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Lauder
Some suggestions cite ‘de Lavedre’ as the original name, an Anglo-Norman knight accompanying Malcolm Canmore to Scotland in 1056. However most believe Lauder to be topographical, from Lauder/Lauderdale in Berwickshire. The name’s origins are contested; some listing the Celtic ‘Lauder’, others ‘Lauther’ from the town and land of Lauder. Further study suggests a Bretonic word old French ‘lavandier’, one who washes, washerman, i.e. our English ‘Launder’.
Around 1250 Robertus de Lavedre accompanied David, Earl of Haddington, brother of William the Lion, to the Holy Land. This link may denote a shared root with the Bretonic name. The Lauder family were the first possessors of the Bass Rock, then sometimes termed ‘Lauders of the Bass’.
The direct family line passed to the Lauders of Newington and they were erected as Baronets of Nova Scotia in 1688. The seventh baronet was Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, a friend of Sir Walter Scott. Lauder changed its spelling to Lawther or Leather in Ulster in the 1600’s, while in the Midlands it was changed to Louther or Luther. Louth or Lood may possibly be derived from the Old English – “A noisy individual” while Louthe or Luda may mean the “Dwellers by the Roaring Stream”, again from the old English. Lowther is the family name of the Earls of Lonsdale, a large family whose first appearance in public life is noted in the reigns of Henry II and Henry III. Since then they have been a very influential family in Cumberland and Westmoreland. People with derivations of these names are recommended to use the Lauder District Tartan, as there are no clan connections, being predominantly Lowland names. The tartan first appeared in the Vestarium Scoticum by the brothers John Sobieski and Charles Edward Stuart in 1842. Other references cite samples from around 1830’s referred to in the Paton Collection.
Choose from one of the Lauder tartans listed below:
