Clan Robertson
Crest & Motto
The Robertson crest shows a hand holding up an imperial crown, and the motto is Virtutis Gloria Merces: glory is the reward of valour. The crest commemorates the clan’s capture of one of King James I’s assassins in 1437.
History
Clan Robertson is properly Clan Donnachaidh, the children of Duncan, named for Donnchadh Reamhar, Stout Duncan, a 14th century chief descended from the old Celtic earls of Atholl. Duncan is said to have led the clan for Robert the Bruce, by tradition fighting at Bannockburn. The clan’s heartland is Highland Perthshire: Struan, Glen Errochty, Loch Rannoch and the wider Atholl country. The surname Robertson comes from a later chief, Robert Riabhach, Grizzled Robert, of Struan.
Robert earned the clan its lasting fame in 1437 when he captured Sir Robert Graham, one of the assassins of King James I. In gratitude the crown erected his lands into the Barony of Struan in 1451 and granted the chiefs their striking heraldic honours: a crest of a hand holding up an imperial crown, and beneath the shield a chained wild man, recalling the captured regicide.
The clan was consistently royalist and Jacobite. Alexander Robertson of Struan, the Poet Chief, came out in 1689 under Dundee, in 1715, and again in 1745 as an old man, one of very few to fight in all three risings. The clan carried its ancient charm stone, the Clach na Brataich, first unearthed in Bruce’s time. After Culloden the Struan estates suffered forfeiture and hardship, and the 18th and 19th centuries dispersed Donnachaidh people, including Robertsons, Duncans and Reids, across North America and Australasia. The Clan Donnachaidh Society, founded in 1893, maintains a clan museum at Bruar beside the old clan country.
Clan Chief
The current chief is Alexander Gilbert Haldane Robertson of Struan, Struan Robertson, 23rd Chief of Clan Donnachaidh, chief since 1983.
Clan Tartan
Septs and Family Names
Many family names are counted among the septs of Clan Robertson. If your surname appears here, your family history leads back to this clan: Collier, Colyear, Conlow, Connachie, Dobbie, Dobie, Dobieson, Dobinson, Dobson, Donachie, Donica, Donnachie, Duncan, Duncanson, Dunkeson, Dunnachie, Hart, Inches, MacConachie, MacConlogue, MacConnichie, MacDonachie, MacInroy, MacIver, MacIvor, MacLagan, MacLaggan, MacRob, MacRobb, MacRobbie, MacRobert, MacRobie, MacWilliam, McConnachie, McRobie, Robb, Robbie, Roberson, Roberts, Robison, Robson, Roy, Stark, Tanner, Tannoch, Tannochy, Tonner.
Unsure how clan names, crests and septs work? Our guide to Scottish clan names explains the rules.
Further reading
The Clan Donnachaidh Society, with the clan museum at Bruar.
Clan Donnachaidh Society, Mid-Atlantic Branch
The Robertson Crest as a 3D Model
You can download the Robertson crest as a 3D model file (£10 to £25) and print it on any 3D printer, or carve it in wood on a CNC machine.
See the Robertson country of Atholl and Rannoch on our interactive clan map of Scotland.
