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Scottish Tattoo Designs >> Sandilands

Sandilands Clan Tattoos - This name comes from the lands of Sandilands in Clydesdale. The family who were later to bear the name, may originally have fled to Scotland from Northumberland in the reign of Malcolm III. Sir James Sandilands distinguished himself in the wars against the English, and was rewarded with a royal charter to his lands by David II (1329-1371). He married Eleanor, the only daughter of Sir Archibald Douglas, Regent of Scotland, who was the widow of Alexander Bruce, Earl of Carrick. Sandilands received from his brother-in-law, Lord Douglas, the lands of Calder in Lothian.

The Sandilands found themselves on the death of the second Earl of Douglas, but they went instead to George, Earl of Angus, Douglas's natural son. James was succeeded by his son, John. The Sandilands found themselves in opposition to their Douglas relatives as they were unshaken in their loyalty to James II. John Sandilands and his uncle, James, were assassinated at Dumbarton by Patrick Thornton on the orders of the Douglas faction. James Sandilands then inherited the estates and married an heiress, Margaret Kinlock of Curvie, established the line later to become Lords of Abercrombie. Sir James Sandilands of Calder, a friend of the Protestant reformer, John Knox, was also preceptor of the powerful religious and military Order of the Knight of St. John, whose headquarters were in Torphichen in West Lothian.

Clan Sandilands Motto: Spero Meliora ~ From Latin: I Hope for Better Things

See also: Claddagh, Thistle Tattoos, Scottish Lion Tattoo Designs, Welsh Dragons, Scottish Tattoo Designs, Celtic Tattoo Designs, Family Crests, Eagle