The terms Scotia and Scot was first applied to the Gaelic natives of Eirinn (present day Ireland), but later came to be applied to Ireland's northeastern neighbor, Alba (present day Scotland).  By the seventh century the Northmen were calling Scotia, Eire pronounced "Ir" or "Ire" and the Britons called it "Ireland". The Irish were settling Alba (present Scotland) as early as the third century and pretty much dominated Alba by the 7th century.  More by marriage than just conquest the Picts just seem to disappear from Alba. These areas were also refereed to as Scotia Minor (present Scotland), and modern Ireland referred to as Eire or Scotia Major until about the 11 century when the present names of Ireland and Scotland became commonplace.  So, Scotland was populated and ruled by Irish royal line until Alexander the Third died without heir in 1287.

 KYLE is a Scottish place type name taken from the Celtic language “caol”, which means “narrow or straight”. Most European languages were influenced by Latin, which did not use the letter “K” or “Y”.  Early spellings include CEOL; CIL, which was Anglo-Saxon, the German and Dutch, used KEHL, KEIL, COIL, and KAIL.  The English form was KAIL, KYLL, KAILE, and KILE.  The Anglo-Saxons introduced the letter “Y” to replace the “I”.  The “C” when pronounced “K” was changed to “K” after it was introduced, which leads to the modern spelling of “KYLE”.  Records show some people used these different spellings interchangeably.  A Clerk with an IRISH tongue could readily spell KYLE as COYLE, CEOL, COIL or KOYLE.  Since very few people were well educated spelling suffered greatly throughout written records.  The KYLE Family spellings can be traced back to the year 702 Scots invaders were defeated at Coilsfield by Coilus, a British king. The spelling variations include:  Cael, Caeles, Caelus, Caelius, Cill, Cil, Coales, Coales, Coel, Coelius, Cole, Cola, Coil, Coile, Coils, Coilius, Colees, Coles, Coleye, Colles, Collye, Coyl, Colye, Coyll, Cooals, Cooils, Cooles, Cooyles, Cooyell, Cooylles, Coyl, Coyles, Coylle, Coylles, Coyls, Cyll, Kaal, Kaale, Kail, Kaile, Kaul, Kayle, Kayll, Kile, Koil, Koile, Koiles, Koill, Koyel, Koyl, Kuyle, Kyolle, Kyle, Kylle and there may be others.

One will find a simple explanation of the Kyle name today as: “In early times, the man who lived by an important river was referred to by the name of the river. In England, the Kyle River was the "narrow" river. Today, Kyle is referred to as an English Place name.”  This of course is a modern explanation. The KYLE clan originally took their surname, before the alphabet had a “K” or “Y” from where they lived in southwestern Scotland in Auchlinleck Parish, KYLE District in Ayshire, near Muirkirk, by the river Ayr. I think, many Kyle's of old would have been very offended to be referred to as "English"!

Coincidentally, William De Colville was granted baronies of Oxnam and Heton in Roxburghshire together with other lands in Ayrshire after the Norman Conquest.

Another reference book states this area was presumably named after COILUS, 53rd King of the Britons, descendant of Brutus the 1st king of the Britons, descendant from the line of Noah, as written in chapter 18 of Nennius’ Historia Brittonum. King Brutus was the first to colonize the British mainland after the Flood.  COILUS’s son Lucius, the 54th King of the Britons, was the fist Christian king, he died in 156 AD.  COEL the 59th King of the Britons (posibably of "Old King Coel"). COEL’s grandson was the 61st King of Briton, Constantine I, the famous Emperor of Rome who legalized the Christian Religion.

Thus the original place referred to as “CAOL", is today the town named Coylton (KYLE TOWN) located between Rivers Irvine and Doon,  by the water of Coyle(Kyle), found in County Ayr.  Coylton and is due east of County Ayr.  A local stream is there is also called KYLL.

This is also the area known for (mythical?) King Arthur, also of Celtic stock. Legend has it, he fought a battle where the Glen Water meets the River Irvine at Darvel in Ayshire about the year 542.

