Newlands - Name

Recorded as Newlands, Newlandis, this is a medieval Scottish barony surname. There were two baronies called Newland, the first in Kincardine, and the other in Peebles, and the surname may have originated.from either or both. The derivation is from the pre 7th century Olde English words "niew landa," English not Gaelic being spoken in the then kingdom of Strathclyde. New land referred either to agricultural land which had been recovered from waste land, or perhaps to "new lands" which had been added to an existing estate, probably by purchase althpough other methods were not unknown at the time! The surname also refers to the family as being minor nobility being to as "of that Ilk." Jasper Newlands of Dalswinton near Dumfriess, it is thought was the first to carry that designation as recorded in the year 1469. It would seem that before the 20th century the surname was much associated withthe village of Dalswinton, although not in recent times. Other early recordings include Duncan Newlandis, the bailie of Linlithgow in 1493, whilst Joneta Newlands, was acknowledged to be the heir to lands in the barony of Monkland, Lanarkshire, in 1675.