Origin of the Name Menzies
The origin of the name
Menzies was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. The name Menzies is usually of Scottish descent. The original form of the name was Meyneris which eventually became Menzies. In the fourteenth century during the wars of Scottish independence the Clan Menzies supported Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn. Sir Robert de Menzies, 1479-1523, possessed the lands of Weem that were elevated into a Barony by James III. In the year 1510 James IV ordained the house to be named Castle Menzies. Sir Alexander Menzies of that ilk was created Baronet in the year 1665. In the year 1746 Sir Robert Menzies, the third Baronet, entertained Prince Charlie at Castle Menzies, his kinsman, Colonel Ian Menzies of Shian, having raised a regiment for the Prince.
In Ireland this name and its variants were introduced into Ulster Province by settlers who arrived from England and Scotland , especially during the seventeenth century. It was the 'Plantations of Ireland ' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that marked the end of Gaelic supremacy in Ireland . While the influx of settlers in the wake of the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion of the twelfth century resulted in a full integration into Irish society of the new arrivals, the same never occurred with the Ulster Planters who maintained their own distinct identity.
The Menzies coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Menzies descendants.