Baird

Baird

Clan Baird of Lanarkshire, Scotland. The clan's arms , the boar passant or, is derived from an event of which a Baird saved the life of King William the Lion from a wild boar. The first recorded entry for the name was Henry Debard, who witnessed a deed by Thomas De Hay between 1202 and 1228. Richard Baird received land at Meikle and Little Kyp in Lanarkshire, during the reign of Alexander III, and of this family were Fergus Debard, John Bard and Robert Bard, who swore submission to Edward I of England in 1296. The Bairds of Auchmedden in Aberdeenshire became the principal family when they married into the Keith family. Of this branch was Sir John Baird, bart, Lord Newbyth, a High Court Judge. When their lands at Auchmedden passed to the Earls of Aberdeen through the marriage of a daughter of William Baird of Newbyth to Lord Haddow, the heir of the Earl of Aberdeen, a prophecy by Thomas the Rhymer was supposedly fulfilled which read ‘there shall be an eagle in the craig while there is a Baird in Auchmedden’ and according to legend, the pair of eagles which nested every year in the crags, returned no more when the Bairds left. General Sir David Baird (1757*1829), who succeeded his second cousin in the baronetcy of Newbyth, fought in India, South Africa and in the Napoleonic Wars. John Logie Baird (1888-1946), was the pioneer of television and in 1926 he demonstrated the first television transmission.

Arms: Gules, a boar passant or.

Crest: A gryphon’s head erased proper.

Motto: Dominus fecit (The Lord has done this).

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