Rowcliffe History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The surname Rowcliffe was first found in Cumberland, where they held a family seat on the English/Scottish border. After the Norman Conquest of England many of Duke William's rebellious Barons moved north. The border became a convenient but turbulent no-man's land where the persecuted Many were given land by King Malcolm Canmore and later by King David of Scotland. Some were native Scots. In the 16th century they became known as the 'unruly clans'.

"There is, however, a parish called [Rawcliffe] in Cumberland, formerly Rothcliffe. The manor was anciently the possession of Radulph de Bray, who gave it to William, the son of John de Rothcliff, in the sixth year of King John. Hutchinson's Cumberland. It is to be presumed that there was some family connection between the Brays and the Rothcliffes, and that John de Rawcliffe had resided on the manor previously to this donation." 3

The name was first recorded in England less than ten miles south of the border, about four miles from Carlisle where Elsi de Routecliua (1170 in Yorkshire) and John de Rouclief (1332 in Cumberland). 4