Individual Details

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== Biography ==
Historical records of the family of Leslie from 1067 to 1868-9 Vol.1 by Colonel Leslie KH of Balquhain 1869 :

BARTHOLOMEW, FOUNDER OF THE FAMILY OF LESLIE.
According both to tradition and to Bishop Leslie in his De Rebus Gestis Scotorum, lib. vi. p. 200, Romae, 1578, Bartholomew or Bartholf, a noble Hungarian, the founder of the family of Leslie, came to Scotland in the train of Margaret, after- wards the queen of Malcolm Canmore, in 1067.
Edgar Etheling, the brother of this noble lady, was the grandson of Edmund Ironside, King of England, being the son of Prince Edward, surnamed the Outlaw, by Agatha his wife, daughter of Henry H., Emperor of Germany. Edgar thus concentrated in his own person all the Anglo-Saxon claims to the crown of England. Excluded from his just right of succession, first by the usurpation of Harold, and afterwards by the conquest of William the Norman, in order to promote the happiness of the people, and, in accordance with the advice of his uncles, Edwin and Morcar, he abandoned his claims, and swore fealty to the conqueror at Berkhamstead 25th December 1066. William, anxious from motives of policy to conciliate the affections of his Anglo- Saxon subjects, and more especially to honour one whose claims might be dangerous to his power, took Edgar into great favour, and bestowed upon him an earldom with large possessions.
After completing his conquest, William found it necessary to revisit his native duchy. He returned to Normandy in 1067, in the spring of the year, and, partly to deprive insurrection in England of any chance of success, and partly to impress on his Norman subjects the due value of his success, he carried Edgar Etheling along with him to grace the pageantry of his triumph.
The English, however, did take advantage of William's absence to make some effort for freedom, and insurrections were made in various parts of the country. The suspicions of William, caused by these outbreaks, though veiled under the mask of apparent friendship, did not escape the notice of Edgar, who accordingly determined to flee the dangerous precincts of the Norman Court. He took shipping, in company with his mother Agatha, and his sisters Margaret and Christina, with the intention of returning to Hungary, the land of their birth. Stress of weather, however, drove their vessel into the Firth of Forth at St. Margaret's Hope, Queensferry, where they were graciously received by Malcolm, King of Scotland, who was then residing in his palace at Dunfermline. This prince, struck with the beauty and won by the accomplishments of the Princess Margaret, offered her his hand, and the offer was accepted. Having thus become the consort of an unpolished king, and the queen of a rude and barbarous people, Margaret so gained the esteem and affection of her husband, and used her power so well for the benefit of her adopted people, that they in their gratitude invested her with the qualities of a saint, by which appellation the good queen is still known in Scottish history ; and in memory of her welcome arrival in the country, the place where she first set foot on Scottish ground was named St. Margaret's Hope, and to this day it retains the name of Queensferry.
Among the noblemen who accompanied the Princess Agatha from Germany, and who, sharing her unsettled fortunes, faithfully attended her and her children until their arrival in Scotland, was a Hungarian, named Bartolf or Bartholomew, who was descended from an ancient and noble family in Hungary.
Bartholomew was a man of acute genius and strong mind, very valiant, and possessed of great bodily strength — qualities which are always valuable in a rude age, and which recommended him to the favour of King Malcohn, who appointed him Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh, honoured him with the dignity of knighthood, and bestowed on him large grants of land in Fife, Angus, the Mearns, and Aberdeenshire. The circumstances of this grant are recorded in the following legend : —
Commencing his journey on horseback at Dunfermline, and proceeding northward, Bartholomew was promised by the king in hereditary right, all the land for a mile round any point where he should find it necessary to alight for the purpose of baiting or feeding his horse. First, he alighted at Fechil, now called Leslie, in Fife ; next at Innerlessad, in Angus ; the third time at Feskie, or Eskie, in the Mearns ; the fourth time at Cushnie, in Mar. His horse at last failed him at the place called Leslie in the Garioch. On his return to court, the king asked him where he had left his horse, and he replied, as some say —

" At the lesse ley beside the mair."

or, as others give it —

" Between a lesse ley and a mair,"

My horse it tyrd and stopped there."
The king, finding, it is said, that the place suited well with his surname, answered in the same metrical style —

" Lord Lesley shalt thou be,

And thy heirs after thee."
and he honourably fulfilled the terms of his promise. Traditions generally arise in later times to account for prior facts, and though they may alter the accessories of events, yet the foundation on which they rest is not unfrequently found to be according to truth.
All the places mentioned in this tradition did, at later dates, belong to the family of Leslie, as will be shown in the proper place. It is also beyond doubt that Bartholomew did obtain from the king a grant of the lands of Lesselyn in the Garioch, which long remained the patrimony of his successors. Three charters, now in possession of the Countess of Rothes, granted to Malcolm son of Bartolf, Norman son of Malcolm, and Norino son of Norman, place this fact beyond the reach of cavil.
The parish of Leslie, in the district of the Garioch and county of Aberdeen, was thus the earliest possession of the family of Leslie in Scotland. From it unquestionably the family derived its patronymic. As is the case of most of the old Scottish families, so here the family estate gave the cognomen to the family, and, as will be shown afterwards, not until the fifth generation did this family bend to the custom then becoming general, of assuming a surname, a fact which would seem to clear up all doubt that may exist as to the origin of the name of Leslie.
The present castle of Leslie, built, without doubt, on the site of an earlier stronghold, is situated on the banks of the river Gaudy, which runs at the back, or north-west side of the celebrated hill of Bennachie. In later times so numerously did the Leslies cluster round this their ancestral domain that the circumstance is commemorated in a beautiful old song —

