Now that the "German" origin of Lairds would appear to have been dismissed by the College of Arms (at least as far as the factual references to Chancery, the "heraldic role" of H Harnage, genealogy and a grant of Arms in England are concerned), it is worth remembering that there are many other elements of the letter of W T Laird that are correct. I am sure he believed the story he was told. There were Lairds at Aberdour in Buchan, Aberdeenshire. The modern town is New Aberdour, but it is still a parish name. There was a castle and before that a fort at Dundargue at Aberdour Bay of great antiquity. The area suffered in the attempts to retain James VII as King against William of Orange, and there had been fighting there during the Civil War in Scotland some 50 years earlier. There was a Henry Harnage in Shropshire, on the Severn. I have checked further into his ancestry through the IGI. His father was from Blackfriars in London and his father in turn was possibly named Blackman, and was born in the West Indies. They appear to have been rather "grand" but may have made their money in the West Indies and had certainly created a position for themselves. Perhaps they took the few facts that W T Laird's brother knew and made something more of it to achieve more status for a prospective son-in-law? Perhaps he was aware of William Laird of Glenhuntly - if it is the Glen or Strath near modern Strathbogie and Huntly Castle, it was only 35 miles away. William Laird's Arms have the Stag's Head of Rollo as the crest. Rollo was a real warlord. He was a Viking with a large following, and raided in the North Sea to the extent that the French King granted him the land that became Normandy, and gave rise to the Norman people. It was the Vikings who dominated the seas in the 900s and 1000s and their domination continued until the Battle of Largs. For 600 years Scotland, down to Perth was part of the Kingdom of Norway. So perhaps the Arms he refers to are those of William Laird of Glenhuntly. And the warlord is a memory of Rollo. So I believe all still points back to Norway. This is what my family remembers. And it is the Sinclairs who are the direct descendants of Rollo. And I believe the Lairds, in Caithness at least, have always been alongside the Sinclairs. Perhaps in Aberdeenshire they were with that other great Norman Clan, the Gordons. Both families clung to catholicism and the Stuarts too long for their own good in a protestant dominated Scotland, though my family has been Scots Presbyterian (Church of Scotland) as long as we can remember. Politics and religion rarely separate in Scots and Irish history and dominate the scene in Ireland to this day. There may still be a southern Scots origin of Laird, as in the conventional references, but I still think most of us should look to Norway for our origins. Again I would point you to the Sinclair "Discussion" website at "www.mids.org/sinclair/" which is a great store of information and history from Norway in the 900s to Rosslyn near Edinburgh in the 14th Century , and Caithness from the 900s. But this is still speculation, so we keep looking! Yours aye Iain