CASH EUROPEAN HISTORY

The following material was taken from a work in progress (I think in the 1960s or 1970s) of the Cash family name. I do not know the origin as it was found in mother’s genealogy book and is not noted. The words are not mine. I have taken the liberty, in fact to shorten this material as there was often rambling descriptions and prose that did nothing for the actual history. Some of the material was blurred from copying so that some of the names may be incorrect, but I think they are as originally written.

Explanatory Note:
The Dalriadian Scots . .Who were they? In very ancient times, Ireland was called Scotia, and its people Scots. This probably began around 1000B.C. at the time when Irish oral history cites the coming from Egypt (via Spain) of Scota, widow of Miles, or Milesius, and her sons. They landed says the honored legend, in Bantry Bay and their ships carried horses, chariots, and loyal followers. They conquered the barbarian Firbolg, divided Eire between the sons and descendants of the son's supplied Eire’s Kings for many centuries.

You will note on your present day map of Ireland, in the south, a place called Cashal (no connection to our surname origin, merely Irish Gaelic for castle). Cashal was the seat of the ancient kings of Munster. Some of its original ruins are still preserved. About 463 A.D. a son of one of these kings, Cairbre Riada, led a group of followers north to escape famine. He was a popular and competent leader and they named themselves Dal (Gaelic for clan). Riada and history from then on refers to them as the Dalriadian Scots.

Arriving in the north, a group of 150 of them decided to cross the channel into Alba (ancient Scotland) and colonize. This was 464 A.D. The adventurers were headed by Fergus Mor the 131st monarch of Ireland, who became first king of these Dalriadians, who were to found what was to become first Scotia, then Scotland.

With Fergus was his grand-son, Conal Gabhrain (or Gabran) who in 538 would be King of the Dalriadian group. Scots chroniclers mention him as a direct lineal ancestor of Malcom Ivth, who would be half-brother to our Cash Matriarch in 1160. This translates to the fact that the ancient Cash bloodline was actually a part of the migratory movement that founded Scotland.

12th century Scotch chronicles refer to six Scottish kings as the seed of Conaire Wor. In referring to their genealogy back thru the ancient kings of Ireland:
       Alexander I         1107-1124
       David I             1124-1153
       Malcolm IV          1153-1165    (the Cash Patriarch)
       William the Lyon    1165-1214
       Alexander II        1214-1249
       Alexander III       1249-1286
As we trace the ancestry of these Scottish kings, they lead us into the dim corridors of oral history, back to Heremon, Eire’s first King (son of Milesius) and beyond 1000 B.C.

We found preserved in the Paris museum, a manuscript of the genealogy of Malcolm Ivth. And William, his brother. Taking their bloodlines back through Fanius Fairsaith, a king of Scythia ca. 1300 B.C. thence back to Gomer, and his father Noah, then in Dublin, the irrepressible Irish go a step further, taking Malcolm Ivth and William beyond Noah. Through Noah’s ancestors, Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahaleel, Cainan, Enos, Seth and Adam. The archives of Ireland are rich in chronicle and manuscript history, preserved from an earlier time than that of any other country in Europe.

Beyond the earliest periods above mentioned in recorded and/or oral history we come to a period which begun roughly 30,000 years before Christ, which takes us into the Himalays, where the White Celtic race was formed in approximately a ten thousand year entrapment by glacial ice. In this period de-pigmented from the basic brown Aryan “root stock” from which came Celts, Mediteranneans and Nordics in varying degrees of white, light and olive. As the glaciers ebbed and the passes opened, these people came onto the plains of Iran and Afghanistan and into Egypt. As the millennium passed, they plodded their many tortuous ways across the European continent.

The site of our racial formation lies roughly in what appears on today’s maps as Ladakh among some of the worlds highest peaks but within a hundred mile long valley region fed by lakes with warm springs as their source. These nurtured and sustained the primordial animal and marine life of the region. This area, now in Communist hands may be long closed to further research.

