Mouat

This Norman name of ‘monthault’, rendered in Latin as ‘monte alto’, is usually translated as ‘of the high mountain’. The Monte Altos are known to have settled in Wales and they first appeared in Scotland during the reign of David I. The family swiftly rose to positions of influence and power, acquiring lands in Angus. Robert and Michaele de Muheut witnessed a charter by the Comyn Earl of Buchan, around 1210. William de Monte Alto witnessed the marking of the boundaries of the lands of the Abbey of Arbroath around 1219. Michael de Monte Alto was sheriff of Inverness in 1234 and witnessed numerous charters of other noble families in the vicinity. Bernard de Monte Alto, a soldier, was among the knights and nobles who accompanied Princess Margaret to Norway for her marriage to that country’s King. On their return he, along with many others, was drowned in a shipwreck. William de Muheut features in the Ragman Roll, rendering homage to Edward I of England in 1296 but William de Monte Alto was later one of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence at Arbroath in 1320. He was killed at the siege of Norham Castle in 1327. The name became widespread and is found throughout Scotland from Ayrshire to Orkney. The Lairds of Balquhally in Aberdeenshire were to become the principal family. Axel Mowat, an admiral in the Norwegian fleet in the mid seventeenth century, was reputed to be one of the richest men in Norway, and claimed descent from the Mowats of Balquhally.