• The terms Scotia and Scot was first applied to the Gaelic natives of
Eirinn (present day Ireland), but later came to be applied to Ireland's
northeastern neighbor, Alba (present day Scotland). By the seventh
century the Northmen were calling Scotia, Eire pronounced "Ir" or "Ire"
and the Britons called it "Ireland". The Irish were settling Alba (present
Scotland) as early as the third century and pretty much dominated Alba
by the 7th century. More by marriage than just conquest the Picts
just seem to disappear from Alba. These areas were also refereed to as
Scotia Minor (present Scotland), and modern Ireland referred to as Eire
or Scotia Major until about the 11 century when the present names of Ireland
and Scotland became commonplace. So, Scotland was populated and ruled
by Irish royal line until Alexander the Third died without heir in 1287.
• The KYLE Family spelling can be traced back to the year 1056 where HUGH
KYLE the Great was commander in Chief and his brother was his assistant
in the First Crusade. KYLE is a Scottish place type name taken from
the Celtic language “caol”, which means “narrow or straight”. Most European
languages were influenced by Latin, which did not use the letter “K” or
“Y”. Early spellings include CEOL; CIL, which was Anglo-Saxon, the
German and Dutch, used KEHL, KEIL, COIL, and KAIL. The English form
was KAIL, KYLL, KAILE, and KILE. The Anglo-Saxons introduced the
letter “Y” to replace the “I”. The “C” when pronounced “K” was changed
to “K” after it was introduced, which leads to the modern spelling of “KYLE”.
Records show some people used these different spellings interchangeably.
A Clerk with an IRISH tongue could readily spell KYLE as COYLE, CEOL, COIL
or KOYLE. Since very few people were well educated spelling suffered
greatly throughout written records.
• One will find a simple explanation of the Kyle name today as: “In early
times, the man who lived by an important river was referred to by the name
of the river. In England, the Kyle River was the "narrow" river. Today
Kyle is referred to as an English Place name.” This of course is
a modern explanation. The KYLE clan originally took their surname, before
the alphabet had a “K” or “Y” from where they lived in southwestern Scotland
in Auchlinleck Parish, KYLE District in Ayshire, near Muirkirk by the river
Ayr. I think many Kyle's would have been very offended to be referred to
as English!
• Thus the original place referred to as “CAOL", is today the town named
(KYLE TOWN) between Rivers Irvine and Doon is by the water of Coyle (Kyle),
found in County Ayr. County Coylton is due east of Ayr. A local stream is called KYLL.
• This is also the area known for King
Arthur, also of Celtic stock, legend has it, he fought a battle where
the Glen Water meets the River Irvine at Darvel in Ayshire about the year
542. In 1236 Kyle Port is listed in Ayr on the High Street beside
the Auid Tour. One of the earliest maps of Scotland, made by Matthew
de Paris, a monk of St. Albans around 1250 AD shows the name “COLA” in
what is now the District of KYLE one of the three subdivisions of Ayr County.
KYLE District was divided by the River Ayr into two parts, KING'S KYLE
and STEWART KYLE. These two Kyle districts on the old maps prior
to 1700, consisted of half of Ayr. On May 16, 1975 Ayr County
Council officially disbanded these old districts and burghs.
• In 1334 Thomas Bruce and Robert the Stewart (Later Robert II) organized
a rising in District of Kyle against the English.
• In 1424 “WALTER OF KYLE” entered into the records as having been granted
a document, which would guarantee his safe conduct into England.
These safe conduct passes were only given to people of importance and were
respected by both England and Scotland. In 1440 recorded devastation
in Ayrshire of the lands of Colville of Ochiltree . In 1494 Protestant
ideas in Ayshire came from thirty lesser lairds (lords) from Kyle with
George Reid of Barskinning their spokesman and were tried for heresy and
admonished. In 1498 Sir William Colville had his dependents received
an exemption from jurisdiction by the Sheriff of Ayr. In Edinburgh,
100 years after it became the Capitol City of Scotland in 1537, GEORGE
KYLE was elected a Member of Parliament. In the same year, in a place
called Irvine, JOHN and THOMAS KILE were also members of Parliament.
