our past historic

From Comyn to Gordon-Cumming

Clan Cumming is believed to descend from the Norman Robert of Comyn (Comines) who fought alongside William the Conqueror, becoming in due course Earl of Northumberland.  He left two sons John and William.  William Comyn is recorded as Chancellor to King Henry l of England and as Bishop of Durham and then in 1133 as Chancellor of Scotland to King David l. His nephew Richard Comyn, son of John and grandson of Robert, supported the claimant to the Scottish throne David 1st and married the granddaughter of the former Scottish king Donald lll. His descendants acquired further land and influence through strategic marriages and by 1300 were the most powerful clan in Scotland holding 13 Scottish earldoms. Richard is said by some historians to be the real founder of the Scottish Comyns. The insignia of the clan was the cumin plant – in Gaelic Lus Mhic Cuiminn.

The clan flourished strongly in Badenoch, south-east Inverness-shire from circa 1080-1330 based at Lochindorb Castle.  William’s brother John –father to Richard – is seen by many historians as the keystone of the family line.  It is his direct descendant Sir John Comyn  -‘the Red Cumin’ – who was the first lord of Badenoch and later in 1240 ambassador of Alexander ll to King Louis lX of France. Sir John’s son –also John – was known as the Black Lord of Badenoch and was later a candidate for the Scottish crown. His son, also known as the Red Cumin, was the last Cumin to hold the title of Lord Badenoch.  The high mark in the family’s political fortunes passed with the slaying of a number of Comyn nobles at the battle of Culbleau in Glenwick in 1335.

John ‘the Black’ Comyn married the sister of Donald lll’s successor John Balliol. Their son John ‘the Red’ Comyn became the most powerful man in Scotland and was, after the death of William Wallace,  rival to and co leader with Robert Bruce of the Scottish forces which fought the War of Independence from England. Bruce murdered Red Comyn at a meeting in Greyfriars Church, Dumfries 1306. The subsequent factionalism that broke out between supporters of both parties saw an end to the hegemony of the Comyns at the Battle of Inverurie 1308.

The armorial bearings of John ’the Red’ Comyn, used in modern times by the chief of Clan Cumming , may derive from the arms of the Campdeveine family who were Counts of St Pol in the 11th century. Their jurisdiction included the town of Comines near Lille.  The arms of John Comyn were identical to those borne by Hugues Campdeveine, Seigneur de Beauval, in the 12th century. Their common motif is 3 sheaths of golden barley set on a blue background. The original Campdeveine arms comprised a single sheath of barley on an azur background. Their name in modern French corrupts as champ d’avoine – field of barley. This association suggests that the Comyns may actually have been Flemish in origin rather than Norman. On the death of John the Red the chieftainship fell to the Cummings of Altyre.

The 14th-16th century inflicted further decline. Castle Grant, a former Comyn stronghold was taken by the Grants and MacGregors in the 14th century and the Comyn chief slain. By the 15th century Clan Cumming, as it now was known, was no longer at the centre of government or a source of power, although its influence continued to flourish in  Badenoch, Strathspey and in Aberdeenshire. Feuds continued throughout the 15th-16th centuries with other clans – notably Clan Macpherson, Clan Brodie and Clan Shaw over land in Nairnshire. In 1550 Alexander Brodie and his supporters were denounced as rebels for attacking the Cummings of Altyre. Heavily outnumbered, Clan Cumming emerged victors in support of the Earl of Huntly against the Earl of Argyll at the Battle of Glenlivet 1594. In the 16th and 17th centuries we learn of members of Clan Cumming serving as the hereditary pipers and fiddlers to the Laird of Grant of Clan Grant.