THE KING OF SCOTS KEEPS CHRISTMAS - 1160:
Ten miles north of what was shortly to become the village Strathmiglo, in the town of Perth, Scotland, it is Christmas 1160, whirling snow and a bitter winter wind whip the deepening dusk. At one doorway where stands a guard wrapped to his ears in a heavy cloak, comes the muffled sounds of mirth and music. The citizens cannot point out today, the place where king Malcolm came for Christmas for it has long ago fallen into dust. However, the king is here this night with attendants and guests for the Christmas holiday (his itinerary fortunately preserved and of record, shows him at Perth for Christmas 1160. Malcolm Ivth (boy king of Scotland), who ascended the throne at 12 is 19 this night and this year has greatly increased his stature both as a man and as king of Scots. For one thing, he has defeated Somerled, the Argyle rebel, whose plotting with MacBeth was to unseat the king. He has defeated this alliance not with words, but by force of arms.

Somerled is at this gathering, to give his young king a renewed pledge of allegiance. Grandfather David whom he succeeded, would be proud of him this night and so the spirit of the gathering is one of relaxation, of satisfaction and looking forward to better times.

In the gathering this night is Ada, the king’s niece, (soon to be the Cash Matriarch), sister and Duncan, Earl of Fife and in the king’s pocket is a dowry grant for land……a great deal of very good land.  So what better time for the marriage than in this pleasant and convivial atmosphere.

And so on Christmas 1160, a radiant Ada and the young Duncan (bearded and looking ten year older than his 23 years) dagger in belt (which he did not remove either in presence of Abbot or king) until they took their vows. When it was over Ada had become Countess de Fife. The king then presented the dowry grant. It was probably a little larger then this copy and differed from it only in a small ribbon under a blob of pink was into which Malcolm had pressed his seal. I do not think that Malcolm had sworn the witnesses to a strict secrecy until the Christmas gathering.

Falkland forest, alone was then 9,000 acres, heavily timbered and teaming with game. Strathmiglo (valley of the Miglo river) Rathillet, kings kettle and as if this were not enough Stathbran (valley of the Bran river in Perthshire) with the exception of the forest of Falkland. The rest of the acreage was gentle rolling wheat land.  This dowry included all heirs from this marriage and indicates a much broader base for property ownership than had existed in the dark ages. That
indicates that Scotland in 1160 is beginning to come out of the dark centuries of feudal Lordship.

Then Ada’s arms were granted (this is the Cash coat of arms), we cannot be sure, quite possibly at the wedding or perhaps shortly after. A shock of wheat portrayed the character of the lands its base the coronet, marking relationship to Malcolm Ivth, Duncan already bore the arms of his ancestors, the rampant red lion on a gold field.

Consider here, that it will be 330 years from the day of this marriage before Columbus will sail.

From this alliance of Ada and Duncan, has come a family surname which has not only preserved it’s origins but has endured for a thousand years.

Strathmiglo:
Strathmiglo Parish in 1160 extended four mile North and South by four miles in breadth. With and acreage of 9,024 lying a little less than 3 miles from Falkland Parish which had an acreage of 8,265. It appears from ancient maps that the tracts joined.

The Miglo river intersects Strathmiglo Parish. The soil is deep and rich. It’s land known first as Casch and later (around 1225) as Cash, was divided in 1430 and then referred to as Cash Wester and Cash Easter.

The village of Strathmiglo, began 1160-116 has another village called Cashfeus on the opposite side of the river, so named because a portion of it’s lands were “foued out” about 1785 for building between the two is a level meadow, the town Green, a public park.  (No explanation for the word foued).

KETTLE:
Spelled “Cattel” in the charter, derived it’s name from the Gaelic “Cathel”, meaning battlefield.

RATHILLET:
Spelled “Radhulit” in the charter. This ancient property of Duncan and Ada was farm land when they took ownership in 1160. Today the little village on the land bears the name Rathillet (16 houses and a population of 58 people).

STRATHBRAN:
Literally, “valley of the Bran”. These lands lie in the south of Perthshire, along the river Bran. Perthshire adjoins Fife on the north. This land lies where Clan country begins and where Clan influences and customs have been a part of the life of the people for centuries.

