Cummings Family Tree research resources

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Did you know that in the 1881 UK census there were 4613 people with the Cummings surname? In that year Cummings was ranked number 920 for popularity in the UK.

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"CUMMING, CUMMINGS, CUMING, CUMINE, CUMMINE. The once powerful family of Comyn or Cumyn are believed to have come from the town of Comines near Lille on the frontier between France and Belgium, though there is no positive evidence in favor of this view. The name is always written without 'de' in early Scots records. Andrew of Wyntoun's account of the origin of the name is quaint and amusing if not trustworthy. He tells us that of "... thre brejer of Normondy, Faire 3oung men and rycht ioly, In Scotland baid Je 3oungest broker, William wes his proper name. Thus duelt he with )e King Williame, The quhilk saw him a faire persoune; Forthy in gret effectioun The king )an had ]is ilk man. For vertu he saw in him )an, He maid him, for he wes stark and sture, Kepare of his chalmer dure. Na langage couth he speke clerely, Bot his avne langage of Normundy; NeuerJeles 3it qunen )at he Wald opin )e dure to mak entre, 'Cum in, cum in,' )an wald he say, As he herd o}er bid perfay. Be }'is oiss Kii callit him )en William Cumyn with all men." Wyntoun, book vin, c. cxxxix. The first of the name connected with Scotland is Willelmus Comyn, a churchman, chancellor to David I. He was promoted to the bishopric of Durham by the Empress Matilda, but had many controversies with his clergy. Later he was poisoned by some of their number who mixed poison with the wine of the Sacrament and gave it to him to drink. Richard Cumyn, second of the name in Scotland, made a gift of the church of Lyntun-ruderic ( (Linton-Roderick) to the Abbey of Kelso for the weal of the souls of Earl Henry (d. 1152) and his own son, John (Kelso, 274). He also witnessed charters by William the Lion after 1165 (REM., 1, 2). By his marriage with Hextilda, granddaughter of Donald Bane, king of Scots, he had a son, William, who became 0 chancellor and great justiciary of Scotland. William married Marjory, daughter and heiress of Fergus, the last Celtic earl of Buchan between 1211-24, and in right of his wife became earl of Buchan. Through other fortunate marriages the family "obtained, for a time, the earldoms of Angus and Athole, so that, by the middle of the 13th century, there were in Scotland 4 earls, 1 lord, and 32 belted knights of the name of Comyn. Within seventy years afterwards this great house was so utterly overthrown that, in the words of a contemporary chronicle, 'there was no memorial left of it in the land, save the orisons of the monks of Deer' (founded as a Cistercian monastery by William Comyn, earl of Buchan, in 1219)" (Chambers's Encyclopaedia, s.v. Comyn). Simon Comyn, a native of Coldingham, had letters of denisation in England, 1463 (Bain, rv, 1336). In the time of Gilbert Cumin, lord of the lands of Glenchearnach, it is said that many of the oppressed people from neighboring districts sought his protection. These he adopted as clansmen by a form of baptism using the stone hen-trough which stood near the castledoor. Cumins so created were called Cuminichclach-nan-cearc, or 'Cumins of the hen-trough' to distinguish them from the Cumins of blue blood. A Gaelic rhyme anent the Cummings runs: Fhad's bhios maide arms a' dit nil Cha Cuimeanach gun fhoitt. ( So long as there is a stick in the wood There will not be a Gumming without treachery. ) Which the Cummings have rendered: Fhad's bhios maide anns a' choul Cha bhi foul an Cuimeanach. ( So long as there is a stick in the wood There will not be treachery in a Gumming. ) (Wardlaw, p. 68n.) "_{(The surnames of Scotland. George Fraser Black, 1866-1948)}

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