John Archibald Kelso

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/3207139/person/-1325504598/story/eed...

Kelso Scottish ancestry

From Kelso Genealogy Resource Page - http://joe_kelso.tripod.com

April 25, 1057 was coronation day for Malcom III, King of Scotland. Gathered around him that day at the stone of Scone were the principal barons of Scotland. Among them was Vinget Calco of Chalchou (born 1022). Some 18 years earlier, Calco, Malcom and the other Scottish nobles had been banished to the north of England at the hands of Macbeth who had assassinated King Duncan of Scotland. Now the nobles had their revenge as Macbeth was slain at the battle of Birnam Wood and the Kingdom was restored to the ancient line of Celtic monarchs. That dynasty had begun in 843 with Kenneth I as the first King to reign over the combined lands of Picts and Scots.

Vinget of Chalchou was from a long line of Celtic barons. The Domain over which he ruled comprised parts of what became the shires of Dumbarton, Lanark, Renfrew and Ayr in the west of Scotland on both sides of the River Clyde. Upon his coronation, Malcom created the first Earls of Scotland. An Earl was the highest rank a non-royal noble could obtain. Vinget of Chalchou, Major Baron, became the first Earl of Alcluyd. The word Alchuyd means "Hill of Clyde" and anglicized it is "Alclyde". The name was derived from the location of the great manor house of the Earldom on a hill several hundred feet above the North shore of the Firth of Clyde on the East Side of the River Leven. The modern city of Dumbarton, a suburb of Glasgow, is located on this site today.

When William of Normandy invade England in 1066, Edgar, heir to the English throne, and his family fled to Scotland for refuge. Edgar’s sister Margaret became the second wife of King Malcom and under her influence the language and customs of Scotland rapidly became anglicized. Margaret was a pious Christian and began a program of building churches, monasteries and abbeys throughout the country. She enlisted the support of the Earls and Barons who controlled most of the Wealth. One of her Supporters was the second earl of Alcluyd Vignet (the son of the first Vignet) whose name appears on the charter of the Monks of Durham.

In 1124, Madach de Chalchou, Third Earl of Alcluyd, celebrated the coronation of King David I by becoming a principal sponsor of the famous abbey of Kelso. Kelso is the anglicized form of Chalchou and since the abbey was in the English speaking southeastern part of Scotland, it received that spelling originally, more than 170 years before the family name was completely anglicized. The abbey town of Kelso remains today at the junction of the Tweed and Teviot rivers near the English border. The town of Kelso was never a part of the Kelso domain in Western Scotland.

Roland de Kalchou, fourth Earl of Alcluyd, gained renown by leading the armies of King Malcom IV. Roland was slain by the English in a battle near Carlisle in 1188.

John de Kelsou, sixth Earl of Asceles (Latin for Alcluyd), lived in a manor house near the town of Largs on the shore of the Firth of Clyde. In 1263, the army of Norway picked this spot to launch an invasion to spread their domain in Western Scotland and overthrow King Alexander III. John’s oldest son Peter was killed in that invasion, but his second son, Arnald, led a counter attack on the Norwegians and was personally responsible for killing Hakon, the nephew of Norway’s King Haco. The Norwegians were soundly defeated and retreated from Scotland. This marked the end of centuries of Norwegian (or Viking) aggression against British Isles.

The relationship between the Kelsos and royalty of Scotland and England can be seen clearly by considering the progeny of three Scottish noblemen who were prominent in the last half of the thirteenth century. All three were the heads of families that gained control of adjoining Earldoms in that point of land which is located between the River Clyde on the east and the Firth of Clyde on the west. The three noblemen were Alexander, the fourth High Stewart of Scotland, Robert Bruce VI, and Arnald de Kelsou, and the seventh Earl of Asceles. The Stewart and Bruce lines were both descended from French noble families that had accompanied William the Conqueror when he invade England in 1066. Arnald, as we have seen, was descended from a long line of Celtic Barons in Scotland.

The three families developed close relationships over the next three hundred years through the marriage of Arnald’s progeny with those of Alexander and Robert. In the next eleven generations, no less than six men of Arnald’s inheriting lines would be marrying daughters descended from Alexander and Robert. After the merging of the Stewart family and the Bruce family lines there would be four more marriages between the daughters of that merged line and Arnald’s direct inheriting line. The Accompanying charts of descent help clarify the picture.

It can be said that the Kelsos have lines of kinship from almost all of the Kings of Scotland and England beginning in the ninth century and extending even into the twentieth century. These lines of kinship and descent are established through six marriages during ten generations of Kelsos extending from John de Kelsou who died in 1291 until Lord Archibald Kelso who died in 1601. There are seven traceable lines of descent from seven Scottish Kings who reigned from 843 to 1040. There are six lines of descent from eight Kings who ruled between 829 and 1016, and there are up to sixteen lines of descent from King Robert Bruce I and his heirs. Thus the Kelso family has a substantial traceable kinship to virtually all the legitimate royalty of Scotland and England even to the present Royal house of England.

