Clan Maxwell
also Clan Maxwell
Caerlaverock and the Solway shore — the great Border clan of the south-west.
CoreHistoric reach
The seat of Clan Maxwell
Seat vacantChief
No chief yet. The seat awaits its first claimant — be the first to stake your name to Clan Maxwell.
Current mission
No mission proclaimed. The chief, once seated, sets the clan’s public focus — a campaign, a contest, a piece of restoration, a year of remembrance.
The pledge surface for chiefdoms and missions is being built. Until it ships, register your name through the submit form.
Stake your name →Motto
Reviresco
— I flourish again
What does the Maxwell name mean?
From Mackeswell, 'Maccus's Well' — the well of Maccus, an Anglo-Scandinavian thane who held lands on the Tweed near Kelso in the 11th century. The Maxwell chiefs descend from Sir John Maxwell, sheriff of Roxburgh, whose son Sir Aymer Maxwell (d. 1265) was Justiciar of Galloway and the first holder of Caerlaverock Castle on the Solway shore. Caerlaverock — the great triangular fortress on the moss south of Dumfries — was the Maxwell stronghold for nearly four centuries and is the visual identity of the clan to this day.
The history of Clan Maxwell
The Maxwells of Caerlaverock were the dominant family of the Scottish south-west march from the 13th to the 17th century, holding the wardenship of the West March and feuding ferociously with their cousin-rivals the Johnstones of Annandale. The fight reached its bloody apex at the Battle of Dryfe Sands in 1593, where Lord Maxwell was killed and the Maxwell power broken. The 9th Lord Maxwell, John (1583–1613), was executed at Edinburgh for the assassination of Sir James Johnstone, in revenge for his father's death — the closing punctuation of two centuries of west-march feud.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879), the Edinburgh-born physicist, formulated the Maxwell equations of electromagnetism — the unification of electricity, magnetism and light into a single classical field theory, foundational to all subsequent physics. Albert Einstein kept a portrait of Maxwell on his study wall; modern technologies from radio to mobile telephony to magnetic resonance imaging are direct applications of his work. Sir John Stirling-Maxwell (1866–1929) of Pollok was a co-founder of the National Trust for Scotland in 1931. Robert Maxwell (1923–1991), the Czech-British media tycoon, took the Maxwell name on his arrival in Britain and built and lost the Mirror Group before his death at sea.
Notable bearers of the Maxwell name
- James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) — physicist, electromagnetic field theory
- Sir John Stirling-Maxwell (1866–1929) — co-founder of the National Trust for Scotland
- Robert Maxwell (1923–1991) — media tycoon