11th Century
Normandy, France to England

(sources: Wikipedia)

The Lyons family (originally, de Lyons or de Leonne, and sometimes spelled Lyon without the ‘s’) is an eminent noble Anglo-Norman family, descended from Ingelram de Lyons, Lord of the Lyons (b. 1020). By ‘Norman’, this means the Lyon roots derived from Normandy, a province (i.e., a regional province in France) just north of Paris. The family lived specifically in a town called Lyons-la-Forêt, residing specifically in the Castle of Lyons (a.k.a., the Chateau de Lyons-la-Foret). The castle was constructed at the beginning of the 12th century by Henry I of England, also known as "Henri Beauclerc". The town and the castle were occupied by King Philip II Augustus of France in 1193 but the following year, Richard I of England, back from captivity, allocated the castle to the Lyons. The castle had four large towers and four gates, yet by the beginning of the 17th century it was described as being in ruins with only the chapel of Saint Nicolas remaining (thus signifying France’s and the Lyons’ Catholic faith at that time). Portions of the castle walls remain to this day, but it is unoccupied.

The text later describes the American Lyon family descending from a Scottish line with its own coat of arms. That said, the Norman Lyons had their own coat of arms (see above) and motto: ‘noli irritare leones’ (‘do not provoke the lions’).

In 1066, William, the Duke of Normandy, invades England and becomes known as William the Conquerer. The wars become known as the Norman Conquest, and William becomes William I, the King of England. The invasion embedded French as the primary language of the English nobles and landowners for nearly three centuries. Beginning in the 14th century, the Black Plague, the Protestant Reformation, and numerous economic shifts led to the beginning of England’s more ‘democratic’ state and the rise of ‘commoners’, which practiced an early form of the English language. The French language was ultimately dropped.

In 1080 Nicholas de Lyons emigrated from Normandy to England, and William granted him and the Lyons family lands at Warkworth, Northamptonshire, 90 miles north of London toward Birmingham, maintaining the Lyons’ noble standing. The emigrated Lyons appear to have stayed in this part of England for three centuries, until certain branches of the Lyons migrated to Scotland in the 14th century and other branches to Ireland in the 15th century.

As stated above, the American Lyon family appears to be derived from the Scottish line after Richard Lyons, Jr. emigrated to the American colonies in 1649. As a result, most of the remaining text focuses on the Scottish clan. That said, there are interesting people from the Irish and remaining English branches worth noting. In the 15th century, the Irish branch established a seat at King's County (Ireland, not Northern Ireland) that became known as River Lyons, and a seat at County Westmeath, Ledestown Hall (or Ledistown Hall). Members of the family repeatedly served both as High Sheriff of Westmeath and as High Sheriff of King’s County. Their descendants include Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons, Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, the diplomat who solved the Trent Affair, Sir Algernon McLennan Lyons, Admiral of the Fleet, and Richard Lyons Pearson, Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

The descendants of the Lyons family who remained in England had ceased to reside at Warkworth by the 16th century, and moved to estates in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Middlesex. The Middlesex line of the family produced Sir John Lyon, Lord Mayor of London for 1553–1554, and John Lyon (d.1592), the founder of Harrow School, after whom The John Lyon School, the John Lyon's Charity, and a Harrow School house, Lyon’s, are named.

14th Century
Glamis, Scotland

(sources: Wikipedia)

The Lyons family (our American descendants) migrated to Scotland in the 14th century about the time the family dropped the final ‘s’ in the name. Later in the 15th century, King Robert II of Scotland granted to Sir John Lyon (the 3rd Lord), who was known as the White Lyon due to his pale complexion an earldom, the lands to build the family seat, Glamis Castle. Thus, he became Lord John Lyon of Glamis. Glamis Castle is a beautiful castle located 75 miles northeast of Edinburgh and approximately 25 miles northwest of St. Andrews near Dundee.

Approximately a century later in 1606, King Robert II of Scotland grants Patrick Lyon, the 9th Lord of Glamis, the noble title of Earl of Kinghorne, later expanded to the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in 1677 (additionally recognized by the United Kingdom in 1937). Noble titles, such as Earl, are part of the “peerage” of Scotland and the UK. The nobles are a class considered “above” land owners (landed gentry) and the commoners, who didn’t possess property. The peerage is generally ranked as King/Queen, Prince/Princess, Duke/Duchess, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, Baron, etc., where an earl may have dominion over one or multiple counties.

It’s somewhat unclear why Robert II granted the earldom, but it appears as though Patrick’s father, John Lyon, the 8th Lord of Glamis renounced his allegiance to Mary, Queen of Scots and was later named Lord Chancellor of Scotland and Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. Patrick, the 9th Lord, was captain of the Royal Guard and then became Privy Councillor to James VI of Scotland, which presumably led to the earldom: Patrick being the 9th Lord of Glamis and the 1st Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.

