Origins, Myths and Legends of the Naysmith name

The surname NAYSMITH is an old Anglo-Scottish medieval surname.  One version of its origin is that it is from a pre-7^th century Olde English word cnif smit. Smit  comes from the verb smitan   meaning to smite  - and this could be related to our understanding of the word ‘smith’  as in blacksmith  or a soldier. In medieval times, when all skills were quite specific, there was a wide range of skill-specific smiths:  White smiths worked with hot metals, black smiths worked with cold metals, and there were green smiths, copper smiths, gold smiths, silver smiths, and so on.  Soldiers had to be skilled in maintaining or even making their own weapons  so it could be that originally a knife smith  could have been a soldier who used a short sword, and a sword smith would have used a long sword.  Hence, the earliest recording of this name was Roger KNIFSMITH  in the records of St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in 1246.  

NAISMITH is also recorded as an occupational name -  'a maker and seller of nails'.

 

By 1379 (also found referenced as 1273), a James NASMITE was recorded in York, and in 1415, Alan NASMITH was recorded as the owner of lands in Brechin, Scotland. In 1734, James NASMITH was recorded as the sheriff of Norwich.  Another record is of a  James NASMITH and Mary Barthol  married at St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, London in 1745, and in 1751, Ann, daughter of Alexander NAESMITH was baptised at St. James's, Clerkenwell, London.   

 The Scottish Naysmiths are believed  to have been first found in Renfrewshire  (a historic county of Scotland which is today covered by the council areas of Renfrew, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde in the Strathclyde region of south west Scotland), where they held a family seat. Their first records appeared on the census rolls taken by the early Kings of Scotland to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.  There have been many spelling variations over time, including Naismith, Naysmith, Naesmyth, Nesmith, Nasmyth, Nasmith, Naesmith, Knifesmith, Neasmith and Neesmith.

Some of the stories behind the  Naysmith name's origin: 

Alexander III was King of the Scots between 1249 and 1286. On the eve of a battle (most likely the Battle of Largs, October 1263), a young man was required to mend the King’s damaged armour. He was not particularly skilled in metalwork and the result was rough and rudimentary.   During the ensuing battle, he proved himself to be brave and skilled in fighting, and was accordingly honoured by Alexander, who commented, “Though he is nae a smyth, he is a brave gentleman, indeed.”  From then on, he was known as Sir NaeSmyth. 

                                                

A slight variation  has a young squire cleaning and preparing his lord’s armour the night before battle, Noticing a crack in the handle of his lord’s martel (war hammer) the young man tried to repair it himself, even though he was not a smith.  The next day, in the course of the battle, the handle did not stand up to being swung, and it broke. Seeing his lord’s life endangered, the young man grabbed a sword and fought heroically beside him, dispatching several of the enemy. 

After the battle was over, the young man was chastised by his lord for not telling him about the broken hammer, but he appreciated the young squire’s bravery.  Before the assembled knights, he said, “Although ye are nae smyth, ye are a brave gentleman.”  And so the young squire was knighted.  The coat of arms shows a broken martel  or war hammer and the young squire’s hand grasping the sword that saved his lord’s life.

Consequently, the NAESMYTH (NAYSMITH) coat of arms has a left hand holding a sword between two broken hammers.  The colour red with the drawn sword represents bravery, and the two broken hammers represent the lack of skill as a smith.  The motto: “Non arte sed marte”  can be translated as “Not by art but by war” or “Not by art but by arms”.  See a range of interpretations of the NAYSMITH coat of arms below.  

Another variation of the origin of the Naysmith name - and coat of arms - comes from the 1863 autobiography of the engineer and inventor of the steam hammer, James Nasmyth.   This is the closest to the version our father had told us as children - except the story had moved to the times of Bonnie Prince Charles three  centuries later.  I’m thinking that somewhere along the line, one of our NZ ancestors must have come by copy of James Nasmyth’s book in New Zealand, as it was published well after Henry and Mary Naysmith arrived in NZ 1842.  A sister and I located and visited a Naysmith family in Vancouver when we were both there in 1988, and that family had the exact same family origin story as  we did, which makes me think their family had come across James Nasmyth's autobiography, too. 

The story is set in the reign of James III, King of Scotland 1460 to 1488. There was constant feuding between the King and Barons, one of the most prominent and ambitious being the Earl of Clan Douglas, who was declared a rebel, and his estates were confiscated.  Douglas and his followers crossed the border to England where they were met by the Earl of Angus, the Johnstons and the Scotts, and some fighting ensued. At one stage, the Douglases had the advantage and our Naysmith ancestor, who was fighting under the royal banner, took refuge in the smithy of a neighbouring village.  The smith offered him protection, and gave our ancestor a leather apron to disguise himself as a hammerman and asked him to help him work.  Meanwhile, a party of Douglas partisans arrived and looked suspiciously at our hammerman, who, in his nervousness, struck a false blow with his sledge hammer, and the shaft broke in two.  Seeing this, the pursuers rushed at him, calling, “Ye’re nae smyth!”   Our Nae Smith, managed to take the sword off the attacker, and with the help of the smith - armed with a hammer - turned on the assailant, overpowered him (them?) and drove the Douglas men out.

A party of royal forces arrived, and “Nae smith” led them against the rebels, turning the previous advantage into a defeat.  A grant of lands were bestowed upon Nae smith for his service and his armorial bearings consisted of a hand holding a dagger between two broken hammer shafts.  The motto was 'Non arte sed marte', 'not by art but by war'."

My own theory, based entirely on the evidence above, is that our name's origins relate to the use of, or work with, sharp and potentially dangerous objects - whether they be knives, nails or swords - and that genetically, we were probably not that good with hammers. 

According to Sir Bernard Burke’s General Armory 1884, the coat of arms was Registered at Posso, County Peebles in 1706 under the spelling of NASMYTH.

 

Nasmyth entry in Burke's Armory 

   

    

Frequency of Naysmith name in UK

Reference sites: 

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Naismith#ixzz4M3acbyvY

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Naismith

http://surname.sofeminine.co.uk/w/surnames/surname-naysmith.html

https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/7874961

https://archive.org/stream/generalarmoryofe00burk#page/722/mode/2up

http://seitzandcrafts.weebly.com/neesmith.html
https://archive.org/stream/jamesnasmythengi00nasmiala#page/2/mode/2up