Powrie

Recorded as Pouries and Powrie, this is a rare, and at least once in history, famous or perhaps infamous depending on ones views, Scottish surname. It Is locational from a place in the parish of Murroes, Errol, called Powrie. The meaning is uncertain, but it may derive from the ancient pre 7th century Scandanavian and North German word 'polre' meaning low lying, and hence originally described people who lived at such a place. Locational surnames are often 'from' names. That is to say they were names given to people after they left their original homesteads to move somewhere else. The usual alternative to this was when the surname was also the name of the local lord of the manor, as may be the case here. The recordings are ancient with Henry de Pourie appearing as a juror on an inquest at Roxburgh in the year 1361, whilst William Powry was one of the (claimed) regicides responsible for the death in 1567 by blowing up, of Lord Darnley, the erstwhile king of Scotland, and husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Other early recordings taken from surviving rolls and charters include Johannes Pourie recorded in Maynes de Errol in 1670, whilst Andrew Powrie was the sherrif of Perthshire in 1689.