Fife is a lowland Parish. Our progenitors were lowlanders. Perthshire is the only penetration of our ancient Cash’s into clan territory. We are not satisfied with the small bits of information found to date. Almost all vital records before 1700 were either stolen by the English or destroyed by Reformation mobs. Both our Immigrant and the Mariner who brought him here had left Scotland before this.

The following is a brief history and roster of the ancestral clan of our Perthshire Cash’s from clan records. While neither “Seach” nor “Shaw” is mentioned by Sir Robert Sibbald, Fife’s earliest historian, he says the late Fife Earl (the Thane) had a son who called himself in his mother-toungue (Gaelic) MakTosich Wichdhuie meaning “son of Thane”. He was predecessor of the Macintosh name. Search or Shaw may spring from attempts to anglicize the ancient “tosich”. We may take clan Macintosh to our hearts and call it our own, formed as it was by an ancient kinsman of our bloodline.

Ancestry of Duncan II 6th Earl of Fife, Cash progenitor

Duncan MacDuff, who became 1st. Earl of Fife with the accession of Malcolm III 1057 was born about 1016. He was the great-great-great-great grandfather of Duncan II, 6th Earl who married Ada half sister of Malcolm Ivth. In 1160.

No records exist, however it is our opinion that the 1st Earl was a great-grandson of Duff, King of Scots 962-67. A grand-son of King Duff’s son, Kenneth MacDuff who was king of Scots as Kenneth III 997-1006. His father is one of the unknown sons of king Kenneth.

Only one son of king Kenneth is known. Boedhe. Boedhe had a son also unknown who was murdered by Malcolm II as a youth before he had progeny. Kenneth also had a known daughter, Gruoch, who became the mother of MacBeth.

King Kenneths’s other sons are unknown, but it appears obvious that one of them fathered the man whose signature on ancient charters names him Duncan MacDuff, who became 1st Earl of Fife in 1057. ‘Mac’ in Scots is ‘son of’ and the ancestry of this 1st. Fife Earl must by that simple fact go back into the Duff heritage. He it was whom Shakespeare immortalized in his tragedy of MacBeth.

Sir Robert Sibbald, an early Scotch historian, connects the Gaelic word ‘duff’ with ‘swarthy’. We may assume in ancient days before King duff his ancestors of the Celtic tribe mixed to some extent with the Greeks and Spaniards as the tribal migration moved through these lands. Leaving its mark of black hair and eyes and swarthy skin to emerge in some families or individuals. Originally, we probably have here first a term of physical identity taken from these physical characteristics which later became a surname.

As the ancient Celts came in Scotia in 464 and mixed with the Picts (so noted because of the colors they painted upon their bodies), who were physically a fair red haired race likely in the intervening five centuries to King Duff.  The physical characteristics which had brought about the Duff identity, had lightened, coming on down the line to Duncan 6th Earl, who married Ada in 1160. We see him with black hair and eyes and slightly olive skin while we visualize Ada as the fair skinned blond haired blue eyed Celtic type.

Coming down from Duff king of Scots 962-67:
Duff, King of Scots 962-67
Kenneth MacDuff  his son, king of Scots 997-1005
Kenneth’s unknown son         Born ca 990-993
Duncan MacDuff            1st Earl of Fife born   ca 1015
Dufagen           His son 2nd Earl of Fife born 1035
Constantine    his son 3rd Earl of Fife 1107 died 1127
Giliemichael   his son 4th Earl of Fife 1128 died 1134
Duncan I       his son 5th Earl 1135 died 1154
Duncan II      his son 6th Earl 1154 died 1204

The 1st Fife Earl great-great-great-great grandfather of Duncan 6th Earl is to some historians a shadowy figure. He is contradictory. One Scots Peerage, Balfour-Paul, doubting his very existence. Another Douglas lists him without question as the 1st Earl of Fife. The majority of Scotch historians from earliest times to the present day agree also that he was the ancestral thesis herein is our own, not before published and the result of long and patient study. It has finally been supported though cautiously as might be expected due to the dearth of record by the office of the lord Lyon of Edinburgh.

The fact that the Fife Earle from the first MacDuff carried a standard of a rampant red lion on a gold field. . . a royal standard and later adopted by king William as royal standard of Scotland is to us a matter above doubt or argument.

