Ednam

Parish church, Ednam

Ednam is a small village near Kelso in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland.

Places nearby include Stichill, Sprouston, Nenthorn, Eccles, Gordon, Greenlaw as well as Floors Castle.

The village was formerly in Roxburghshire. Its name is a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon "Edenham", i.e. the town on Eden Water.

Near the village is a knoll called The Piper's Grave. It is named after a legend that a local piper once went searching for fairies in the hill, and was never seen again.^[1]

People from Ednam[]

Very Rev Prof J. H. S. Burleigh - Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1960.

Ednam is notable for having been associated with several Scottish poets, namely Henry Francis Lyte, writer of Abide With Me; William Wright, John Gibson Smith and James Thomson, writer of Rule Britannia.

Other people associated with Ednam include William Purves, a banker. John 'Coocke' or 'Cuke'- grandfather of Captain Cook also came from here. Lastly, Thor Longus who re-populated and re-established the wasteland of Ednam after a grant in the early 1100s by King Edgar of Scotland under the Princedom of David I of Scotland, Prince of Cumbria. Thor Longus may have been the progenitor of the Laing family of the Borders Counties of Berwickshire, Roxburgshire, and Dumfriesshire, where numerous Laing/Lange (Latin: Long(us)) meaning "tall or long" in Scots resided since at least the 1100s according to written Burgess roles of Dumfries and Berwick as well as the infamous Ragman Roll of 1296AD (Edward I) and Berwick Roll of 1333AD (Edward III). The Laings are believed to be descendants of Roman auxiliary troops stationed in Northern Britain near Hadrians Wall (Carlisle to Newcastle) (based on modern Y DNA research) along with other modern Border familiesfrom Numidia/Mauretania in N Africa or Hispania where Numidians/Mauretanians settled in early Roman Republic/Empire in the 200BC to 60AD period of Roman history. As recorded in the book published in 1860 by Edmonston and Douglas Publishers of Edinburgh named "Concerning Some Scotch Surnames" (reprinted as "The Old Scots Surnames: Secrets and Origins of Your Name" by John Menzies Publishers), the authors state on page 16: "A Northman who was the first colonizer of Ednam in the Merse, was named Thor. His seal, to be seen in Mr H. Laing's shop, represents Thor himself seated, with his good sword on his knees, and, lest the likeness should be doubted, the legend around is - "Thor me mittit amico". But another Thor had the lands of Tranent in this shire. So to distinguish himself, the Merse man calls himself - even in charters and most formal writs - Thor Longus - Thor the Long. 'The Longs were good men in England, as you may read in Clarendon, but not better than the Langs and Laings of Scotland'."