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.