The name of a family which once possessed extensive territories on the south side of Edinburgh and took their surname from their lands. The first of the name recorded is Henry de Brade, who appears in the middle of the twelfth century as owner of not only the Braid Hills, but also of Blackford Hill, the Plewlands, and Bavelaw. He was sheriff of Edinburgh in the reign of William the Lion (Neubotle, 14), and as Henricus de Brade marescallus, witnessed the gift of a toft in Stirling to the church of Glasgow by William the Lion before 1199 (REG., p. 67). He and his successors were proprietors of the Braids for nearly two hundred years, and with one exception they all used the patronymic Henry. In the reign of William the Lion, probably about the year 1200, Henry de Brade, sheriff of Edinburgh, was witness to a gift of the church of Boeltun by William de Ueteri ponte, son and heir of William de Ueteri ponte and Emma de Sancto Hylario to the church of the Holy Rood of Castle of Maidens and the canons serving the same (LSC., p. 28). Before 1214 he witnessed a gift by Robert de Lyne to the monks of Neubotle (Neubotle, p. 12), and before 1220 he is one of the witnesses to a charter by John de Morham to the same monks (ibid,, p. 66). About 1230 the second Henry de Brade granted to the monks of Holyrood the tithes of all his moorland of Pentelands and of his land of Baueley (Bavelaw) for the maintenance of divine service in the chapel of the blessed Katherine in the Pentlands (LSC., p. 45). (This little church is now covered by the waters of the Glencorse reservoir, and the ruins, with the little graveyard, have been on several occasions exposed to view in recent years during times of extreme drought.) In 1231 there is mention of John de Brade, canon of Glasgow, and Radulph de Brade his brother (Soltre, p. 29). In 1249 Sir Henry de Brade was one of the twelve Scottish knights appointed to meet a similar number of English knights for the purpose of settling the law of the marches (APS., I, p. 413), and in 1261 he was one of the adjudicators in a dispute having reference to the earldom of Menteith. He was dead before November 1274 (Bain, 11, 34), and was succeeded by his son, Thomas de Brade, who with his brother, Radulf de Brade, a priest in the Cathedral Church of Glasgow, witnessed confirmation of the gift of the church of Maleuille to Dunfermline in 1255 (RD., 206). Sheep belonging to the king's tenants of the Pentlands often strayed upon the lands of Bavelay in search of better pasturage, and it was the practice of the lord of Braid to refuse to return them unless under a 'punlayn' or fine of 8d. per animal. In 1280 an inquisition was made at the chapel of St. Katherine "which found that for fifty years 'byegone' and more, the king never had right within the bounds of Baveley, which is the lord of Brad's; but the servants of the lords of Brad always took the animals of all the king's farmers in the moor of Pentland and imparked them, and took 'punlayn' whenever they found them within the bounds of Baveley, and thus all the lords of Brad have ever held that land of Bavelay till the time of Sir William de Sancto Claro, and this because Sir Thomas de Brad demanded 8d. of punlayn' from the King's men, as the King's men have taken 8d. from his men" (Bain, IV, 1762). Henry de Brade of the county of Edinburgh rendered homage in 1296. His seal bears a squirrel, with the legend S' Henrici de Bard (ibid., II, p. 198,545). In 1426 the lands of Brade passed into the possession of John de Farle (RMS., II, 75). Helen Braid in Dundee, 1638 (Brechin). The surname is now found in Fife and in south-eastern Perthshire as Bread, and occurs in the St. Andrews Kirk Session records in the sixteenth century. Braed 1569. Braad Brad Bradd, Bred.

(English) Broad [Old English brád] (Celtic) Dweller at a Gorge or Gully [Gaelic and Irish brághad]

The northern form of Broad.