William URQUHART, SHERIFF OF CROMARTY

                   First Sherriff of Cromarty

Information from prior research indicated that the Cromarty ancestors were of the Urquhart Clan. The Internet was searched for histories and additional data that would show this connection. The history quoted above all was the Urquhart genealogy written by Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty (1611-1660).  It is thought that the Urquhart family was established in Cromarty during the wars between Edward I and Robert the Bruce, known as the Scottish War of Independence.  William Urquhart, who had been a coroner of Edward I, turned his support to Robert the Bruce, and therefore came into disfavor of the King.  He left Scotland and went to Cromarty, soon after becoming the first known Sheriff of Cromarty.  The history states that as his lands at Cromarty were overrun by King Edwards men, and William garrisoned his house and victualed with three years provision of all necessaries for 100 men.  By a stratagem, William gained the castle, and with the matter of forty men, kept it out against the forces of Edward, for the space of seven years and a half; during which time, all his lands were totally wasted and his woods burnt, so that having nothing then he could properly call his own, but the Motehill only of Cromarty, which he fiercely maintained against his enemies.  He was named Gulielmus (archaic for William) de Monte Alto.  The forces of William Wallace finally came to his assistance, and after much bloody war, the shire of Cromarty was totally purged of the enemy.  This William Urquhart married Lillias Ross of Cromarty, who was the daughter of Hugh Ross, Earl of Cromarty, and Maud or Matilda Bruce (daughter of Robert the Bruce).  As far as can be known at this time, the Urquharts are not the direct ancestors of David Nearon.  The Nearon direct ancestor was Margery Ross, daughter of Hugh Ross and Maud/Matilda Bruce, the sister of Lillias.
	(Research note: Some genealogies show Lillias as the daughter of Margaret Graham, the second wife of Hugh Ross.)