Castlebythesea

Dunsmore

I have edited the Dunsmore page to reinstate the source of the English place name and clarify that the title Baron Dunsmore derives from the Warwickshire place name. As this is a disambiguation page, I think you should consider creating a separate Dunsmore (surname) article for the content you have added to the Surname section and replacing the section with a short description and a lionk to the surname article. - Scribble Monkey (talk) 10:22, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

The origin of the name Dunsmore lies in Fife, Scotland

Dunsmore, by origin, is a Scottish name. I have given several very reliable references for this. I would appreciate it if you would stop deleting my posts.

As you so kindly have pointed out, in your earlier post, the use of the name Dunsmore in England derives from one Francis Leigh, who was granted the title Baron Dunsmore, in 1628AD by Charles I. Again, this was not Francis Leigh's name by birth, but a title conferred upon him for a allegience to Chales I, who was ultimately so unpopular that he was beheaded.

You have removed my reference for the circumstances under which Charles I granted this Scottish name to an Englishman. You seem determined to pick references from thin air, when a passing knowledge of history would suggest to you why Charles I would have know of this Scottish name.

The "Oxford Dictionary of Place Names", which you site as the reference for the name Dunsmore, has been critiqued for its numerous errors. This reference states that Dunsmore is an Anglo-Saxon name, which no historian or linguist would ever accept. Moreover, your first date for the use of the name in England is 1628AD. There are numerous references to both a family name and a place name for Dunmore in Scotland dating back to the 12th century. There are also numerous written records, in Fife, Scotland, showing that this name was spelt differently depending on the language it was recorded in: Dunmore and Dunmuir in Gaelic, Dundemore in French and Dunsmore, Dinsmore, Dunsmoor, and Dinsmoor in English.

Again, the earliest written references in Fife for the name date to the 12th century, fully five hundred years before its appearence in England. Moreover, it was clearly given as a title of rank to Francis Leigh, from Charles I. As Charles I was descended from Scots, specifically Mary, Queen of Scots, he would certainly have been familiar with the prestigious name Dunsmore, derived from the Dunsmore family of great antiquity, as described in "Lindores Abbey and its burgh of Newburgh."

In short, the single dubious reference you have given (Oxford Dictionary of Place names) for the name Dunsmore is extraordinary weak, compared to the multiple sources for the Scottish origin of the name dating to a much earlier time.

A further point, which makes your claim that the Scottish name Dunsmore is *not* the source of English place names is the fact that virtually all descendants and geneologies bearing the surname Dunsmore, Dunsmuir, Dinsmoor, Dinsmore, Dunmore and Dunmuir document that they are from county Berwick, county Fife, Glasgow, and Dundee, in Lowland Scotland. Direct father to son geneologies trace their Dunsmore ancestry to Lowland Scotland and predate 1628 by several centuries.

Therefore, Dunsmore is both a surname and a placename, with the origin of the name belonging in Fife. The name may have been borrowed by others, but the origin of the name lies in Fife, Scotland.

Finally, archaeological evidence on the Isle of May and other locations suggests that the name has been in use in Fife since at least the late Bronze Age.

Please do your research and stop deleting my posts.

I am struggling to keep up with posts on your talk page, my talk page and the Dunsmore talk page, so I suggest we confine our discussion to the article talk page, which will also allow any other interested parties to participate. - Scribble Monkey (talk) 23:13, 17 June 2011 (UTC)