Gordon Casely, a heritage consultant in Aberdeen, has inadvertently discovered that Prince William was a direct descendant of a 17th century Middleton from the small town of Luthermuir in south Aberdeenshire.

Mr Casely was trying to discover if William’s soon-to-be wife Kate Middleton had Scottish ancestry, when he came across John Middleton, the son of a laird from the parish of Luthermuir, whose daughter, Lady Helen Middleton, went on to marry Patrick Lyon, 3rd Earl of Kinghorne, in 1662, a direct ancestor of the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, William’s great grandmother.

John ‘Jock’ Middleton was born to Robert Middleton of Caldhame and his wife Elizabeth Strachan, around 1608. Middleton joined the army at the age of 13, and steadily rose through the ranks becoming lieutenant-general by the age of 32 and later commander of the Covenanting forces in Scotland in 1646. However, two years later he joined the Royalist forces, and by 1660 he was Charles II’s commissioner to the Scottish Parliament at the Restoration. John Middleton was later made Earl of Middleton and died in 1674. He was described as being a “hard-drinking ruffian” and died when he fell down a set of stairs whilst “befuddled with drink”.

With this revelation Prince William is now entitled to wear the Middleton tartan if he wants. Who knows, perhaps we’ll see him in a Middleton kilt tomorrow at his wedding…

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