This surname has various spellings, Smith being the most common, but also Smythe, Smyt, Smit, and Gow (being the Gaelic), Gowan, MacGow and MacGowan. It’s an occupational surname, referring to someone who works metal, and mostly refers as shorthand specifically to a blacksmith, someone who works in iron or steel.


Being such an important and widespread profession, the surname occurred quite frequently, so there are numerous Scottish groupings of the name. The Smiths of Scotland are usually associated with Clan Chattan, so the name is usually found as a sept of Chattan, Mackintosh and MacPherson. There are also Smith/Gow septs of Macfarlane, MacDuff and MacDonald.


There are a few origin stories for the Smiths of Clan Chattan. The eighteenth-century Baronage of Scotland asserts that they descended from Neil Cromb, third son of Murdoch of Clan Chattan during the reign of William the Lion. Another legend recalls the combat at the North Inch in 1396, when the Clan Chattan needed an extra swordsman to join their ranks, and a smith of Perth, Gobh Cruim / Gow Crom (the ‘Crooked Smith’) volunteered. Being victorious (and surviving the fight) this Smith went north to join Clan Chattan.


The leading Scottish family of this name in their own right were the Smiths of Bracco, later to become the Smythes of Methven. They are said to descend from the Clan Chattan Smiths/Gows, and their immediate ancestor was Thomas Smith, apothecary to king James III, founder of the Smiths of Braco in Perthshire. They would also have lands in Orkney. In 1664 Patrick Smythe of this line purchased Methven Castle, which would remain in the family until 1923. The crest shown here is of the Smythes of Methven, and is a heraldic Dolphin. The motto is ‘Mediis Tranquillus in Undis’ meaning ‘calm in the midst of waters’.

 



There is crest elsewhere in the market of a winged flaming heart and the motto ‘Luceo Non Uro’. This has no historical basis. There was a similar crest of a flaming heart between two palm branches (not wings), which was used by a Smith merchant family of Edinburgh (see H. Sydney Grazebrook, TheHeraldry of Smith: Being a Collection of the Arms Borne by, or attributed to,most families of that surname in Great Britain, Ireland and Germany, 1870). That in turn seems to have been an emblem of Mackenzie of Redcastle (Fairbairn). 


MKP 9 September 2024