We are dealing here with cloudy times in the dark ages of Scotland. Noble families divided sharply, brothers, uncles and nephews killed each other calmly and efficiently in their quest for power or inheritance. Murder stalked the throne and the families of claimants. The kings who murdered and the men who murdered to succeed them are known in history because of their crimes. Other than that, records of the noble families who lived within what law there was and were loyal to king and Scotland are almost non-existent.

Malcolm III was crowned at Scone, ten miles north of what became Cash about a century later in 1057. MacDuff 1st Earl of Fife undoubtedly seated him on the inaugural stone. This was the ancient symbol of the Celtic kingship used in Eire for centuries and brought to Scotia with our Dalriadian Scots in 464. From then on Earle of Fife placed succeeding kings on the sacred ‘Stone of Scone’ as one of the hereditary privileges granted them in perpetuity by Malcolm III.

Sir Robert Sibbald in his history of Fife, published in 1710 lists a 13th Earl as son of the 12th named Duncan. He married Mary and died sometime after 1353. Isabella, daughter of the 12th questioned Duncan as her brother and 13th Earl succeeded to the 14th in line through marriages to William Ramsay, Thomas Bisert and Walter Stuart. They became the 14th, 15th, and 16th Earls of Fife.  Then an indenture made in 1371 by Isabella, apparently through force or fear resigns the Earldom to Robert Stuart (Earl of Mentoith) brother of her deceased husband (Walter) and in it we note he takes control of Falkland castle and its surrounding forests.

Upon Robert Stuart’s death, Murdo or Murdock his son succeeds as 17th Earl. He is executed in 1424 by James 1st for crimes against the Earldom and the king. James seizes the Earldom and its lands and annexing all to the Scottish crown. The title, its honors and its power vanish from history after a tenure of four centuries.

As a note, there is an incident in the life of the 11th Earl worth mentioning. He had a sister, Isabel, wife of John Comyn (Earl of Buchan). At the time of the crowning of Robert Bruce as King of Scots in 1306, the young Earl was in England. Isabel rode to Scone, crowned Bruce and led him to the inaugural seat. By this act exercising the prerogative of the Fife Earls that had been granted the first Earl of Malcolm I. Sometime later she was captured by English soldiery and King Edward of England condemned her to an open cage attached to the outside of Berwick castle and open to public view. Here she spent four years. She is typical of many courageous Scotswomen of those times.

The heart of king Robert Bruce was, by his own explicit direction, taken by his most trusted knight (Sir James Douglas) to be presented by order of the king to the Holy Sepulchre where our Lord lay.

Casketed in silver, the heart in Sir James constant care, began its journey. James never reached Jerusalem. He kept to his ship (kept always his behavior and great triumph as though he were king of Scots himself). He had 26 young squires and gentlemen to serve him. His vessels were of gold and silver, pots, pans, basins, ewers, dishes, flagons and cups. All that came to see him were well served with wine and diverse manner of spices according to their degrees.

Near the Spanish border, Sir James was attacked by Saracens and though his party fought well, all were slain save William Keith. He was kept from the fight by a broken arm. He embalmed Sir James Body and took it and the heart in its silver casket back to Scotland where the heart lies in the Abbey of Melrose that Bruce had loved.

For over 800 years the parentage of Ada (our matriarch) has been obscured. Due to the ages of Malcolm the Ivths siblings he could not have had a niece of marriageable age. So the nepto mentioned in the land charter given at marriage could not have meant niece. A vast land dowry of the 1160 charter was not one to be given to a distant relative such as a cousin. The politics of the dark ages speak against such action. Additionally, to give Ada away in marriage she must be someone of close bloodline to be of equal rank and prestige as Malcolm himself. This also ensures complete loyalty of Fife to his crown. Perhaps the most compelling factor of all is that Malcolm placed in this marriage as co-head of Fife’s ruling house a woman his own close blood whose loyalty to him would be beyond question. By this marriage, she became Countess of Fife.

So from all of this, Ada would seem to emerge as the half-sister of Malcolm Ivth. Nowhere in ancient times do we find a term being used in either Celtic or Latin to describe such a relationship. So it would appear that the Latin ‘nepto’ of the charter was the only term available to the writing scribe to convey this meaning.

