The Rutherford Family
"For that is the mark of the Scots of all classes;
That he stands in an attitude toward the past unthinkable to Englishmen,
And remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad;
And there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead
Even to the twentieth generation."
Robert Louis Stevenson
Weir of Hermiston, 1894
That he stands in an attitude toward the past unthinkable to Englishmen,
And remembers and cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or bad;
And there burns alive in him a sense of identity with the dead
Even to the twentieth generation."
Robert Louis Stevenson
Weir of Hermiston, 1894
Robert Rutherford, of Roxburgh County, Scotland, immigrated to Virginia and was recorded as early as March 1676 in Old Rappahannock County. The emigrant Robert Rutherford’s great grandson was Robert Rutherford, of Jefferson County, Virginia, father of Sarah Rutherford the wife of Daniel Bedinger. The Rutherford lineage of Robert Rutherford has been traced to Robertus Dominus de Rodyforde the first of the Rutherford family in the south of Scotland. Sir Nichol de Ruthirfurde, in the ascendant line of Sarah Rutherford, was a friend of Sir William Wallace and one of the first Scottish barons who joined Wallace in fighting for the independence of Scotland. A son of Sir Nichol Ruthirforde, Sir Robert de Ruthirfurde a patriot and friend of Robert Bruce, fought valiantly against the English for the independence of Scotland.[i]
In our present day spelling of Rutherford we find the vast majority of descendants ending their name with the syllable “ford.” Other branches end the name with “furd”, “foord”, “forde” and others. There is no doubt that those bearing the name Rutherford, with its variant spellings, in southern Scotland, are descended from the nucleus of Rutherfords who rode gang in southern Scotland, defending their fellow Scots from the encroachments of English marauders.
Sir Walter Scott, whose mother was Margaret Rutherford, daughter of John Rutherford, M.D., refers to his Rutherford ancestors in a note prefixed to the “Lay of the Last Minstrel”, saying “The Rutherfords of Hunthill were an ancient race of Border lairds, whose names occur in history, sometimes defending the frontier against England, and sometimes disturbing the peace of Scotland."
[1] Rutherford, W. K., and Rutherford, A. C., 1969, Genealogical History of the Rutherford Family, vol. 1, Intercollegiate Press, Shawnee Mission, Kansas
In our present day spelling of Rutherford we find the vast majority of descendants ending their name with the syllable “ford.” Other branches end the name with “furd”, “foord”, “forde” and others. There is no doubt that those bearing the name Rutherford, with its variant spellings, in southern Scotland, are descended from the nucleus of Rutherfords who rode gang in southern Scotland, defending their fellow Scots from the encroachments of English marauders.
Sir Walter Scott, whose mother was Margaret Rutherford, daughter of John Rutherford, M.D., refers to his Rutherford ancestors in a note prefixed to the “Lay of the Last Minstrel”, saying “The Rutherfords of Hunthill were an ancient race of Border lairds, whose names occur in history, sometimes defending the frontier against England, and sometimes disturbing the peace of Scotland."
[1] Rutherford, W. K., and Rutherford, A. C., 1969, Genealogical History of the Rutherford Family, vol. 1, Intercollegiate Press, Shawnee Mission, Kansas