 Bef 1067 - Aft 1127 (61 years)
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| Name |
Thor (Thorlongus) Sweynsson Of Crawford |
| Birth |
Bef 1067 |
Ednam, Kelso, Berwickshire, Scotland  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
Aft 1127 |
Crawford, Clydesdale, Lanarkshire, Scotland [1] |
| Person ID |
I70213 |
Cecilie Family |
| Last Modified |
2 Mar 2009 |
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| Notes |
- Thor; probably identical with the nobleman Thor Sweyn's Son (possibly of Northumbrian origin) who witnessed charters of David I 1127-1150 and was overlord of the great mountainous district of Crawford in Clydesdale; granted the church fo Tranent to the monks of Holyrood. [Burke's Peerage]
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Note: I believe that Burke's would have Thor living through 1150, but in order to accomodate information from several websites on the Crawfords, I have interpreted the above to be through 1127, with him born 1067 or earlier, according to the following information from a Crawford family website, http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~bianco/Resources/Crawford.html:
Origin of the Crawfurds
This surname is known to be local, and assumed from the barony of Craufurd, or Craufuirde, (supposed to be of Celtic etymology, and meaning Cattle-passage,) in the upper ward of Clydesdale. But the origin of the family, instead of being native to Scotland, as was generally thought, is now found to be of Danish extraction, or rather from those Anglo-Danes, who, for a long period previous to the Normans conquest possessed that part of England from the river Humber northwards, known in those early times by the name of Northumberland, - a territory of much greater extent, than the modern county of that name, as it included, also, the shires of Durham and of York.
According to that accurate genealogist, George Crawfurd, author of the Scottish Peerage, and the History of Renfrewshire, and of the House of Stewart, both published more than 100 years ago, the Craufurds are derived from Thor-Longus, an Anglo-Danish chief, who, being expelled from Northumberland by William the Conqueror, found an asylum in Scotland, and in particular had a grant of land in the Merse, from Edgar, King of Scots, whose reign is included betwixt the year 1097 and the 8th Jan. 1106-7.
This appears from Crawfurd's M.S. history of the Craufurds, in the Advocates Library, Edinburgh, and is corroborated by Anderson, in his Diplomata, compiled at the desire of the Scots Parliament, who has this notice of Thor-Longus. "Hic vir nobilis, et Anglus genere, faisse, videtur ac forte idem qui Thor in libro, vulgo dicto, Doomsday Book, saepius memoratius, amplissimis suis praediis in borealibus Angliae partibus sitis a Gullielmo Conquisitore erat exutus."
At what particular time his expulsion took place, does not precisely appear; but it seems probable, that it must have been betwixt the year 1069 and 1074, when, from the unsubmissive spirit of the Northumbrians, they brought down on their own heads the most direful wrath of the conqueror, who was so provoked with them for joining their original countrymen, the Danes, who had at that time invaded England, (and whom, for all his prowess, he was fain to buy off,) that "he swore, by the splendour of God, that he would not leave a soul alive. -And so soon as he found it in his power (the foreigners being now gone,) to be avenged of them, he ravaged their country in so merciless a manner, that for 60 miles together, he did not leave a single house standing." See Rapin, V.i.p.172.
All this took place betwixt the years as above stated; and as they were quite subdued by the last of these dates (1074), and as there appears to have been no more exterminating spoliation of this part of the country afterwards, during William's reign, it seems to be a fair conclusion, that this Anglo-Danish chief had found it necessary to fly, and make his escape to Scotland, during the interim mentioned. The era of the Doomsday Book itself (1079,) in which Thor is mentioned to have been, before that time, deprived of his possessions, should be a concluding evidence of the fact.
That he obtained lands in Scotland during the reign of King Edgar, appears distinctly from the following writs copied from the M. S. of Crawfurd, and which also are to be found in the archives of the cathedral of Durham.
CHARTA THORLONGI
Omnibus sanctae matris Ecclesiae filiis Thor-Longus in Domino salutem. Sciatis quod Edgarus Dominus meus, Rex Scottorum dedit mihi AEdnaham desertam, quam ego, suo auxilio et mea propria pecunia, inhabitavi, et ecclesiam in honorem sancti Cuthberti fabricavi, quam ecclesiam cum una earrucata terrae, Deo et sancto Cuthberto et monachis ejus in perpetuum possidendam dedi; hanc igitur donationem feci pro anima domini mer Regis Edgari et pro animabus patris et matris illius et pro redemptione Lefwini patris mei dilectissimi, et pro meimet ipsius tam corporis quam animae salute, et siquis hanc meam donationem sancto predicto et monachis sibi servientibus aliqua vi vel ingenio auferre presumserit, auferat ab eo Deus omnipotens vitam Rengi celestis, et cum diabolo et angelis ejus poenas sustineat eternas. Amen.
EJUSDEM
Domino suo charissimo David Comiti, Thor. omnibusque suis salutem, scias domine mi, quod Edgarus Rex frater vester dedit mihi Ednaham desertam quam ego suo auxilio et mea pecunia inhavitavi, et ecclesiam a fundamentis fabric??? quam frater vester Rex in honorem sancti Cuthberti fecit, dedicavit, et uno carrucata terrae cam dotavit. Hanc eandem ecclesiam pro anima ejusdem domini mei Regis Edgari et patris et matris vestri et pro salute vostra et Regis Alexandri et Mathildis Reginae, sancto predicto et monachis ejus dedi, unde vos precor sicut dominum meum charissimum, ut pro animabus parentum vestrorum et pro salute vivorum hanc donationem sancto Cuthberto, et monachi sibi in perpetuam servituris concedatis.
This historiam deduces the Crawfurds from the above Thorlongus in the following order of succession.
1. Thorlongus, who has charters, as above, in the reign of King Edgar, (inter 1097 et 1107), and whose seal in the first is quite entire, (see a fac-simile of it in the annexed genealogical tree,) had two sons; 1. Swame; 2. William, whose name appears in a charter by William de vetere-ponte, in the archives of Durham.
2. Swane, son of Thorlongus, whose name appears in several charters of the same age, as in one by King Edgar, to the monastery of Coldingham, of the land of Swinton, also in one in the reign of David I. as possessing the Fishery at Fiswick near Berwick; and others in the archives.
Note: The above website had a descent from Sweyn/Swane that did not agree with other sources, so I used the descent from another Crawford family website, www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/cc4rz/crawford01.htm, for the descent from Swane.
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| Sources |
- [S1629] Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 106th Edition, Charl, 502 (Reliability: 3).
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