The Lyon family seat at Glamis Castle is located northeast of Edinburgh and approximately 45 minutes northwest of St. Andrews near Dundee. Nearly a thousand years ago, Scottish King Macbeth lived in the town of Glamis (later the grounds for the Castle Glamis), a poem of whom served as the basis of Shakespeare’s play.

Although the American Lyon family derives from the emigration of Richard Lyon, the son of the 2nd Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, the Scottish Lyon earldom continues to this day. In the late 18th century, the Lyon and Bowes families merge with John Bowes Lyon, the 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. And, eventually, by the 19th century, the line produces a daughter, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002), who became the mother (“Queen Mother”) of the current Queen Elizabeth II.

Coincidentally, after having just researched this lineage, Betsy and I were watching the fourth season of Netflix’s The Crown, S:4, Ep7, where the Bowes-Lyon family is part of the main plot - with a very interesting and significant twist.

Here’s the story with some quick historical context:

Queen Elizabeth II (b.1926 and reigning since 1952) is part of the House of Windsor, one of several lines of English nobility. The Windsors are relatively new, beginning in 1917 when the noble line changed its name from the German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor, and its first King was George V, Queen Elizabeth II’s grandfather. King George V and Queen Mary had four children: Prince Edward (the rightful heir to the King), Prince Albert, Princess Mary, and Prince John. When King George V died in 1936, Prince Edward was elevated and renamed as King Edward VIII. But later that same year, King Edward VIII abdicated the throne, when he decided to marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, an act not recognized by the Church of England. Next in line to be King was Prince Albert, who when coronated, was renamed King George VI (the King who struggled with stuttering in the movie “The King’s Speech”). King George VI had already been married to Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon since 1923, and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. When King George VI died in 1952, Elizabeth ascended to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II, and Lady Elizabeth became the “Queen Mother” until her passing in 2002.

The scandal depicted by The Crown, draws a parallel between Margaret’s mid-life crisis and mental depression to a traumatic finding by both Queen Elizabeth II and Margaret in the mid-1980s that five members of the noble family had been hidden away in a sanitarium in Surrey for their entire lives due to a disease which caused significant mental disability (then called “imbecility”). Official records had recorded the individuals as dead, yet (in the show) Queen Mother explains to Margaret that, if the disabilties had been known by the public, it may have discredited the purity of the noble blood lines. In fact, two of the cousins with disabilities were children of Queen Mother’s brother John Herber (“Jock”) Bowes-Lyon (the second son of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kingshorne), and they later determined the genetic defect was carried by the Earl’s wife Fenella Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis. The other three children with similar disabilities were from Fenella’s siblings. As a result, the genetic defect was not part of King George VI’s or the Bowes-Lyon lineage nor subsequent Earl bloodlines. And, as you’ll note below, the American family lineage is bred from the son of the 2nd Earl of Strathmore and Kingshorne, nearly three centuries earlier.

The 19th and current Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne is Simon Patrick Bowes-Lyon Heir, born 1986, who resides in Glamis Castle.

17th Century
Immigration to the United States

The Scottish Lyon’s emigration to the United States in the 17th century was more of an escape. John Lyon, the 2nd Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne subscribed to the National Covenant (signed 1638 at Greyfriars Kirkyard), a 17th century religious and political movement that sought primacy of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Presbyterianism is a protestant religion that doesn’t recognize the Catholic Pope as its leader and applied a democratic-like approach to church leadership via the elders and synod (not the minister). England’s Charles I was also a proponent of the National Covenant, yet when Charles lost the crusade, he was executed and the Lyon estates were nearly destroyed. The 2nd Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and his family feared for their lives.

Richard Lyon Jr. 1624 - 1678

In approximately 1649, one of Lord John Lyon’s sons, Richard, emigrated to the United States, first settling in Fairfield County, Connecticut, approximately 30 minutes along the coast east of New Haven. He was the youngest of the three brothers who escaped. Back in Scotland, two years later, the Third English Civil War led to Scotland’s incorporation into the Commonwealth of England. For four decades the Presbyterians were a persecuted minority in Scotland, yet the church was more formally re-established in 1690. Patrick Lyon, the 3rd Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne paid off the debts that he had inherited from his father, and he was later able to re-occupy and enlarge Glamis Castle.

Richard was previously a soldier in Oliver Cromwell’s Model Army, and it is said that he brought his sword with him to America. Richard married Margaret (no maiden name, b. 1624, in fact, Margaret may have preceded Richard to the U.S., from Belgium or Germany), and they had 7 sons and 4 daughters.

Richard was made a Freeman there in 1664, he was Commissioner for Fairfield in 1669 and at his death in 1678, he left an estate valued at £632 (a considerable amount at that time).

During the American Revolution the Lyons were loyal to the cause of Independence. From Vermont some of them moved to Michigan – among these the Honorable Lucius Lyon who represented the new state of Michigan as a Senator in the Congress of 1837-39. Grandpa Lyon (Hartzell) was born in 1899 in Catharine, New York (just south of Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes district).