With this decision, we may go back beyond Scotland now with confidence and take the bloodline into a much older antiquity. Just a glimpse here:
<br>Some years ago we found in a Paris Museum, a genealogy
Which takes David I and his son Earl Henry, father of Malcolm Ivth and Ada, back thru the ancient Celtic kings of Ireland. Well beyond 1000 B.C. opening the way to a previous era in Spain, Greece and Egypt. Beyond which lies the formation of the Celtic race in the Himalays.

Why were Ada’s arms granted her by Malcolm IV king of Scots in 1160 never found in Scotland? Simply because they had been stolen by the soldiery of Edward of England, whose thefts of Scottish land, birth, marriage, genealogic and heraldic records was fantastic. At one time Edward had shipped 75 hogsheads of vital Scotch records to England. Oliver Cromwell, as lord protector of England about 1656 consigned to Scotland as a gesture of good will, the same number of hogsheads packed with records. They never reached Scotland. The ship was lost in a storm at sea.

Edward simply wanted to make sure that when his time came to finally crush the stubborn Scots that he would have a blueprint for the extermination of the nobles and their descendants. But he reckoned without Robert Bruce.

Ada’s arms were found in England, ferreted out and published by James Fairbairn, a Scot, who won fame for his able work on the heraldry of Great Britain and Ireland.

Ada and Duncan’s land grant from Malcolm Ivth was also not found in Scotland. A copy was found in the British museum in London. It had been copied by the Lord clerk register of Scotland from the original and its accuracy has never been questioned. We will concede that possibly the original was lost in the great fire of 1700 in Edinburgh.

THE TAKING OF THE SURNAME CASCHE-CASH:
As we come to the time when the descendants of Duncan and Ada, probably grand-son and great grand-son, first took the surname Casche. We are within a period almost barren of record. We do know that Duncan and Ada had these four children, as confirmed by Balfoour-Paul’s peerage of Scotland.

Malcolm      Who succeeded his father was 7th Earl
Died 1220 leaving no issue.
Duncan     Who married ‘the lady Aliz Corbet’
Daughter of Walter Corbet, of Makerstoun
Their progeny is unknown except for
Malcolm who is known because he became the 8th Earl of Fife.
David, who got from his father Duncan the lands of Strathbogie and whose son John took his
Surname from those lands as John de Strathbogie.
Daughter Name Unknown, who married about 1188 to the Son of Roger de Merlay.

The mark of cadency on Ada’s arms (the martlot) or baby martin atop the  wheat shock is the mark of a 4th son. While no record exists of who he was or of what generation the thought persists that he was of the 4th generation or a great-grandson of the progenitors (Duncan and Ada). This tells us that the arms of record were born about 1225. The fact that no record or public printing of these arms exists  supports the premise of their theft, removal to England and their suppression from public knowledge for the intervening centuries. This pilferage likely occurred between 1225 and the battle of Bannockburn (1314).

Seizure and diversion 1424:
John Stewart, Earl of Carrick, became King of Scotland in 1390 succeeding his father Robert II. He chose to rule under the name Robert III. Rather than John. He was 50 and in frail health. He was crippled from the kick of a horse in his youth. His vitality not equal to that of his arrogant nobles, he entrusted much of the government to his brother Robert Stewart. This proved to be an unwise choice.

In 1398, Robert III created his eldest son, David (age 21) Duke of Rothesay and the king’s brother he named to be Duke of Albany. This was the first creation of Dukes in Scotland. The ambition of Rothesay and the jealousy of Albany resulted in Rothesay’s death at Falkland castle which Albany then occupied. It was said he died of dysentery but circumstances were suspicious. He was quickly and secretly buried. The public accused Albany of murder, but lacking evidence, he was acquitted.

Meanwhile Robert III sent his only remaining son, James to France fearing for his safety. Enroute he was captured by the English and taken to London where he was imprisoned. The old king did not long survive these tragedies and died by 1407. The Scots parliament continued. Albany his brother as regent and with the prior declaration that James was now a captive in England became the lawful king.

