Lendrem

This most interesting and unusual surname is of Scottish origin, and is a variant of "Lendrum", which is a locational name from a place so called in Scotland, near Turriff, in Aberdeenshire, which was the battlefield where Donald of the Isles was defeated by the Thane of Buchan in the 11th Century. The placename is probably composed of the Scotch-Gaelic elements "lann, lam", enclosure, house, church or the Old Norse "lund", a sacred grove, and the second element "druim", the Gaelic word denoting a ridge or hill. The surname itself first appears in records relatively late in the early 17th Century (see below) and is also found in counties Tyrone and Fermanagh, Ireland, since the mid 17th Century, where it is of Scottish descent, introduced there by Scottish settlers during the Plantation of Ulster. The name is found in the modern idiom as Lendrum, Lindrum, Landrum, Londrum and Lendram. One Gilbert Lendrem married Isobell Arthour on May 24th 1659 at Ellon, Aberdeen. A Coat of Arms, depicting three gold garbs, with three black wool packs on a silver chief, on a red shield, was granted to George Lendrum Esq., of Jamestown, County Fermanagh, grandson of George Lendrum, Esq., of Moorfield, County Tyrone. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alexander Lendrome, which was dated February 27th 1634, marriage to Barbara Reid at St. Nicholas's Aberdeen, during the reign of King Charles 1, known as "The Martyr", 1625-1649. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.