Clans of the North-East: Leask
August 2009
The Leask tartan and clansman’s crest badge. tartan courtesy of scottish tartans authority
by Gordon Casely
Leask is quite one of Scotland’s tinier families, with few enough of the name of this firmly Aberdeenshire-anchored clan. It is another matter entirely with the origins of the house, for without any modesty at all, some members claim that the line of Leask runs right back to the Norse god Thor.
Others with feet slightly more anchored to terra firma put more faith in lines to Lasks of Denmark, the Laski family in Poland or the Lesques in Boulogne.
The connection in modern-day France was given credence by the late Prof. Keith Leask of Aberdeen University. He suggested that Liscus, chief of the Haedui, a tribe of Gauls described by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars, may have been the ancestral Leask. The meaning of the name may be a diminutive of the Anglo-Saxon lisse meaning happy, or from the Norse meaning stirring fellow.
Chief of the clan is Jonathan Leask of that Ilk, 23rd chief, resident of Edinburgh. He heads a clan now resurgent, for until Dr Anne Leask managed to buy back the ruins of Leask House between Ellon and Cruden Bay in 1963, the clan had become disparate and scattered. A Leask Society was formed, and in 1968, the then Lord Lyon Sir Thomas Innes of Learney recognised Dr Leask as the new chief – Anne, Madam Leask of Leask. In 1980 Madam Leask published a short book entitled The Leasks – Historical Notes on the Aberdeenshire, Orkney and Shetland families.
The Leasks in Orkeney
Early Leaks were well enough recorded. William de Laskereske appears in 1296 in submission to Edward I of England, while around 1345 William Leask was granted a charter of confirmation by King David II (1329-71) to the lands of Leskgoroune or Leskgaranne. Some time in the 1400s a younger son of this Leask line went to Orkney – and from this founding there developed what can now be shown as the longest unbroken male lines of the wider house of Leask.
Disaster overtook the family in 1698 when they borrowed heavily upon their lands to invest in the Darien scheme, and the family collapsed as sure as the trading venture in Panama did.
The joint gathering in 1981 of Clan Leask and Clan Hay at Edinburgh Castle aided by the welcome intervention of Lt-Gen. Sir Henry Leask, governor of Edinburgh Castle and GOC Scotland at Edinburgh Castle gave rise to a full-blown Clan Leask Society. The grouping now has representatives from all over the world.
The chiefly motto Virtute Cresco means By virtue I grow. The chiefly arms date from before 1670, and these days some dozen Leasks individually have arms granted by the Lyon Office, with more applications in the pipeline.
Key events in the Clan Leask Society calendar include a very social agm in late spring, and an annual gathering at the Aboyne Games.
Gordon Casely has always been fascinated by clans, and considers that we in Scotland just don’t know our luck to have them occupying such place in our system.
This is an article from the August 2009 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, see our subscription details.