Clan Bethune

Clan Bethune
Macbheatha.[1]
Crest: An otter’s head erased argent.[2]
Motto	De bonnaire.[3]
Profile
Region	Lowlands
District	Fife and Angus.[4]
Clan Bethune has no chief, and is an armigerous clan
Historic seat	Balfour in Fife.[5]
Last Chief	The Bethune of Balfour

Clan Bethune may have its origins from the French city of Béthune,^[6] but another possibility is that the name is an Anglicization of the Gaelic name Macbheatha.^[7] Clan Bethune is a small armigerous clan, and in Scotland, but surviving in America under the name "Clan MacBeth".^[8]

It is thought that the Bethunes came from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066.^[9]

Relationship, if any, to Macbeth of Scotland (d.1057) is unclear.^[10] MacBeth is possibly the Anglicized surname Beaton, though the Scottish origin of the Beatons of Skye may be semi-legendary.^[11][12] As a clan they were particularly associated with the trade of medicine, and hereditary physicians to the Chief of the Clan Macdonald. No less than seventy-six physicians called MacBeth or Beaton are found practising medicine in the Gaidhealtachd between 1300 and 1700.^[13] According to Black^[14] Bethune was confused with Beaton in the sixteenth century and Beaton was merged in English from Macbeth and Bethune.^[15] Two "Beaton" families were hereditary doctors practising in Mull and Skye.^[16] Those on Mull were doctors to Clan Maclean and later Clan Fraser of Lovat; they seem to have eventually been known as Beaton.^[17] Also according to Black, the other Beaton family of hereditary doctors, those of Skye, were Bethunes, descended from the Bethunes in Fife, the Bethunes of Balfour.^[18] This group were descended from the 5th Bethune of Balfour and settled on Skye in the sixteenth century.^[19]

The clan Crest as borne by the "Clan MacBeth" Society of North America blazon is a wyvern "holding in the dexter claw a sword in pale proper, the hilt entwined with two serpents argent and vert". The motto is Conjuncta virtuti fortuna.^[20]

The official^[21] Clan Bethune Scottish crest badge as recorded by the Lord Lyon King of Arms incorporates the last chief's crest: An otter’s head erased Argent with his motto De bonnaire (Gracious).^[22]

Arms of the last clan chief, The Bethune of Balfour: Quarterly, 1st & 4th, Azure, a fess between three mascles Or (Bethune); 2nd & 3rd, Argent, on a chevron Sable, an otter’s head erased of the First.^[23] These arms are now held by the Earls of Lindsay^[24] whose surname is Lindesay-Bethune.

Other uses

• SS Clan Macbeth^[25]

See also

House of Bethune

External links

• Clan Macbeth
• The Clan MacBeth Pipe Band, Groningen, The Netherlands

References