Contents;

A 900 year history of the Abercrombie/Crombie family 1125-2000.

Family Trees: The Main Trunk Banff/Aberdeenshire; The Fife Line; The Monymusk Line; Three lines in Northern Ireland 1600-c.1800 (Cromey/Cromie); The Glassaugh Line; The Tullibody Line; The Fetternear Line; The Colony of Massachusetts line from Northern Ireland c.1720; One major line of the Abercrombies who went to Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia et al; and eventually to about 34 of the United States to settle; Canada and Australia.

How we are descendents of the Templar Knights.

Our French Connection.

The Crombie/Abercrombie Crests and their meanings.

Crombie Castle/Kinnairdy House.

The Monymusk Reliquary and our connection.

My critique of the way the Innes family over 500 years muddied the historical records so that we could not find our real roots.

Bios of many past members of the family.

To see inside any of the contents just click on the title and it will open up for you.

Knights Templar

In c.1125CE King David I of Scotland invited members of the Knights Templar to come to his newly united Scotland to help in setting up a new system similar to the one set up by William of Normandy in England sixty years before.

One of those Knights was Seogneur de Cromey from Burgundy. He came from a family whose surname was MORIN, Cromey was a Title held by the first of that family to come to Scotland and it is from this that our surname was formed.

Geoffroy Morin, French Templar Knight Twelfth Century

Geoffroy Morin was Marshal of the Knights Templar during the mastership of Gerard of Ridefort, the tenth Grand Master of the Knights Templar (1185 – 1189). The date of his departure for the Holy Land and his entry into the Order of the Temple are unknown. From 1187 he was appointed as Commander of the Order in Tyre; he was appointed Marshal of the Order by Gerard of Ridefort in 1188 and was taken prisoner by the Muslims during the Battle of Hattin.

In 1189 he took part in the Siege of Acre where he died alongside Gerard of Ridefort and eighteen other Templars. According to a contemporary poem, Morin died carrying the Baucent. Baucent (bauceant, baussant, etc.) was the name of the war flag (vexillum belli) used by the Knights Templar in the 12th and 13th centuries.

You can find the full story if you click onto the Family Crest. This has other very intresting information about the family, including out connection with the Monymusk reliquary and much more.

900 YEARS OF ABERCROMBY/CROMBIE FAMILY HISTORY

by Carmel Margaret (Crombie) Dahl MMXXII

Family Member
- Aug 12, 2022
- 3 min read

Cromey/Crombie Family Crest and Motto

Updated: Sep 26, 2023

Motto: Suum cuique: Live and let live:

'This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must allow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.'

Hamlet. Wm. Shakespeare

Cromey/Crombie

Crombie Family Crest

The Crombie Family Crest is from French Heraldry.

The Red Lion Passant denotes Nobility.

The White Cross Bottony symbolizes Christ and the Trinity. It was used by the Templar Knights.

The Vert (green) background symbolizes Charity.

Red, White and Green together stand for Faith, Hope and Charity (Love)

Abercrombie

Abercrombie Family Crest

Abercrombie/Abercromby, Scotland/USA:

Three boars heads with red chevron:

After 1300 Templar Knights were outlawed and they chose to use the three boars from the Gordon Clan which is where all non-Scots from the beginning of Scotland as a country in the 12th century united. These were mainly families from Belgium and France.

The red chevron denotes they are warriors.

Critiquing some articles which appear on-line and are quite misleading:

During my research I found the Banffshire Field Notes and Spalding Club Publications which the Innes Family had presented and had published in the nineteenth and twentieth century.

At first I just ignored them because I knew the Crommey they spoke of was not ours.

Eventually I went back to them and found that they really were speaking about our original family members as the thanes of Aberchirder and that their Crommey title was self-given after they became the owners of the old thanes land at "Old Crombie".

Originally I was irate, then I reread them carefully a couple more times and I found them most helpful in figuring out the beginnings of our family tree in Scotland.

As there are no longer any of the family carrying the Cromey name in France, those who have descended from the original Seigneur de Cromey in Scotland, the first thane of Aberchirder, and all the branches that have sprung from this main trunk, are all the one family no matter how the name is spelt or pronounced.

But, yes, there is always a but, I still felt the need to critique some of the publications that the Innes historians put their names to:

Appendix "A"

MY CRITIQUE OF STATEMENTS IN THE SPALDING CLUB PUBLICATION, 1864, BY COSMO INNES AND THE BANFFSHIRE FIELD NOTES BY THOMAS INNES, 1939.

Appendix "B"

This is a list of the land Charters I have found for Abercromby/Crombie land in Scotland. Many others, especially those from the first 200 years are missing; this is not unusual as so much of the early history was taken by King Edward I of England. Others may still be in the charter boxes of other families they sold the land on to later.

Appendix "C" The Monymusk Reliquary.

This is the reliquary given by King Robert the Bruce to Thomas the son of Symon, thane of Aberchirder after the Battle of Bannockburn.

It was held by the Monymusk line until it died out in 1387 and then it, along with the land at Forglen, went with the surviving daughter, Marjorie, through marriage into the Fraser family.

No one is really sure what happened after that but it appeared at Sothebys for auction in the 1930's when someone bought it and donated it to the Museum of Scotland.

Today it is displayed there but because of the provenance during the 500 years when it is unrecorded, no one is sure of its authenticity.

I have shown the charters for it going originally to the arbroath Monastery and then to Foreglen and then to the Frasers among the charters listed above.

Appendix "D" Some Interesting Crombie Biographies:

900 Years of Abercromby/Crombies in Scotland and Northern Ireland, 1125-2022.

Cromey/Crombie Family Crest and Motto

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