Albany tried to prevent the return of the young king to Scotland. Albany died in 1419 and James being still a captive, Albany’s son Murdoch Stewart succeeded as Duke of Albany, Earl of Fife and Regent of Scotland. A cold, cunning and selfish man, ill fitted for these posts. Scotland shortly became a scene of anarchy, treason, and confusion.

The Earl of Douglas now negotiated with King Henry of England for James return and finally a ransom was arranged and paid by the Scots. In 1424, James with his queen Johanna whom he had married in England returned to Scotland. Murdoch exercising the prerogative of the Earls of Fife, placed him on the inaugural stone.

Determined to punish those responsible for his detention in England and for the muddled state of the Scotch government he quickly arrested Murdoch Stewart at Perth. Also detained were his wife, youngest son Alexander Stewart, his eldest son Walter, his aged father-in-law the Earl of Lennox and some twenty six other barons and noblemen whom history does not name. The heaviest blow fell on the House of Fife as Murdoch. Though they were James’ own kinsmen, the king had evidently decided to “strike the tall weeds first”.

Murdoch Stewart, his two sons and father-in-law were publicly executed at Stirling. The Earldom of Fife “with all its lands, manors and castles”, Strathmiglo, Kettle, Rathillet, Falkland were now seized and forfeited to the crown. The castle at Falkland, which had housed the later Earls of Fife now became a royal palace. Naturally the lands of Cash and the castle at Strathmiglo were included in the seizure because they had been originally chartered to an Earl of Fife. The other noblemen were then liberated.

So the old and lovely dream that had been Ada’s and Duncans’ in 1160 had now after 263 years come full circle to its end. Through suspicion, avarice, jealousy and lust for power men had died and the lands first granted in 1160 by Malcolm Ivth had returned to the Scottish crown. Our ancients who had occupied them were now without a home, their prestige severely damaged, perhaps in some circles even unwelcome in Scotland.

Our Cash ancients at Strathmiglo were victims of circumstances when the lineal descent from MacDuff ended with the childless Isabel. The Earldom through her three childless marriages was devolved upon Robert Stewart, brother of her second husband, Walter Stewart.

Murdoch as regent had visited Strathmiglo in 1420 and our people at the castle naturally gave him welcome at that time because he represented the government. He signed a document there, dating it “at the castle of Stramyglo”. Even this simple act of hospitality may have been recorded and later misjudged.

The end of these dark days had not been reached quite yet. As the pestilence entered Scotland in 1430 (called the Black Death of the English) and it raged for three years unchecked while countless thousands died. How many Cash’s succumbed to it can only be conjectured. It is possible only their various migrations saved some family units. By recorded history we know that some of the migrants went to Ireland, clan country (with the added Mac), Bohemia( southern Germany and spelled with a ‘K’ instead of a ‘C’), England and immigrants to this country.

Scant record is left of all this unhappy business but through it all moves a sinister figure, who stays discreetly behind the scenes. It is Walter, Duke of Atholl, who is by blood just one step from the throne. That step is James’ baby son and middle ages has a way of dealing with such small handicaps. It was Atholl who encouraged James to strike down the Fife house, feeling that their vengeance would remove James Ist. It was he, who planned the kings murder and even had a hand in the murder of young Rothesay.
Atholl was crowned king by Queen Joan after James’ death.

The surname is scarce in Scotland today. Whether upon the death of James Ist in 1436, Cash’s returned to Fife, there is no record. But it seems doubtful that they returned to a province other than Fifo. Perhaps near the coast seems more probable. William the Salem mariner who brought our Immigrant to these shores was born in Scotland about 1625, province unknown. The immigrant William was also born there about 1650 and this in spite of king, plague and dispersion.

The mariner’s documented reference to his place of origins “the place Cash, near Strathmiglo Fife, Scotland” has led us back there and his description has proved correct. From that small beginning, we have traced back the history as written in this material.

The unique situation here is that there is little doubt but what the mariner and our immigrant were uncle-nephew, making the New England Cash group and ours kin. However, due to the destruction of vital records in Scotland, we have been unable to document what we so sincerely believe.