The Family of Clouston

Azure, a stag's head caboshed argent,
between the attires a pheon of the second.
(A white stag’s head, with no neck, on a blue background,
with a white arrowhead between the antlers.)

The title of this page and the crest are taken from a book of the same name, written by J. Storer Clouston and published privately by him in 1948. “ The Family of Clouston”traces the history of the Clouston name from earliest times to just after the Second World War. Of course Storer Clouston concentrates on his own branch of the family but the earlier chapters of the book give a good grounding in the family’s history.

The name Clouston, originally Klostaddir, then Cloustath, is one of the oldest names to be found in Orkney. There is a stained glass window in the vestry of St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, Orkney which depicts the Clouston stag’s head (without the arrowhead) with the name Cloustath underneath. The window was explained to me as depicting the six crests of the oldest Orkney leading families. An adjacent window depicts the crests of the six leading Scottish families then resident in Orkney.

Considerable research is currently ongoing into the numerous branches of this family name, not only in the United Kingdom, but also in Canada, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand and Finland. No doubt there are others. A mailing group has been set up to exchange information between like-minded researchers on the Internet. Details can be obtained from Jim Clouston who also has information on a Family Tree Maker page. All that we ask is that you provide us with what information you have and we’ll provide what we have in return. Likewise if you have a query, one e-mail to the whole group will usually elicit a reply.

Serious researchers into any Orcadian surname should visit Walt Custer’s home page, which contains a huge amount of information about most Orkney names - Walt asks for nothing, but do leave a message on his Visitors’ Page.

Good luck with your research!