Walter fitz Gilbert

Sir Walter fitz Gilbert of Cadzow, 1st Laird (Lord) of Cadzow (died ca. 1346) was a Scottish nobleman. The husband to Mary Gordon of Huntly, they wed in 1308 in Cadzcow, Lanarkshire, Scotland (the exact date is unknown). He is the first historically confirmed progenitor of the House of Hamilton, which includes the Dukes of Hamilton, Dukes of Abercorn and Earls of Haddington. Origins There is some confusion as to the ancestry of his grandfather, William de Hameldone, who could, it has been argued, be descended from the Umfraville family of Northumberland or the Beaumont Earls of Leicester. Both assertions are based on armorial evidence (both families used Cinquefoils in their arms), and references to various Hamilton place-names in Northumberland and Leicestershire. The Leicester connection is considered more likely as Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester is known to have had a son William but Heraldry expert A.C. Fox Davies has suggested the early Beaumont Earls of Leicester bore the arms Gules, a lion rampant queue-fourchee argent following the work of Sir Anthony Wagner's History of Heraldry of Britain who cited the Great Coucher Book of the Duchy of Lancaster. Bruce A. McAndrew, in his work, Scotland's Historical Heraldry, argues for the Umfraville connection: "The earliest representation of the Hamilton arms appears on the Bute Mazer, where Gules, three cinquefoils ermine, presumably for Walter fitzGilbert, is accompanied by Gules, a chevron ermine between three cinquefoils for brother John (d 1328). On the basis of these arms, it has been customary to trace the Hamilton origins to Robert fitzPernel, Earl of Leicester (d1204), who bore a single cinquefoil ermine to the Hamiltons' three. However, no genealogical evidence supports this assumption and a more sensible proposition is that they were kin, or vassals of the Umfraville lords of Redesdale and the earls of Angus (1247-1321) and took their name from Hameldon in Northumberland. Indeed, it is stated that a Walter fitzGilbert married Emma de Umfraville in the 13th century and of course other client Umfraville families like Swinburne and Clenell likewise bore the cinquefoils." McAndrew also cites the work of J.