1990s; sources give 1990 or 1991. He died in 2016. His son is the present chief, styled Wallace of that Ilk.

Unlike many clans, Wallace has no septs. That is the chief's own decision. The name itself has been spelled in many ways over eight centuries, and Wallis is the most common alternative today. The Clan Wallace Society, founded in Texas in 1966, welcomes all spellings of the name.