By the mid 18th century the Cummings of Altyre were better known for their civic associations in the area and with Forres in particular. George Cumming, son of Alexander Cumming and Elizabeth Brodie was Provost of Forres,  holding the Civic Chair from 1757-59. George took part in the Battle of Falkirk where his horse was shot from under him, and where he was trampled by retreating cavalry. At the end of the war in 1763 he retired from the army to Altyre and had much influence over the estate. George was succeeded in turn by his grand nephew Alexander Penrose Cumming who in 1773 married Helen Grant, fifth daughter of Sir Ludovick Grant of Grant. Alexander became Provost of Forres from 1776-78 and again from 1782-84. Sir Alexander Penrose Gordon Cumming had seven sons and nine daughters. The Gordon-Cumming baronetcy was created on 27 May 1804 for the then Alexander Cumming –Gordon formerly Member of Parliament for Inverness Burghs.

Sir Alexander Gordon-Cumming was succeeded in 1806 by his third son William Gordon.  Following his first wife’s death he married Jane Eliza Mackintosh and two of their children became well known. Constance Gordon Cumming became a notable author and travel writer with a gift for painting – a body of her work was gifted to the Forres Mechanics Institute. Roualeyn Gordon Cumming , second  son of Sir William, became a well travelled African explorer. He inspired a verse from his sister:

Ah! Who like the Cumming – in valour the peerless
With the heart of a lion, yet a lamb at the core;
The Nimrod of Afric, the dauntless, the fearless,
Earth hath not thy patter – Roualeyn no more.

Sir William was succeeded by Sir Alexander Penrose Gordon Cumming (1816-1866) and followed in turn by his son Lt Col Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming the 4th baronet who, born 1848, inherited in 1866 at the age of eighteen three large Moray estates - Altyre, Gordonstoun and Dallas-  amounting to over 38,000 acres and covering an area of 156km2. Two years later he secured a commission in the Scots Guards, fought in the Anglo-Zulu War, rose to the rank of Lt Colonel and at one stage found himself shipwrecked off the coast of Cape Town. He led a colourful life in London society before marrying in June 1891 the American heiress Florence Josephine Garner. Her drive and resources were instrumental in reshaping Altyre until the Wall Street Crash in 1929 depleted her fortune.

However, their stewardship was probably the heyday of the estate. They commissioned the Arts and Crafts architect WL Carruthers and later John Kinross of Edinburgh to redesign and redevelop Altyre. The house was designed by Carruthers in 1895 originally as The Parsonage for the nearby Episcopal Chapel. It was further enlarged in 1932 before being demolished in 1962 and being replaced by the current Altyre House. The marriage produced four children and on Sir William’s death in May 1930 he was succeeded by the fifth baronet Sir Alexander Penrose Gordon –Cumming (1893-1939).

On the latter’s death in 1939, Sir William Gordon Cumming became laird at the tender age of 11 and following active service in the 1940s he returned home to devote his entire life to the estate. His tenure until his death in 2002 is notable for the stability it brought to Altyre. An exemplary sportsman and a progressive landowner he stands out as the ‘architect’ of the modern estate.  He became a notable figure in forestry and was regarded as a far sighted conservationist.  His knowledge of woodland and his innovative approach to forest and environmental management mark him out as a rural thinker ahead of his time. With his passing in 2002 the current laird, his son Sir Alastair Gordon-Cumming, inherited the estate as 7th baronet.

Born in 1954, Sir Alastair pursued a successful early career as a Lloyds insurance broker returning home to Altyre in 1991 to take on the co-management the estate. He assumed full control as laird in 2002 and has sought since to build on his father’s philosophy and practice. Most notably by consolidating Altyre as a ‘family estate’. The development of this web site marks a new era in the diversification and renewal of Altyre as it embraces, under his stewardship, investment in renewable energy, the creation of a rural enterprise centre, new forms of employment, a commitment to establish the estate as a low carbon economy and exciting plans to develop an education function. It is very much an ‘enabling’ vision and one his father would surely have shared. Ultimately, as the present laird reminds all who venture to Altyre there is the historic and enduring commitment to Moray itself– the touchstone for those who precede him and the custodians who follow.