The Kelsos were trusted kinsmen to many Scottish kings. As such they were among those closest to the King during battle or when the King’s life was in danger. In October 1346, King David II was leading his army at the battle of Neville’s Cross near Durham. One of his personal bodyguards was Richard Kelso, son of Robert, sixth Lord of Kelsoland. The English captured King David and Richard was slain trying to protect King David. In 1488, Major Baron John Kelso, ninth Lord of Kelsoland, was killed while siding with King James III against a faction of the Scottish nobility. In 1513, Lord John Kelso, tenth Lord of Kelsoland, died along with King James IV at the battle of Flodden Field.

Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 and the British Crown was restored to King Charles II. The primacy of the Episcopal Church was re-established and the government began to punish all those who opposed the church and the Crown. Beginning in 1661, there were twenty-five years of brutal suppression of those who would not conform. According to written records in 1662 Robert of Kelsoland was fined 4,800 pounds and was subjected to other "ruinous fines for harboring persecuted Covenanters". Kelso’s neighbor, William Gordon, was similarly fined and in 1666 his 2 sons were executed in Edinburgh. Fortunately, that same fate did not befall Robert’s sons, John and William.

John Kelso, the eldest son, became the progenitor of the inheriting line. John’s descendants tended to remain in the British Isles while those of William migrated to the New World. The written record of John’s inheriting line has been carefully preserved down to 1910 when it was in the hands of Captain Barrington Kelso, Royal Navy, retired. A letter written in 1909 to Clarence Kelso (brother of Roy Kelso) indicates that Barrington had no heirs and the family name and title would pass to a cousin. Unfortunately, his letter does not identify the cousin.

In the late 1600’s and early 1700’s, in the face of continuing religious persecution, many Scottish Presbyterians fled across the channel to the Antrim Mountains of Northern Ireland. William, younger brother of John, was one of those and during the first half of the eighteenth century a number of his descendants migrated to colonial America, but the records are not all clear on this point

William Kelso

1. 1 John Kelso Birth: 1702 Kelso, Scotland, Roxburghshire, United Kingdom Death: Augusta, Virginia, United States

Son of Robert Kelso and Unk Kelso Husband of Polly Kelso Father of Alexander Kelso; Joseph Kelso and Hugh Kelso

Added by: Jason ANDERSON on March 15, 2008

1. 2 Robert Kelso

Scotland, United Kingdom 

Son of William Kelso

Husband of Unk Kelso

Father of John Kelso

William Kelso 

Birth: 1530 Son of Archibald Kelso and Margaret Kelso

Father of Robert Kelso

#3 Archibald Kelso
Son of Thomas Kelso and Isabel Kelso Husband of Margaret Kelso Father of William Kelso

1. 4 Thomas Kelso

Son of Henry Kelso and Marion Kelso

Husband of Isabel Kelso

Father of Archibald Kelso

#5 Henry Kelso
Husband of Marion Kelso

Father of Thomas Kelso

http://joe_kelso.tripod.com/mytree/John%20Kelso.html

88. John Kelso, born 1702 in Scotland; died Bet. 1738 - 1793 in Augusta County, Virginia. He married 89. Polly Kelso Bet. 1738 - 1771.

89. Polly Kelso, born Abt. 1710 in Scotland; died Bet. 1738 - 1804 in Virginia.

Notes for John Kelso: Virginia Will Records, Wills in Frederick County, VA, prior to 1805 lists the following: 1763--Kelso, John Virginia Will Records: "Notes from County Records" TQ, VI (1925), 272-277; VII (1925), 59-67 1760- Kelsoe, John; lists sons Archibald, Thomas, Joseph, dau. Jane

Virginia Military Records, Virginia Troops in French and Indian Wars John Kelsey...........Ireland...............24 5' 10" Middlesex....Planter John Kelsey...Dec 1754....Winchester....25 5' 4" Taylor......Irish

Marriage Notes for John Kelso and Polly Kelso: Virginia Marriage Records, Marriage Bonds of Norfolk County

Lists a John Kelso who married Mary Williamson, Oct 4, 1759.

Children of John Kelso and Polly Kelso are:

44 i.

 Alexander Kelso, Sr., born 1723 in Scotland; died Abt. 1760 in Virginia; married Mary Blair Abt. 1750. 

 ii.

 Joseph Kelso, born 1727; died Bet. 1728 - 1817. 

 iii.

 Hugh Kelso, born 1730; died Bet. 1731 - 1820 

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/10554208/person/1854665686/story/ae4...

Note: From KELSO KIN by Virginia Naylor Smith, published by Mrs. Roy Campbell Smith:

     " They (John and Polly Kelso) came to North America about 1748, some say via Ireland, landing at Baltimore.... James Cowan Kelso, grandson of Henry Kelso, wrote on 11 April 1900, 'The founders of the family landed in Maryland. It has been handed down to me by tradition that our ancestors emigrated to America from a town in Scotland that bears our name.' They settled in Augusta Co., VA, in and around Brownsburg Post Office, about midway between Staunton and Lexington. One old letter states that John fought in the Scottish wars. ....we are relying on the research of one Clarence Edward Kelso of Escanaba, MI, b. 1859, whose papers were not preserved but who left a widespread correspondence with different members of the families. . . . " 

" The Kelso family was prominent in Scotland, the original home country. A chronicle of the Kelso family has been widely distributed and forms the opening section of a book that traces the Kelso family from ancient to modern times. This chronicle mentions a royal connection. The original name was Calco or Chalcou, and several of this family married into the royal family."