October 3, 2021
Sterling's in Texas
Charles and Esther Sterling followed a tradition of naming their children after relatives. So, brother Marion Bruce was apparently named after Uncle Marion Sterling, Dorothy Lee after Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Lee Bair, Peggy Jo after Uncle Joe Heacock, Fanny Alice after her two grandmothers, Winfield after his grandfather, Richard Scott after his uncle Richard Heacock, Ruth Genevieve after her great aunt Genevieve Knowles, John Charles after his father and Peter Knowles after the Knowles family. Yes, there are likely many other connections, but you get the picture, right?
Stirlings in Scotland
The lass behind the desk at some Scottish museum explained that Sterling Castle was "not named after anyone". My question had been: "For whom is Sterling Castle named"? I had been wondering if this castle had been named after one of my Stirling ancestors. I concluded that this poor girl likely did not know the truth. Surely, Edinburg Castle was named after someone -- how else? Ever since that time in 1993 when Pat and I toured Scotland, I have accepted this conclusion.
But, I was wrong. My apologies to the Scottish lass who was serving as a receptionist. She was right! How do I know? I recently observed that the word "Stirling" means a "place of strife" in Old English. And, the town of Stirling, Scotland is definitely a place where a battle was fought between the English and the Scots. The Scottish hero, William Wallace led the Scots to victory over the English at Sterling and there were other battles in the neighborhood. So, Stirling City and Stirling Castle were definitely a "place of strife". The city and the castle were apparently named after the place and not some Scottish Laird.
It is also likely that my parents did not know the genealogy of the Sterlings back into Scotland or they might have chosen the name "Thoraldus" for one of their children. Thoraldus de Strivelyn was born about 1070 to 1090 and of Celtic descent. He was later sent to Scotland to civilize the "wild" Scottish tribes. According to Albert and Edward Sterling (see reference below), Thoraldus is the father of all Sterlings, whether they are named Strivelyn, Sterling, Starling, Stirling or hundreds of other spellings of the name around the world. Interestingly, it was during this time that it became fashionable to take on a surname to help describe a person. So, they came up with names like Thomas son of John, or Peter the Baker, Jack the Smith, or Thoraldus of Stirling.
Apparently, Thoraldus settled in the town of Cadder located 7 km north of Glasgow, Scotland city center, 0.5 km south of the River Kelvin, and approximately 1.5 km north-east of Bishopbriggs town center sited on the route of the Forth and Clyde Canal. So, maybe we can consider Cadder in Lanarkshire, Scotland as our original ancestral home. Anyway, a visit to Cadder might make it possible for us to envision what it might have been like to live there about 940 years ago. This is a place where you can wear a dress (kilt) and still be considered manly. You might also be interested in knowing that Toraldus was Vicecomes de Stirling, the Sherrif of Stirlingshire, Scotland, and a viscount is ranked between a duke and an earl. This suggests that all Sterlings are descended from nobility. Wow!
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| Location of Cadder | |
However, Cadder does not appear to be much of a place. The town of Stirling and Stirling Castle lie at the crossroads of Scotland and this could account for the derivation of the name which means place of strife. Appearing in a charter of David I of Scotland in around 1147 is Thoraldus who held the lands of Cadder.
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| Sterling Castle is located in Sterling, Scotland |
More recently, I found a second Cadder location, much closer to Glasgow. The estate of Cadder is about four miles north of Glasgow, on the road to
Kirkintilloch, and a short way beyond Bishopbriggs. It has been the property of
the ancient family of Stirling, uninterruptedly, for
nearly 700 years. A charter of the lands exists in the muniment room at Keir, in
favour of Sir Alexander Strieuling, as far back as the reign of William the
Lion, in the twelfth century.
American Family Visits to Scotland
Lee and Suzanne Sterling were married in Scotland. I don't remember their reason, but it helped establish the relationship between the American Sterlings and our Scottish heritage. Certainly made a memorable photo!
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| Lee and Suzanne Sterling in Scotland |
Also, Pat and Winfield traveled over much of Scotland in 1992.
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| Win in downtown Stirling City, Scotland |
In preparation for a trip to Scotland, be aware of the following:
Edward Topham wrote in 1774 that “the winds reign in all their violence, and seem indeed to claim the country as their own.” Of course, anyone who reads a travel guide should know to expect the worst, for this is a country that embraces magnificent climatological legends. All true and all understated. They begin with rain followed by showers, followed by heavy rain, drenching rain, a bit of rain, light showers, a soft rain, lightening showers, driving rain, a forcing rain, easing showers, a touch of dampness, pouring rain, horizontal rain, sleety rain, rainy sleet.
And did I mention the wind? Howling, screeching, relentless, hurricanelike, a hard blow, a light blow, pushing breezes, gusts, gentle gusts, hard gusts, moderate gusts, intense gusts, and, one of my favorites, blowing gusts.
Starr, William W. (2012-06-04T23:58:59.000). Whisky, Kilts, and the Loch Ness Monster. University of South Carolina Press. Kindle Edition.
Stirling City
(Not to be confused with Sterling City, Texas.)
