Ralston Clan History

This surname comes from the lands or barony of Ralston near Paisley, in Renfrewshire.

It is said that a younger son of one of the Earls of Fife, Ralph, was given a grant for the lands of Ralston from the High Steward of Scotland, however, these claims have been refuted by some, stating that the arms did not bear a lion rampant, the arms of the old Earls of Fife, but instead three acorns on a bend, suggesting that this person was of the same stock as those with the surname Muirhead.

Nicholas de Ralstoun was recorded as being witness to a donation of Fulton to the monks of Paisley by Sir Anthony Lombard in 1272. By being witness, Nicholas was, incidentally, the first of the name Ralston recorded.

In 1296, Thomas de Raulfestone of Lanarkshire rendered homage to England’s Edward I, along with many other Scottish nobles, by signing the Ragman Roll in Berwick.

The election of the abbot of Paisley in 1346 was witnessed by Jacobus de Raulyston, dominus ejusdem, and, in a dispute over the burgh of Renfrew and the abbot of Paisley, in 1488, John Raleston, or Raliston, of that Ilk was one of the arbiters.

In 1504, a clerk to the bishop of Caithness was Robert Ralston, and, it was recorded that letters of reversion, in 1519, were witnessed by Robert Ralston.

The 1547 Battle of Pinkie saw the death of Hugh de Ralston of Ralston in a decisive English victory.

The Ralston estate was sold off by the family to Thomas Cochrane, the 8th Earl of Dundonald, in 1705, and William Shedden Ralston (1828-1889) was a noted and distinguished Russian scholar and folklorist.