Border Reivers clan names

[jaybelnz]

I don't know that there's an actual clan, but I do have some Steels who appear in my Maternal Douglas family line in Ayrshire, so it's possible that there are more Steels in Ayrshire!  Just a thought!   

Added - just found this - hope it's helpful for you!

 http://www.irishsurnames.com/cgi-bin/gallery.pl?name=steele&capname=Steele&letter=s

[celtclogs]

It was before my time in the USA but Richard Nixon, the US President who had a bad ending as President would never have got my vote.

Aye and you know what happened to him 😉. I have plenty of Reiver blood in my vains just ask my poor  husband 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😈

[celtclogs]

thank you everyone for helping trying to clarify the confusion.

If the Steeles were not border reivers, then I wonder where they came from, some branches moved to Durham, Yorkshire and Lancashire, but they all came from Northern Cumberland.

Is it possible that the Steeles were a Scottish Clan? It seems unlikely, but they must have come from somewhere

thanks

Hi l Know of Steeles  living in  kilbocho  peebleshire Scotland, hope that helps you.

[Skoosh]

George MacDonald Fraser "The Steel Bonnets!" is the very book for the Border Reivers, try Amazon! 

Skoosh.

[jillruss]

George MacDonald Fraser "The Steel Bonnets!" is the very book for the Border Reivers, try Amazon! 

Skoosh.

Thanks, Skoosh. I've added it to my wishlist. it might give me some helpful background to a branch of my tree that I've come to a dead halt with.

I've been looking at my 6x great grandfather Thomas Dodd, trying to figure out his birth and birthplace. He would have been born about 1690. He married and had his children in Askham, near Penrith but I can get no further back than that.

A while ago, I became aware that the surname DODD(S) was one of the Reivers family names, centred around Bellingham near Hexham. There's no sign of Thomas being baptised in the Askham area. I did attempt to find out if there was any link - right area of the country, though Penrith and Hexham are quite a few miles apart.

His daughter - my 3x gg - had a child by a William TODD in Askham in 1734, and I believe TODD is another reiver surname.

[gingerbit]

'The Steel Bonnets ' is also available to borrow on Internet archive.org You will need to register but it's free. Once you have registered, click on the text sign and type the title in the search box.
Many good genealogy books on this site.

[barryd]

From the Internet

The name "Steele" is English and Scottish: from the Middle English term stele (‘steel’), hence a nickname for someone considered as hard and durable as steel, or occupational name for a foundry worker. The Coat of Arms is English.

Possibly a Sept (Associated with a Clan) . But not a Clan.

[sirsimon]

thank you everyone for the replies.

I think I might have figured it out.

I took an ancestry dna test and it came back, after some updates of the database that I am 35% scottish.

Now I have checked all my ancestral lineages and none of them originate from Scotland, mostly from the Midlands and Cornwall.

The fact that the name Steele does not appear in the Border Clans list is because they weren't border clans.

I think the Steele family originally came from Dumfriesshire as a sept family of Clan Gordon and moved south over the border, possible to escape war or persecution.

Only thing that puzzles me is that I have read two books on scottish clans and none of them list Steel as a sept of Clan Gordon, but all the datebases and online websites do

[Skoosh]

Black, in his "Surnames!" has Steel, Steele & Steil in Perthshire, Ayrshire, Midlothian Berwickshire, Dumfriesshire, Lanarkshire & Argyll.  One Kempy Steill was hung for theft in 1524. William Steel from Biggar helped organise anti-slavery railroad helping fugitives escape to Canada!

Skoosh.