[Ancestor] Kelso

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Husband [Ancestor] Kelso

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Children

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1 M George Kelso ¹

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         Spouse: Mary Kerr (      -      ) 1

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General Notes: Husband - [Ancestor] Kelso

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Kelso is a town in Scotland, finely placed on the north side of the River Tweed opposite the mouth of the River Teviot.The name was anciently Kalchou Calchou and is identical with the word calc or chalk, and is supposed to have originated from a precipitous bank of white gypsum or chalk which was called by the people of the place, "The Chalkheugh." The town owed its early importance and perhaps its origin to a richly endowed abbey of Tironensian monks established at Selkirk in 1113 A. D. by King David of Scotland while he was yet Prince of Cumbria. After his accession to the throne of Scotland in 1124 the abbey was transplanted "to the church of the blessed Virgin Mary on the bank of the Tweed beside Roxbury in the place called Calcou." This abbey was ruined in 1545 by the English under the Earl of Hertford. The population of this town of Kelso in 1890 was about 5,000.
The Kelso family is known to us as Scotch Covenanter stock that has thrived in Pennsylvania since 1720. It claims derivation from Hugo de Kelso, of Kelso land, in Ayrshire, Scotland, who lived in 1296. The coat of arms ascribed to the family branch in Pennsylvania is: "Sable, a fesse argent engrailed, between three garbs or." The motto is given as Otium cum dignitate, (Ease with Honor) flourished about a crest of a garb or, which is to say, a sheaf of golden wheat. (Origin and Insigna of Scottish Names. 924.5 S: 5 New York State Library at Albany. Also in Book of Scottish Arms A. D. 1370 to 1678, Vol. 2, Page 414, by William Patterson, Edinburg, Scotland.) The Kelso arms are said to have been conferred in 1636.
"Huwe Kelshou, of Ayrshire, swore fealty to Edward 1st of England in 1296."
"Richard de Kelchou witnessed a charter of Helen de Kelchou to the Bishop of Glasgow in 1233."
"Humphrey de Kelchou witnessed a resignation of Allan de Sarei to the church of St. Mary at Kelso in 1260."
These early Kelsos are doubtless of Norman origin for King David, who began his reign in 1224 and was the founder of the monastery, engaged in three wars with England in behalf of his niece, Matilde or Mande, whose claim to the English throne as the successor of Henry 1st was unsuccessful. King David associated with himself many Norman knights and also brought from France many clergy for the monasteries and schools which he founded. The names of Hugo and Humphrey are French rather than Scotch.

Mark Kelso's parents, George and Mary Kelso, resided at Cumberland at the time of his birth. William Kelso, who died at Cumberland, and Joseph Kelso, who kept the west side of the ferry over the Susquehanna river in 1729 while John Harris (founder of Harrisburg) and his father kept the east side, are supposed to have been uncles of Mark Kelso. Possibly the father of these three sons was Joseph Kelso, who appears to have come to Paxtang about 1727 and whose wife's name was Margaret. These then would be the grandparents of Mark Kelso.
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1 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 112.

2 Rev. James Marcus Welch, Ancestry and Kin of the Cowden and Welch Families (Indiana, PA: 1904), Pg 110.