In Glasgow in the year 1606 a ROBERT KYLE appears on record as leaving
his estate to his heir ANDREW KILE. Lord Colville is listed in Colville
in 1651. One of the KYLE’s is involved with the coopers trade in
Edinburgh in 1662 (a cooper was a highly skilled craftsman making water
tight barrels out of hand carved wooden staves). The lands belonging to
lord Coville of Ochiltree became extinct in 1728. In 1740 there
is a reference of a Kyle from Dairy that introduced “bowls” (as in a kitchen
bowl) at Kilmarnock.
• Bleau’s Atlas issued in 1654 marks this same physical location in Scotland
as “Ayr-Ky-O-LLE”. Therefore this family had been there for over a thousand
years. The old KYLE castle was still standing there as late as 1863.
The registry of castles in Scotland list the
Kyle castle as an early 15th century keep. A recent picture of that
castle found in Old Cumnock parish in Ayshire is being used as the background on this webpage.
The local farmland was called KYLE, but the property was owned by Marquis
of Bute, with most memory of the locals of the earlier owners lost by 1863.
Ayr and Coylton and Old Cumnack parish, in the District of Kyle of Ayrshire
County is located in southwest part of Scotland.
• This area was presumably named after COILUS, 53rd King of the Britons,
descendant of Brutus the 1st king of the Britons, descendant from the line
of Noah, as written in chapter 18 of Nennius’ Historia Brittonum. King
Brutus was the first to colonize the British mainland after the Flood.
COILUS’s son Lucius, the 54th King of the Britons, was the fist Christian
king, he died in 156 AD. The nursery rhyme “OLD KING COLE” (COEL)
is about another ancestor, COEL the 59th King of the Britons. In
702 Scots invaders were defeated at Coilsfield by Coilus, a British king.
Old King COEL (as in the nursery rhyme) founded the city of Colschester
that still bears his name.
• Robert Bruce, Boswell and the famous poet Robert Burns were born and
lived in KYLE District by the River Ayr. Burns wrote in his “Farewell
Song to the Banks of Ayr” using the ancient from of the word Kyle:
“Farewell, old Coila’s hills and dales
Her healthy moors and winding vales,”
And in his poem “The Vision” he writes:
“There, where a sceptr’d Pictish shade
stalked round his ashes lowly laid”
• A footnote by Burns says the lines refer to KING COILUS who lies buried,
near the family seat of the Moatgomeries of Coilsfield. Other historians
also state the famous “OLD KING COLE” (pronounced COUL) nursery rhyme and
the name KYLE and COLE are the same. Old King Cole's grave was opened
in 1837 finding artifacts indicating a personage of distinction.
COEL’s grandson was the 61st King of Briton, Constantine I, the famous
Emperor of Rome who legalized the Christian Religion.
• The history of the KYLE family finds generation after generation fighting
for religious freedom and many generations of members being in the clergy.
The earliest Protestant recorded times show the KYLE'S have been Presbyterians,
in the main. It was in Scotland that Presbyterianism emerged as a
great national religious institution as noted in 1494 District of Kyle
above. John Knox was the leader of the Scotch Presbyterian Church after
the Reformation, around 1525, and later.
The Kyle's move to Ireland
• In the years of Queen Elizabeth's reign in Ireland, Conn the Lame, &
Baron of Dungannon died. Shane the Proud slew his half brother, the next
Baron, and was inaugurated the O'Neill in Ulster. Mercenaries from
Scotland were hired to assist Queens' O'Donnels, Queens' O'Neills and the
red coats to oust Shane the Proud and their Catholic supporters.
Years later, Shane's sons and Red Hugh O'Donnell escaped from the English
and swept through Ulster driving out the English sheriffs starting the
"Nine Year War". The Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, head of the O’Neill
clan in Northern Ireland, rebelled against English rule, cast off his title
of Earl, and set himself up as King of Ulster. Elizabeth recalled
her best soldiers from the Spanish war in Belgium to send to Ireland.
This war continued with the King of England, King James I, himself a Scotch
Presbyterian until the "Flight of the Earls", with the defeat of O’Neal
and the other Irish chiefs who had supported him and fled into exile with
their families. The English Crown took over the vast estates and parceled
them out which included some land to the Kyle's around the year 1606.
King James gave Sir William (KYLE) a belt of land in Tyrone County Ireland
where he moved with his family from Scotland. This was only about
20 miles from the. Boarders of Scotland. KYLE'S supported William
Wallace and when the Convenanters defied the king in 1638 many KYLE'S were
numbered in that group. The Kyle's survived the uprising of the Irish
on October 21, 1641 and are mentioned at the historic Synod in Kilkenny
in May of 1642 which created the Parliament.
