The Ancestry of the Earl of Wigton

The essays contained in this volume concern the early history of the Fleming family of the British Isles. My main motivation in writing these essays has been my moral obligation to compliment with additional information my two earlier publications: A Genealogical History of the Barons Slane and A Genealogy of the Ancient Flemings. This publication will naturally be of most interest to those who have already read these books and would like to learn of any more recent developments in my ongoing research into the history of the Fleming family. The ancestry of the Earls of Wigton and the Lords Fleming of Scotland has always been a hard nut to crack. Some have said that Baldwin, the first sheriff of Lanarkshire, was the progenitor of the Scottish house of Fleming; others have said differently. I contend that the progenitor of the house of Fleming was the man who is known from Scottish records as Jordanus Flandrensis. Jordan the Fleming first came to Scotland from Cumbria in England in about 1147. He would have been the great-grandson of Erkenbald the Fleming, a companion of the Conqueror in 1066. I cannot conclusively prove my contention, but I trust that the evidence I present in this publication will show that such a contention is not only plausible, it is very likely.