DIVORTY family - Huguenot refugees?

[TetleyT]

I know this is an old thread.  However, I just broke down a brick wall and a found a Divorty ancestor a generation beyond that.  Katherine Divvorty was one of my 5th great grandmothers.  She was born 1747 in Premnay, Aberdeen and married Robert Alexander in 1768 in Insch, Aberdeen.

Once I discovered that ancestor, I searched for more information on the surname because it was not a familiar one to me.  Since there was some discussion here about early records for that surname, I thought I would share one reference that I came across.  It is a free Google Books copy of the Register of the Privy Council 1619-1622.  One of the 1619 entries on page 137 mentions a George Divortie of Essilmonth (Aberdeen).  George is an adult by then, so must have been born in the late 1500s.

A complaint was made by another man that  George Divortie  "set upon him, and cruellie and unmercifullie invaidit and persewit him of his lyff with a durke, and thairwith gaif him tua grite straikis and woundis in the head and ane in the small of his bak ." The said George Divortie then went to his own house, and "brocht furth thairof ane hagbute in his hand and a pair of pistollettis about him," intending to kill the complainer; and he wore these weapons on his person for eight days, "and lay at await for the said Thomas Greig about his house, sua that for just feir of his lyff he durst not come furth of his house ."


https://books.google.ca/books?id=8h05AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA137&lpg=PA137&dq=divortie+aberdeen&source=bl&ots=F7fE8fGwp6&sig=ACfU3U2ygFrcopRSm5mIwK9AaZe2SBTV3w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGi8-QjsiEAxVjHNAFHWREC8EQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=divortie%20aberdeen&f=false

[Forfarian]

G F Black's The Surnames of Scotland doesn't suggest an origin for the name.

However the earliest reference in Scotland is in 1492, when Martin Divorty was vicar of Petty (a few miles east of Inverness). If Wikipedia is correct in attributing the term Huguenot to the Genevan burgomaster Besançon Hugues (1491–1532), then this Divorty pre-dates the Huguenots by some decades.

Black also offers a large range of variants, including Divertie, Dovertie, Durty, Dirty, Durtty, Dwertty, Douerty, Devertie, Dovartie, Dovertie, Davortie, Divertye, Doverty, Dortye and possibly Doraty.

A Quick Search on SP for D*v*r*t* finds 5290 results, though some are unrelated names (e.g. Davenport) and there is at least one Durvart who is more likely to be a variant of Dorward. And of course that search doesn't find variants where the letter v is omitted.