History of William De Veteri Ponte

This great surname seems to derive from several areas in the Normandy area of France called Vieupont from the latin meaning "of the old bridge".   The Scottish Viponts descend from William de Ueupunt or Veteri Ponte circa 1165. The Veteri Pontes held the lands of Carriden, West Lothian, for many generations and in about 1250, Nicholas de Veteri Ponte made a gift of Swanston near Colinton to the Hospital of Soltre.

Sir William de Vipont, 6th Baron, is described as being one of the two worthy knights slain on the Scottish side at Bannockburn. On his death the estates passed into the family of Cockburn by the marriage of his only child Mariota to Sir Alexander Cokburn. The Viponts were among the earliest known landowners in Fife, and the refrain of a song sung by fishermen there runs: "The leal guidman of Aberdour, sits in Sir Alan Vipont's chair." This surname is now almost extinct in Scotland. As the family does not comprise a clan, there is no chief, war-cry, crest, motto or plant badge. There is however a tartan which seems to have been woven for the family of Vipont around 1930 but is rarely used by them.

The Monks of Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, were granted a tithe by William Di Vipont during the reign of William the Lion (1165-1214) to dig a tenth of the coal from his Carriden Estate, which was then carried to Holyrood in panniers strapped to the backs of their horses.  Later it was taken to Leith by sailing ship. The tithe was significant as it first recorded the coal-mining or more correctly at the time the digging of coal in Scotland. He also gave Holyrood “Karedyn Church”. In 1291 monks from Dunfermline Abbey were also given the right to dig coal from outcrops around Bo'ness, all on Di Vipont land.

William Di Vipont died in 1314 at the Battle of Bannockburn and fought on the side of Robert Bruce; only one of 3 Earls who died in the battle against the English.  He was survived by the last of the Viponts, his daughter Mariota, who married Sir Alexander Cockburn in 1330.  They settled at Langton Berwickshire.  Alexander is known as the father of all modern Cockburn's branches and much later in 1527,  his descendent bought the lands at Cockburn Law, near Duns, Berwickshire from the Earl of Crawford and started the branch Cockburn of that Ilk who became Lairds of Duns."

TARTAN OF THE VIPONT FAMILY (c1930)

Vipont Tartan (white line - c 1930)

Vipont Tartan (Yellow Line - c 1930)