Clan History

An Overview of Henderson History

MacEanruig’s, proud sons of Henry…the Hendersons, descendants of a King of the Picts. We are a noble collection of five family bloodlines that took hold in Caithness, Glencoe, Fordell, and Liddesdale — by way of the Shetlands and Ulster. Our ancestors are as old a family as any clan in the Highlands.

In the early 16th century young Henry Gunn decided to separate himself from the constant fighting between the Gunn and Keith clans and his descendants emerged as the Hendersons of Caithness.

1654 Map of Scotland (Joan Blaeu) — Henderson Origins, on Joan Blaeu, Scotia Regnum (1654). Reproduced by permission of the Trustees of the National Library of Scotland.

The Clan Henderson Society has permission from the National Library of Scotland to allow the download and reprinting of the map of Scotland, Scotia Regnum, created and published in 1654. The version on our website is a modified version that shows the origins of the Clan Henderson.

Scottish History and Clan Henderson Timeline

80 — Julius Agricola is sent from Rome to be governor of Britain. He and his Roman soldiers push into the north, advancing to the valley crossing Scotland from the River Clyde to the Forth.

84 — Calgacus unites the Celtic tribes to fight the advancing Romans, but he and some 10,000 Celts are killed in a battle at Ardoch.

296 — For the first time, Romans mention the Picts in their literature. The word was derived either from a Latin word meaning “painted ones” or another meaning “fighter.”

503 — Some of the Scotti leave Ireland and establish the kingdom of Dalriada on the west coast of Scotland, in Argyll.

597 — St. Columba, the great Christian missionary who left his native Ireland to minister to the Scots and establish monasteries, dies on the Inner Hebrides island of Iona.

794 — The Norsemen begin raiding Scotland and western Europe.

843 — Cinead (Kenneth) MacAlpin unites the Picts and the Scots as one nation. The use of ‘Mac’ in his name shows the prefix was in use at this time.

900 — Orkney is now a Norse earldom and includes Caithness.

1011 — Eanruig Mor Mac Righ Neachtan (Big Henry, son of King Nectan) arrives in Kinlochleven, the beginning of the Hendersons in Glencoe.

1221 — The name of Fordell is first mentioned when Hugh de Camera gives a homestead and additional property of his lands to the monastery of Inchcolm.

1295 — Scotland and France sign the “Auld Alliance,” one of the world’s oldest mutual defence treaties.

1296 — England annexes Scotland. King Edward I removes the Stone of Scone (Stone of Destiny) and installs it in Westminster Abbey.

1305 — William Wallace is put to death in London.

1314 — The Scots, led by Robert the Bruce, rout the English at Bannockburn, establishing Scotland as a sovereign nation.

1320 — Scotland’s lords and bishops sign the Declaration of Arbroath, petitioning the Pope to recognise Scotland’s independence.

1450 — Hendrich Hendrichson arrives in the Shetlands, the beginning of the Hendersons there.

1468 — James III marries Margaret, daughter of Christian I of Denmark. This union adds Orkney and Shetland to Scotland.

1494 — First evidence of distilled Scots Whisky.

1508 — Robert Henryson dies. A schoolmaster in Dunfermline, he used poetry to provide the most enduring record of Scottish life during the reign of James IV.

1513 — Battle of Flodden. James Henderson, Lord Advocate, is killed along with King James IV.

1559 — John Knox gives a sermon at Perth, regarded as the start of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland.

1594 — The Hendersons are recorded as living in the Middle Marches, though the Act of the Scottish Parliament does not list them as a Border Clan.

1600 — Scotland abolishes Norse laws in Orkney and the Shetlands.

1603 — James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England — Union of the Crowns.

1607 — James I initiates the Plantation of Ulster in northern Ireland, transplanting Lowlanders to provide a Presbyterian barrier. From this stock comes the establishment of Henderson of Fordell.

1625 — Charles I is crowned. During his reign, Ninian Magnusson in the Shetlands becomes the first there to assume the Henderson name.

1637 — The National League and Covenant is created. Alexander Henderson is the moderator of the Assembly and author of the National Covenant.

1692 — Massacre of Glencoe. Captain Campbell and his men massacre approximately 38 people, including 22 Hendersons. Deemed “murder under trust.”

1707 — Treaty of Union creates the United Kingdom. The Scottish Parliament meets for the last time on March 25.

1715 — The Jacobites rise up in support of James VIII, “The Old Pretender.”

1745 — Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite uprising. The dream of reestablishing a free Scotland ends at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The wearing of the kilt, plaid, or tartan is outlawed.

1763 — The Highland Clearances begin and continue to 1850. Many Scots leave to find better opportunity in foreign lands.

1782 — July 1. The repeal of the Proscription Act. The ban on tartans is lifted.

1839 — John Henderson, tracing his ancestry to Sir John Henderson, 5th of Fordell, emigrates from Scotland to Australia.

1870 — Samuel M. Henderson emigrates to America from Ireland with his sister, Anna Eliza.

1988 — The Clan Henderson Society of the United States and Canada is officially established.

1996 — The Stone of Scone is formally returned to Scotland, 700 years after its theft by Edward I.

1997 — Scots vote to re-establish their own Parliament.

2009 — Clan Henderson Society convenes at The Gathering 2009 in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Henderson Diaspora

Scots-Irish Immigration Routes Map — Scottish and Scots-Irish immigration routes to North America

(Diaspora: a group of people who live outside the area in which they had lived for a long time or in which their ancestors lived)

There is a great book entitled How the Scots Invented the Modern World, by Arthur Herman. As Herman postulates, the true story of the Scots is “How Western Europe’s Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything In It.”

We Hendersons are one of the Highland’s oldest clans. Our ancestors, the MacEanruig, have roots dating back to Pictish Kings. With this pedigree, we have to ask: why were Scots, and especially our Henderson ancestors, leaving Scotland?

First and foremost, in 1700, before unification with England, Scotland was the poorest independent country in Europe. Abject poverty, high unemployment and little hope for improving one’s future were key instigators in the great migration. Henderson immigrants came from the Highlands (Caithness and Glencoe), the Lowlands, and the Border counties. Hendersons immigrated to North and South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, often with a stopover of several decades in Northern Ireland as part of the Ulster Plantations.

The sea journey across the Atlantic was a fearsome ordeal, typically taking one to two months. Ships were crowded; hunger, thirst, boredom, anxiety, sickness and death were frequent occurrences. Children were especially vulnerable.

For some Henderson ancestors, America gave them religious freedom to worship as they desired. Scots were also valued for their military prowess. Great famines in the 18th and 19th centuries led to Scots seeking new lands. Whatever their reasons for leaving, Scots can be found across the globe.

From the speech given at the National Scottish Immigrants Memorial, Philadelphia, PA, December 2013: “If you want a true monument to the Scots…just look around you.”

The Five Henderson Bloodlines

The Henderson family comprises five distinct historical branches, each with its own origins and character:

Glencoe Hendersons — Hereditary pipers and bodyguards to the MacDonalds of Glencoe, with strong Norse ancestry
Caithness Hendersons — Descended from Henry Gunn, a sub-group of Clan Gunn in the far north
Fordell Hendersons — Major seat of Lowland Hendersons, legal and political roles from the 14th century. Fordell Castle remains a symbol of the clan
Liddesdale Hendersons — From the Scottish Borders, the rugged frontier between Scotland and England
Shetlands Hendersons — Danish/Norse origins through Count Hemison (Hendrich Hendrichson)
Ulster Hendersons — Part of the Scots-Irish migration to Northern Ireland