10/02/2023
Your surname may be of Moorish descent. How many of you knew that Douglas was a name given to the descendants of Moors?
DUBH GALLS (Black Strangers / Danes) & THE BLACK DOUGLAS (Lords of Galloway)
The surnames Mac Dubhghaill and O'Dubhghaill, anglicized MacDougal, MacDowell, and Doyle, literally means "the descendants of the black stranger”
“The British Isles were invaded by various races of Dubh Galls, nigrae gentes, or black foreigners, during an indefinable but most extensive period…”
“These people are remembered in Gaelic records as Black Lochlinners (Black Scandinavians), Dubh Galls, or Dubh Gennti (black foreigners, or people), and also as “Black Danars”
These two sections of invaders were also known as Finn Gennti, and Dubh Gennti, White Gentiles and Black Gentiles; and as (according to Armstrong), Fionn-Lochlinneaich, and Dubh-Lochlinneaich, White and Black “Lochlinners” or “Scandinavians”
In “The Wars of the Gaedhill and the Gaill” (Gaels and Galls), the Danari are styled “Black Danars” or “Black Danes”
In none of these terms is there any hint of that the color of the hair is indicated…
But the expression used by St. Berchan in speaking of the Norwegians leaves no room for doubt…
He calls them “the Gentiles of pure color”
The Danes, then, were not “of pure color” They were Dubh, black…
There can be no question about it…
The designation given by the common people of one race to another is almost invariably founded upon some physical feature, and the most natural distinction is that of color where the races differ in complexion…
The typical Dane of today is not a black haired man; quite the reverse…
Dubh means black, without any word of hair…
“The Danes of Northumberland belonged to the branch of the Northmen called Dubh Gall or Dubh Gennti, that is, black strangers”; and it is probably owing to this that (according to Armstrong) “a lowland Scot” and “an Englishman” were also Dubh Galls, to the white skinned race of Highlanders who opposed them…”
“The Picts Proper and the Black Danes, being both Moors and both being "black strangers" or dubh galls, in the sight of the white races of Britain..."
“Dubhghall (literally the black foreigner) was a name which they (the Irish) frequently gave to their Danish invaders”
SOURCE;
(The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Volume 22; 1850)
“They were of two RACES — the white and black strangers — Fingall and Dubhgall (Dougal)”
SOURCE;
(London Quarterly Review Volume 34; 1870)
“In A.D. 838, the Fiongaill, the “white strangers”, or Norwegians, took possession of Dublin; and in the year 850, these were dispossessed by a considerable force of the Dubhgaills, or black strangers, the Danes”
“Philologists inform us that the compound term dubh-loch-lanach, or "black man strong at sea," signifies the Danes.”
SOURCE;
(Michael Conran, ‘The National Music of Ireland Containing the History of the Irish Bards, the National Melodies, the Harp, and Other Musical Instruments of Erin’; 1846)
“The two RACES of the Danes and Norwegians were distinguished by the terms Dubhgeinte or Dubhgall, that is, black pagans or black strangers, and Finngeinte or Finngall, white pagans or white strangers”
SOURCE;
(Studies in the Topography of Galloway
Being a List of Nearly 4000 Names of Places, with Remarks on Their Origin and Meaning, and an Introductory Essay; 1887)
“In the first half of the fifteenth century, the Dubh-glasses of Galloway—the “Moors and Saracens” of tradition—were its actual rulers…” — David MacRitchie
Now, Clan Douglas is an ancient clan or noble house from the Scottish Lowlands...
The lords of Galloway (Clan Douglas) consisted of a dynasty of heirs who were lords (or kings) and ladies who ruled over Galloway in southwest Scotland, mainly during the High Middle Ages…
The Douglases were one of Scotland's most powerful families, and certainly the most prominent family in lowland Scotland during the Late Middle Ages, often holding the real power behind the throne of the Stewart Kings...
“Their very clan name, strictly considered, signifies “the black man””
“Black Douglas" must at one time have been a term interchangeable with "a black man"
“Wherever you encounter the Black Douglas in history or tradition you will find he is a Black man"
SOURCE;
(David MacRitchie, "Ancient and Modern Britons. Vol.1"; p. 207; 1884)
The Earls of Douglas, chiefs of Clan Douglas, and their successors claimed descent from Sholto Douglas...
“Sholto Du Glas; in English, “Behold the black or swarthy-coloured man;” from which, the story goes, he was named Sholto the Douglas”
SOURCE;
(John Burke, “A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire: Volume 1”; 1833)
“The Good Sir James Douglas (c. 1280-1330), called also 'the Black Douglas' from his swarthy complexion, was Bruce's greatest captain in the War of Independence”
SOURCE;
(David Patrick, Francis Hindes Groome, “Chambers's Biographical Dictionary: The Great of All Times and Nations”; 1907)
The good Sir James was the most loyal of all Bruce’s knighthood, he came from a race that boasted its ancient, aboriginal blood, and that bore a surname which signified “The Black Man”
Although by his time the family of Douglas had, likely enough, made more than one alliance with the whites, he himself was “of a black and swart complexion,” according to Godscroft (1558–1629)
For which cause, he was known to his foes as “The Black Douglas”
He belonged to the oldest sept of his clan, that known as the Black Douglases, a term which proves to be tautological when analyzed, since Dubh-glas signifies “the black swarthy” man…
As already stated, Godscroft remarks that “he is said to have been of a black and swart complexion”
This dusky skin earned for him, say the historians, the title of The Black Douglas; and although “the good Sir James” to his friends, he was such a terror to his foes that their most troublesome children could at once be hushed into good behavior by a single threat of a visitation from that dreaded bugbear, The Black Douglas…
So say the run of historical writers…
Accordingly, we have three successive chiefs of this clan, and another in the following century, all styled The Black Douglas,—or what is equal to that,—on account of their swarthy complexion…
There is thus no room for doubting that the chiefs of The Black Douglas tribe were styled The Black Douglas because of their dusky skins,—and not from any accidental circumstance…
It is plain, then, that several (at least) of the chiefs of the Black Douglas clan were themselves Black skinned men…
SOURCE;
(David MacRitchie, Ancient and Modern Britons, Vol 1 & 2; 1884)
