The Motions of Scotland by James Motion


A theory into our origins by James Motion

I, like so many other people with the surname of Motion have wondered about the origins of the name. By far the most popular theory is that we came originally from France, and that does seem to be the most likely theory. However nobody has been able to provide any proof of this up until now, and even I can't prove it for sure, but I hope that I can provide enough evidence to make the French connection more likely than it has ever been.

THE FIRST RECORDED MOTIONS

The earliest mention of our name, which has been found so far, is the marriage of a Richard Motion to a Joane Jervice on the 28 September 1579 in Wiltshire, England. This is the only mention of this couple, Richard's birth isn't known and neither are any children from the marriage known. There is a gap of 90 years before the name of Motion is recorded again, this time it is the christening of a Jean Baptiste Motion on the 11 December 1669 in Quebec (Canada). Back in the 1600s Quebec wasn't part of Canada as we know it as today, it was still a French province back then. Why there is no mention of our name from 1579 to 1669 is still a mystery, perhaps the records have been lost or maybe there is another reason.

The first mention of the name of Motion in Scotland is on the 25 March 1680 when a child was christened in St Andrews, Fife. I say a child, as the records don't give any indication of this child's name or even what sex this child was, however the first real identifiable mention of our name in Scotland is only a year later, on the 2 June 1681 a Johne Motion married a Christian Traill, also in St Andrews, Fife. It is from 1681 that the name is recorded more and more, however only in St Andrews. It isn't until 1740 that we see the first mention of our name outside of St Andrews. There is quite a lot of evidence to suggest that there were only one original family of Motions in the St Andrews area in the period between the 1680s and the early 1700s, this is further confirmed by the church records for they record that there were only 2 or 3 different adults between the years of 1681 and 1711.


© 2000 Ian William Goodall & James Motion 

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