Finally, it’s interesting to note one other descendant, Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyon (July 14, 1818 – August 10, 1861). He was the first Union general to be killed in the American Civil War. He is noted for his military actions in Missouri in 1861, at the beginning of the conflict, to forestall the governor’s secret plans to secede from the Union. He also fought in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War, and died at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek during the Civil War.

Below is additional detail from author Michael Hewitt.

Lords of Glamis

1st Patrick Lyon 1402-1459
2nd Alexander Lyon 1429-1486
3rd John Lyon 1431-1497
4th John Lyon 1452-1500
5th George Lyon 1488-1505
6th John Lyon 1491-1528
7th John Lyon 1521-1592
8th John Lyon 1544-1576
9th Patrick Lyon 1575-1615

Earls of Kinghorne & Strathmore

Patrick Lyon 1st Earl of Kinghorne 1575–1615
John Lyon 2nd Earl of Kinghorne 1596–1646
Patrick Lyon 3rd Earl of Kinghorne 1643–1695
John Lyon 4th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne 1663–1712
John Lyon 5th Earl of Strathmore & K 1696–1715
Charles Lyon 6th Earl of Strathmore & K 1699–1728
James Lyon 7th Earl of Strathmore & K 1702–1735
Thomas Lyon 8th Earl of Strathmore & K 1704–1753
John Bowes Lyon 9th Earl of Strathmore & K 1737–1776
John Bowes Lyon 10th Earl of Strathmore & K 1769–1820
Thomas Lyon Bowes 11th Earl of Strathmore & K 1773–1846
Thomas Lyon-Bowes 12th Earl of Strathmore& K 1822–1865
Claude Bowes-Lyon 13th Earl of Strathmore & K 1824–1904
Claude George Bowes-Lyon 14th Earl of Strathmore & K 1855–1944
Patrick Bowes-Lyon 15th Earl of Strathmore & K 1884–1949
Timothy Patrick Bowes-Lyon 16th Earl of Strathmore 1918-1972
Fergus Michael Claude Bowes-Lyon 17th Earl of Strathmore & K 1928–1987
Michael Fergus Bowes-Lyon 18th Earl of Strathmore and K b. 1957
Simon Patrick Bowes-Lyon Heir apparent b. 1986

The village of Warkworth in Northamptonshire is very small and nothing remains of Warkworth Manor or Castle. The church does exist and is well worth a visit. It is in the middle of a field and a little difficult to find but a treasure house of information about the early Lyon family.

The magnificent tomb of Sir John Lyon (1289) can be seen above, his parents are also entombed alongside him with other members of the family commemorated in the church. This is the most visible place, apart from Glamis where we can see proof of the Lyon family’s existence.

Anyone wishing to visit the church, near Banbury, will be welcome if you contact me for more information about a visit. There is much dispute among genealogists about whether Warkworth Castle is in Northumberland. Throughout the next few chapters the name Warkworth will appear many times. A problem is that there were two Warkworths, one in Northumberland and one in Northamptonshire.

90% of genealogy entries on the web list Northumberland as the home of a branch of the Lyon family which is incorrect. Northumberland is in the north east of England on the Scottish border whilst Northamptonshire is in central England.

Some previous histories of the Lyon family have stated that some of them settled in a Walkworth Castle in Northumberland. A ruined Warkworth Castle does still exist in Northumberland, however that Castle was granted to Roger Fitz Richard by King Henry II of England (1154-1189). This was mentioned in a Charter dated 1157 to 1164.

When in 1345 the last of this family died, the Castle was passed by King Edward III (1327-1377) to Henry de Percy. It has been owned by the Percy family for hundreds of years and never owned by a member of the Lyon family. The Percy family have been the Earls and Dukes of Northumberland for many generations until the present day.

They have historically supported the English Royal families because Northumberland was often invaded by the Scots and Warkworth Castle was built as a defence against such attacks. The Lyon family have, on the other hand, usually supported the Scottish cause. It is inconceivable that the Lyon family would ever have lived in the Percy family home, Warkworth Castle in Northumberland.

I think the confusion has arisen because there is another Warkworth, in Northamptonshire. As much of the early history of the Lyon family is in Northamptonshire this was almost certainly the home of the Lyon family at that time. In fact there was a Baron Lyon of Warkworth, Northamptonshire in the 1400s.

There is some doubt that this Warkworth in Northamptonshire was a castle in the usually accepted meaning of the word. It was like a castellated tower but was really a very ornate manor house which no longer exists, unlike its namesake which is still in ruins in Northumberland.

A friend who is a Lyon was told by her father “always be proud of the Lyon name ”. I started to research her English family four years ago and was astonished to find the history of this remarkable family. This eventually led to writing a book about my findings.

This is an extraordinary family that has survived and prospered for over 900 years in England, Scotland and America and then over much of the world. There are over 1 million members of the Lyon family who are descendants of a handful of people who came to England with William the Conqueror in 1066.