" Thick sit the Leslies on Gaudy side,

On Gaudy side, on Gaudy side,

At the back of Bennachie."
Robert Verstigan relates, in reference to Bartholomew, that a duel took place between a Scottish nobleman of the name of Leslie and a foreign knight, in which the Scottish champion was victorious, in memory of which the following verses existed in Scotland : —

" Between the Lesseley and the malr,

He slew the knight, and left him there."
This story, however, seems to refer to Bartholomew's descendant, Sir Walter Leslie, the famous Earl of Ross.
It may be proper here to give a description of the family arms. They are a field argent, traversed with a belt or girdle azure, in which are three buckles gules, supported on the dexter and sinister side by two griffins proper. The crest is a demi-griftin proper, having a scroll with the motto "Grip Fast." The origin of these arms is thus related by tradition : —
Bartholomew held the office of Lord Chamberlain to the Queen, and had the honour, according to the primitive fashion of those times, of carrying the Queen on his own horse when she travelled. For ease a pad behind the Chamberlain was provided for the Queen, and, for safety, a belt buckled round his waist, supplied her with a stay in case of danger or uneasy motion. On one occasion, when both thus mounted were crossing a river, the Queen nearly fell from the horse. On this the Chamberlain in great anxiety, called out, "Grip fast," to which the Queen, doubtful of the strength of the buckle, replied, "Gin the buckle bide." To obviate the danger of the buckle giving way in future, two more buckles were forthwith added to the belt. And, in commemoration of the event, says the legend, Bartholomew got the above device for his family arms.
Bartholomew, the founder of the family of Leslie in Scotland, married, according to some authorities, one of the ladies of honour to Queen Margaret. According to others. King Malcolm gave him to wife one of his own sisters, and this account is fortified by the best authorities. The Rev. William Betham, in his Genealogical Tables, published in 1795, states that Bartholomew married a sister of King Malcolm Canmore ; and in the Genealogical Tree of the Royal Family of Scotland, published 3d March 1792, by John Brown, Genealogist in Scotland to the Prince of Wales, and approved by the Lyon Office, we find it stated that, " Beatrix, daughter of King Duncan, and sister of Malcohn III. or Canmore, marriedBartholomew, of whom all the Leslies in Scotland are descended."
From this marriage have sprung the many noble, knightly, and gentle houses of the illustrious name of Leslie. Many of these have risen to great splendour and rank, some deriving their dignities and wealth from the well-merited gratitude of royalty, for distinguished services, and others from intermarriage with the noblest houses in this and in other countries. In most parts of the Continent, indeed, cadets of this ancient stock have been found enjoying the highest reputation, supporting the greatest dignities, and discharging the most distinguished and honourable offices.

No Scottish surname has been more widely conspicuous abroad. And inGermany, Sweden, Russia, Poland, France, and Ireland, the name of Leslie is known almost as familiarly as the names of the great native houses of those countries.
The family of Leslie was also distinguished as among the first to introduce a practical and improved system of agriculture. The district now inhabited by a united people speaking the same tongue, was, at that remote period, occupied by discordant tribes of Scots, Saxons, Danes, Normans, and Flemings, each using their own language, and each following their peculiar customs.
Learned antiquarians inform us that it was chiefly owing to the settlement of the house of Leslie that these various races were gradually rendered more civilised, and became incorporated into one homogeneous body, and that much of the great distinctive character of industy perseverance, and agricultural skill, for which the people of the Garioch are now, as they had been early, celebrated, is to be ascribed to Bartholomew and his suc- cessors, the chiefs of the House of Leslie.
Bartholomew, the founder of the family of Leslie, died at an advanced age, about 1121, and was succeeded by his son Malcolm.



== Sources ==
http://www.thepeerage.com/p68708.htm#i687073



== Acknowledgements ==
Profile created by [[Ridley-388 | Leslie Ridley]], Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Birth	Abt 1040	Hungary
Marriage	1070	Beatrix "Princess of Scotland" Scotland
Death	Abt 1121	Leslie, Fife, Scotland
Reference No		7725571
Reference No
Reference No		60

Spouse	Beatrix "Princess of Scotland" Scotland (1040 - 1121)
Child	Sir Malcolm "2nd of Leslie/Lesslyn, Constable of Inverurie" Leslie (1121 - 1176)