Black states that this is a diminutive of Lamb. There may, therefore, be some connection between this name and the Norman family de Agneux, from whom the great family of Agnew of Lochnaw in Wigtownshire descend. Alexander Lambie received a charter from David II of lands in the barony of Crail in Fife, and Liolph and Nigel Lamby appear in Montrose between 1372 and 1379. Andrew Lamby was accused of complicity in the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots’ favourite, David Rizzio, in the Palace of Holyroodhouse in 1566. The L’Amys held the lands of Dunkenny as early as 1542; they still held these lands into the twentieth century. The family arms, bearing three bishops’ croziers and a saltire in base, may be a reference to the family’s connection with the archbishopric of St Andrews and in particular to Archbishop

Lamberton, the supposed author of the Declaration of Arbroath and then Chancellor of Scotland. The archbishop has been poetically described by Anderson as ‘the most distinguished person of that name, by whose advice and assistance the immortal Bruce was encouraged in his efforts to deliver Scotland from the English yoke’.