A heritage consultant was searching to find out if Kate Middleton had ancestors from Scotland. The research revealed that Prince William actually has an ancestor who was a Middleton. These are the kinds of stories that make genealogy research seem absolutely fascinating.
Gordon Casely, who is a heritage consultant, was interested in finding out if Kate Middleton’s family tree could be connected to ancestors from Scotland. Instead, he discovered that Prince William was a direct descendent of a man named John Middleton, a man who lived in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in the seventeenth century.
John Middleton, according to Gordon Casely, was a “hard drinking” man. He was the son of a laird from the parish of Luthermuir. What is a laird? This word simply means that a person was a landowner, and had a large estate. John Middleton was known as “Jock”. His parents were Robert Middleton of Caldhame (the laird), and his wife, Elizabeth Strachan. John Middleton was born around 1608.
When John Middleton was thirteen years old, he enlisted as a regimental pikeman. By the time he was 32, he had become a lieutenant- general. Later, in 1646, he became commander of the Covenanting forces in Scotland. For some reason, he switched over to supporting the Royalist cause in 1648. This eventually led him to become Charles II’s commissioner to the Scottish Parliament at the Restoration in 1660. He also became governor of Tangier, and an Earl. John Middleton lived in a government house. In 1674, he was “befuddled with drink”, which caused him to fall down the stairs. The injuries from that fall are what killed him.
John Middleton had a daughter named Lady Helen Middleton. Lady Helen was a descendant of Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Lady Elizabeth was the fourteenth daughter of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. She is better known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. She is the great grandmother of Prince William.
This particular bit of genealogy research started out as little more than a curiosity. Did Kate Middleton have Scottish ancestry? Gordon Casely didn’t end up finding anything to suggest that this was true. Unexpectedly, he uncovered a little known connection between Prince William, and an ancestor who was, in fact, a Middleton. From what I can tell, this does not mean that Prince William is in any way related to Kate Middleton. It does suggest that Kate can wear the Middleton tartan, both because of her surname, and because she will be marrying someone who is of Middleton descent.
Image by Jacek Kopecky on Flickr