"Stirling is a city in central Scotland, 26 miles northeast of Glasgow and 37 miles northwest of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its merchants and tradesmen, the Old Bridge and the port. Located on the River Forth, Stirling is the administrative centre for the Stirling council area and is traditionally the county town of Stirlingshire. Proverbially it is the strategically important "Gateway to the Highlands".
It has been said that "Stirling, like a huge brooch clasps Highlands and Lowlands together". Similarly "he who holds Stirling, holds Scotland" is often quoted. Stirling's key position as the lowest bridging point of the River Forth before it broadens towards the Firth of Forth made it a focal point for travel north or south.
When Stirling was temporarily under Anglo-Saxon sway, according to a 9th-century legend, it was attacked by Danish invaders. The sound of a wolf roused a sentry, however, who alerted his garrison, which forced a Viking retreat. This led to the wolf being adopted as a symbol of the town as is shown on the 1511 Stirling Jug. The area is today known as Wolfcraig. Even today the wolf appears with a goshawk on the council's coat of arms along with the recently chosen motto: "Steadfast as the Rock".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling
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| Stirling Castle |
It seems an odd coincidence that Charles and Esther Sterling's nine children were born in Edinburg, Texas which is named after Edinburgh, Scotland which is located very close to our ancestral home in Sterling or Cadder, Scotland.
Also, somewhere in the Sterling lineage from Thoraldus was a fellow named James born in 1599. He left Keir, Scotland, and went to Hertfordshire, England. There he changed the spelling of his name from Stirling to Sterling. James claimed that he made the change in his name because he was an Englishman and desired his name to be the same as the purest silver of his country, namely Sterling Silver.
Please do not confuse the name "Thoraldus" with Pat's friend "Thorvald" who is a mystical creature from Sweden -- as found in the Swedish Museum in Minot, ND.
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| Thorvald and Pat |
Coming to America
From the Sterling genealogy copied at the Clayton Library in Houston by Dorothy Sterling Cavanaugh:
"Andrew, Roger, and Robert Starling - their family and descendants Andrew, Roger, and Robert Starling or Sterling, accompanied by another brother probably named John, sailed from Southampton, England, touched at the Isle of Wight, and reached the American coast before the Revolutionary War. For some reason, they did not enter New York Harbor but disembarked on the New Jersey coast.
According to tradition, the only authority, the fourth brother was lost at sea.
Tradition also relates that these brothers were born near London, on the meridian of Greenwich, and that they were closely related to Sir Samuel Starling, Lord Mayor of London in 1670. The genealogy of this family, therefore, is constructed in part from the known record of the family of Sir Samuel, as follows:
Samuel Starling of Stoppesley Hall, parish of Lutton, Bedfordshire, England, probably born within the first decade of the 17th century, married and was the father of at least: Sir Samuel Starling, Lord Mayor.
A son, probably named William. Magdalene Starling married Edward Wilford of Enfield, Middlesex. A daughter, who married a Mr. Rutland. "
I have made no serious attempt to find all the definitive ancestral evidence linkages between Thoraldus and the Charles Sterling family. It may be impossible.
Stirling's in Revolutionary War
In 1758 Sir Thomas Stirling came to America and served in the French and Indian War's Canadian campaign. After the war, Britain took control of the land between the American colonies west to the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. He departed Fort Pitt going down the Ohio to Fort de Chartres to take possession of Illinois Country for the Crown in October 1765. In 1767 Stirling went back to Great Britain but returned to America later to serve with the British forces during the American War of Independence. Promoted to the rank of General, Stirling served as Colonel of the 41st Regiment of Foot from 1790 until his death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Thomas_Stirling,_5th_Baronet
Stirling Clan
Clan castles
- Cadder Estate was the ancient seat of the chiefs of Clan Stirling.
- Drumpellier House
- Keir House
- Dumbarton Castle, several chiefs of Clan Stirling from the 15th century onwards have been sheriffs of Dunbarton.
- Glorat House, Home to the Stirlings of Glorat
For some history of the Sterling Clan, check out:
https://familypedia.fandom.com/wiki/Clan_Stirling
For the special Sterling weave used in kilts etc., check out:
https://clan.com/family/stirling/products/filterby/category_id-scarves
Acknowledgment
We owe a debt of gratitude to Albert Mack and Edward Boker Sterling who compiled "The Sterling Geneology" https://archive.org/details/sterlinggenealog02inster. I was particularly impressed with their one statement as follows (in one long sentence):
"A genealogy is necessarily, in great part, a repetition of the dry records of births, marriages, and deaths, but if the student of his ancestry will consider what a vast amount of happiness, joy, pathos, and sorrow have been associated with every one of these many dates and how vital each event was that these dates chronicle, to one or more of the blood, and that around such commonplace episodes cluster our dearest affections, he will find that these simple records contain all the elements that appeal to our highest natures, and an earnest consideration of the simple, humble lives of our parents and their forbears cannot but serve to strengthen our own purposes in the paths of modesty, gentleness, and duty."
Albert and Edward also caution us to expect some errors in their genealogy so that we should not treat any information or dates as absolute. But, as is the method of science, we can accept this genealogy as a true, working hypothesis until objective, counter-evidence is found.
Have a great day!
Table of Contents: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6813612681836200616/3382423676443906063?hl=en
