Freskin (died before 1171)^[1] was aFlemish nobleman who settled inScotland during the reign ofKing David I, becoming the progenitor of theMurray andSutherland families, and possibly others.

Freskin was said to have come to the Lowlands of Scotland fromFlanders, and thence toMoray in the north.^[2] From a charter granted to one of his sons byKing William the Lion, it can be ascertained that Freskin held fromKing David the lands ofStrathbrock inWest Lothian, as well asDuffus,Roseisle, Inchikel,Machir andKintrae inMoray.^[3] The name Freskin isFlemish,^[4] and in the words ofGeoffrey Barrow "it is virtually certain that Freskin belonged to a large group of Flemish settlers who came to Scotland in the middle decades of the 12th century and were chiefly to be found inWest Lothian and the valley of the Clyde".^[5] Freskin was one of several Flemings who had lands in Moray bestowed upon him; this seems to have been an attempt by the kings of Scotland to replace the nativeGaelic nobility, who had resisted their rule and prevented them forming a cohesive kingdom, most notably in the 1130 uprising led byAngus, Earl of Moray.^[6]

Freskin probably had only one son,William. It is sometimes said that he had two others, Hugh and Andrew, but these may in fact have been sons of William.^[2] William inherited his father's lands and took the namede Moravia, or "of Moray" in English. TheMoray or Murray family became prolific in Scotland, and their chief now holds the titleDuke of Atholl.Hugh, one of William's sons, acquired a large tract of land inSutherland. His son,William, took the surnameSutherland, and was createdEarl of that region in the 1230s, a title which is still held by his descendants today.^[2]

The connection between the Murrays and Sutherlands is shown by the similarity of theirarms: the Murrays bearazure, three stars argent and the Sutherlands beargules, three stars or.^[7]

It is also quite possible that the house ofDouglas descends from Freskin's family.Bricius de Douglas, son ofWilliam, Lord of Douglas, becameBishop of Moray in 1203. A man named Freskin of Kerdal is found amongst the benefactors ofSpynie Cathedral, and Bricius refers to him as his uncle. The parentage of Freskin of Kerdal is not known, but he was likely a descendant (possibly a grandson) of the original Freskin.^[8] The connection is further supported by the similarity of the families' arms: both bear three silver stars on blue, in varying arrangements.^[9] Belief in the common descent of the Murrays and Douglases was certainly extant in the early 15th century:

Off Murrawe and the Douglas,
How that thare begynnyng was,
Syn syndry spekis syndryly,
I can put that in na story.
Bot in thare armeys bath thai bere
The sternys [stars] set in lyke manere:
Til mony men it is yhit sene
Apperand lyk, that thai had bene
Off kyn be descens lyneale,
Or be branchys collateralle.^[10]

• Barrow, G.W.S. (ed.),The Acts of Malcolm IV King of Scots 1153-1165, Together with Scottish Royal Acts Prior to 1153 not included in Sir Archibald Lawrie's "Early Scottish Charters", inRegesta Regum Scottorum, Volume I, (Edinburgh, 1960)
• Barrow, G.W.S. (ed.),The Acts of William I King of Scots 1165-1214 inRegesta Regum Scottorum, Volume II, (Edinburgh, 1971)
• Barrow, G.W.S., "Badenoch and Strathspey, 1130-1312: 1. Secular and Political" inNorthern Scotland, 8 (1988), pp. 1–15
• Barrow, G.W.S. (ed.), "The Beginnings of Military Feudalism" in Barrow (ed.) The Kingdom of the Scots, 2nd Ed. (2003), p. 252-3
• Duncan, A.A.M.,Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom, (Edinburgh, 1975)
• Oram, Richard, "David I and the Conquest of Moray", inNorthern Scotland, 19 (1999), pp. 1–19
• Toorians, L., "Twelfth-century Flemish Settlement in Scotland", in Grant G. Simpson (ed.),Scotland and the Low Countries, 1124-1994, (East Linton, 1996), pp. 1–14.

• Lambroughton - Friskin and the origin of Clan Cunninghame.
• Andrew of Wyntoun