Of territorial origin from the barony of the same name in Angus, The first of the name recorded is John de Glenesk who witnessed a grant by Christian, widow of Sir Peter Maule of Panmure to John Lydl about 1256 (Panmure, II, 141), As John de Glenesch, miles, he witnessed c. 1260, the charter of Rossy to Walter de Rossy (RAA., I, p. 336). The same or succeeding John de Glenesk was one of the subscribers to the letter of the community of Scotland to Edward I of England consenting to the marriage of his son Prince Henry to Princess Margaret in 1289 (APS., I, p. 85). Johan de Glennysk and Morgund de Glennesk, both of the county of Forfare, took the oath of fealty in 1296 (Bain, II, p. 199). The seal of the latter bears a shield with bend charged with escallops, field crusily, and S' Morgvndi de Glenesk (ibid., p. 550)"Who the early Norman or Normanised lords of Glenesk may have been, and whence they came, are questions to which no certain answer can be given. In the most ancient records, from about 1260 onwards, they appear simply under the territorial designation of de Glenesk. That they were a Normanised native family, rather than immigrants, is suggested by the fact that one of them, Morgund de Glenesk, who swore fealty to Edward I at Berwick 28th August, 1296, has a Celtic name. It is not proved, out is exceedingly likely, that these de Glenesks were the descendants of a family named Abbe, of whom Malise, John, Morgund, and Michael are successively on record as disposing of lands in Glenesk early in the thirteenth century. This family almost certainly took its origin from the lay abs or abbots of a Celtic monastic foundation, probably established by St. Drostan, with whose name the primitive Christianity of the district is associated. At a later period in the thirteenth century we have records of a family of Stirling or Strivelyn de Glenesk: but whether these were of the same stock as the earlier lords who are styled simply 'of Glenesk,' it does not seem possible now to say. In or about 1357, Catherine Stirling, heiress of Glenesk, married Sir Alexander, third son of Sir David Lindsay of Crawford, and thereby acquired the barony of Glenesk" (Dr. W. Dougias Simpson in PSAS., LXV, p. 117—118).