• The brothers ROBERT KYLE, JAMES KYLE and WILLIAM KYLE fought under Oliver
Cromwell beginning August of 1640 to uphold Protestantism in Ireland, against
Owen Roe O'Neill, a nephew of Hugh O'Neill, and commander of a hundred
officers from Catholic King Charles I of Spain, and their invasion of Ireland.
As a reward they were awarded grants of land in Derry, Tyrone and nearby
counties in Ulster located in Northern Ireland around 1649. Around
this time, the last of the KYLE'S from around Ayshire, Scotland moved,
and most moved into Ireland. This was during the period, which was
known as the “Plantation of Ulster”. In Ulster the family gained
great prominence and was referred to as the well known “KYLES OF LAUREL
HILL” in later years. Some other of the KYLES must have moved into
Northwest Scotland where today there is a town called “Kyle of Lochalsh”.
• In one of the Churches in Northern Ireland a monument to a KYLE has
a “Cross and an Urn” on it, which was the usual symbol indicating a crusader
in search of the Holy Grail. In 1759 a monument was erected in the
wall of Castleberg Church located in Tyrone County, Mournebeg Ireland carved
in stone dedicated by JOHN KYLE to his brother ROBERT KYLE that included
the words “Mournebeg House” and the KYLE coat of Arms.
• The KYLE coat of arms has been tracked back to around the year 1000.
This is also the time true surnames, in the sense of hereditary appellations
were found around England and required by the conquering Normans. Probably
the Oldest recorded KYLE coast of arms was that shown in Lyndsay’s Heraldic
Manuscripts, hand painted in 1630 and described below.
• ALSO, in the general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales
first published in 1842, lists REVEREND SAMUEL KYLE, D. D. BISHOP OF CORK,
whose family was long seated at KYLE, N.B. And whose immediate ancestors
settled Camish County, Derry, Ireland is listed with a similar coat of
arms and uses the family motto of “Tibisoli”. The Lyndsay manuscripts
were reproduced in color in 1878 and consisted of only 130 pages.
This was dedicated to mostly kings and Nobles including the arms of about
500 of the principal families including the Kyle's.
• The Kyle Coat of Arms
is Argent (silver which denotes sincerity and nobility) with three candlesticks
(religious significance) in sable (black which denotes repentance or vengeance).
Over the years a candlestick would be changed to denote a special accomplishment
or the bearer was not the eldest son. Under heraldic rules only the
first son of each generation may use their exact ancestors Coat of Arms.
History denotes the third candlestick has been replaced with a mullet (star)
in Gules (red) to denote military fortitude) or a lion rampant (standing
and facing) in Gules (red) on azure (blue representing loyally and splendor)
background. Sometimes over all is found a Saltire (Saint Andrews
Cross) in Gules.
• The crest was added in the 13th century and contained a ducal coronet
surmounting a helmet, Dexter, arms in armor elbowed, holding a dagger.
• The family motto AFIDES NON TIMET is Latin for "Faith Fears Not".
• The KYLE men were known to be of powerful physique, both tall and broad
shouldered. The KYLEs were fair of skin, fair hair, and blue eyes
with little exception. Long life was another common characteristic.
The KYLE VOICE is mentioned over many generation and described as
"very pleasant" and unquestionably a useful feature in the ministry.
• Much of this information came from U.S. Senator from South Dakota (1891-1901)
THOMAS HENDERSON KYLE; Miss EMMA KYLE BURLESON’s, daughter of Postmaster
General Albert Sidney Burleson, of Texas, research in London in 1911 with
the help of R.A. KYLE and others of Belfast Ireland; The book "Kyle,
Kile Family History"; the eighth century work of Nennius, the “Historis
Brittonum”, 1. Ayrshire, the story of a County by John Strawhorn
1975 & Ayrshire Archaeological and Natural History society, and information
passed down in our own family.
The Kyle's move to America
• Thus many of the KYLE’s of today are descendent of the Scottish/Irish
Kyle's that migrated to the United States of America beginning @
1720 because of religious persecution of Staunch independent Presbyterians
who refused to support the Church of England during the previous 60 years.
