The origin of the Portuguese Drummonds

a Scotsman in late medieval Madeira?

Abstract

This paper explores the origin of the Drummond surname in the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira. Used by Portuguese subjects from the early 16th century, the name is claimed to derive from João Escórcio (‘John the Scot’ or ‘Scottish John’), a settler of the 15th century. The first aim of this paper is to provide an initial analysis of Escórcio’s existence in the record of the Council of Funchal, between 1470 and 1486, to contextualise his emergence in Portugal’s first Atlantic colony. As part of this approach, the historiography of Scottish migration is engaged with drawing upon examples of Scots overseas.

The secondary purpose of this paper is to present the correspondence between Escórcio’s descendants, the Chiefs of the Clan Drummond and their kinsmen in Scotland, spanning the 16th to 18th centuries, to complement the chronology of Escórcio in Madeira. This same correspondence reconciles his identity with that of John Drummond, considered a son of Sir John Drummond of Stobhall and Cargill and Lady Elizabeth Sinclair, and reveals a tie of kinship between the Portuguese Drummonds and their Scottish namesakes. Through the research presented, currently Escórcio could be considered the earliest known example of a Scottish settler in Portuguese history, written into the historical record of the Clan Drummond. As a result, this paper may be considered a contribution to the study of Scottish migration within the Iberian world during the late medieval period, a field that is largely unknown.