History documents that In 400AD Scots invaders were defeated at Coilsfield by Coilus, a British king.  Early written records show in 750 Eadberht, King of Northumbria added the plain of Cyll (or Kyle) to his Galloway domain.  HUGH Kyle the Great was a commander in-Chief and his brother his assistant in a Crusade.   In 1236 Kyle Port is listed in Ayr on the High Street beside the Auid Tour.  One of the earliest maps of Scotland, made by Matthew de Paris, a monk of St. Albans around 1250 AD shows the name “COLA” in what is now the District of KYLE one of the three subdivisions of Ayr County.  KYLE District was divided by the River Ayr into two parts, KING'S KYLE and STEWART KYLE.  These two Kyle districts on the old maps prior to 1700, consisted of  half of Ayr.  (On May 16, 1975 Ayr County Council officially disbanded these old districts and burghs).  When Robert Bruce reestablished Scottish independence, in part through the great battle of Bannockburn in 1313, a great number of his soldiers were from nearby Ayr as well as Galloway, Bruce's native home.  In 1334 Thomas Bruce and Robert the Stewart (Later Robert II) organized a rising in District of Kyle against the English.  In 1424 “WALTER OF KYLE” entered into the records as having been granted a document, which would guarantee his safe conduct into England.  These safe conduct passes were only given to people of importance and were respected by both England and Scotland.  In 1440  recorded devastation in Ayrshire of the lands of Colville of Ochiltree . In 1494 Protestant ideas in Ayshire came from thirty lesser lairds (lords) from Kyle with George Reid of Barskinning their spokesman and were tried for heresy and admonished.  In 1498 Sir William Colville had his dependents received an exemption from jurisdiction by the Sheriff of Ayr.  In Edinburgh, 100 years after it became the Capitol City of Scotland in 1537, GEORGE KYLE was elected a Member of Parliament.  In the same year ,1537, in a place called Irvine, JOHN and THOMAS KILE were also members of Parliament.  In Glasgow in the year 1606 a ROBERT KYLE appears on record as leaving his estate to his heir ANDREW KILE.  Lord Colville is listed in Colville in 1651.  One of the KYLE’s is involved with the coopers trade in Edinburgh in 1662 (a cooper was a highly skilled craftsman making water tight barrels out of hand carved wooden staves). The lands belonging to lord Coville of Ochiltree became extinct in 1728. Bleau’s Atlas issued in 1654 marks this same physical location in Scotland as “Ayr-Ky-O-LLE”.  In 1740  there is a reference of a Kyle from Dairy that introduced “bowls (as in a kitchen bowl)” at Kilmarnock in Ayshire.   Therefore the Kyle Family has been around for over a thousand years.

Part of the old KYLE castle was still standing as of December 2000. The registry of castles in Scotland list the KYLE Castle as an early 15th century keep.  The 1999  picture of that castle found in Old Cumnock parish, in Ayshire, is in the attached file. The local farmland was called KYLE, but the property was owned by Marquis of Bute, with most memory of the locals of the earlier owners lost by 1863.  Ayr, Coylton and Old Cumnack parish, in the District of Kyle of Ayshire County is all located in southwest part of Scotland.

This photo was confirmed in December of 2000 when I received this e-mail:
     “Hi, Joseph, I have been trying for ages to find out some info. about Kyle Castle and hey presto, I come across  your brilliant site.  I must thank you for your information and just to let you know that for the past year and a half I have lived with that picture of the castle that you have on your site in front of me every morning when I get out of bed.  You see I live on the farm directly below the castle.  Thanks again, and if you have any more information, it would be much appreciated.
Best regards,"  John V. Gulbis.”

Some very famous people Robert Bruce, Boswell, William Wallace, Old King Cole and the famous poet Robert Burns were born and/or raised in KYLE District by the River Ayr.

Burns wrote in his “Farewell Song to the Banks of Ayr” using the ancient from of the word Kyle:

“Farewell, old Coila’s hills and dales
Her healthy moors and winding vales,”

And in his poem “The Vision” he writes:

"There, where a sceptr’d Pictish shade
stalked round his ashes lowly laid”

another quote by Burns

“ Twas in that place o’ Scotland isle, That bears the name o’ auld King Coil.”

A footnote by Burns in the book with "The Vision: says the lines refer to KING COILUS who lies buried, near the family seat of the Moatgomeries of Coilsfield.  Other historians also state the famous “OLD KING COLE” (pronounced COUL) nursery rhyme and the name KYLE and COLE are the same.  Old King Cole's grave was opened in 1837 finding artifacts indicating a personage of distinction.
 
 

The history of the KYLE family finds generation after generation fighting for religious freedom and many generations of members also being in the clergy. The earliest Protestant recorded times show the KYLE'S have been Presbyterians, in the main.  It was in Scotland that Presbyterianism emerged as a great national religious institution as noted in 1494 District of Kyle above. John Knox was the leader of the Scotch Presbyterian Church after the Reformation, around 1525, and later.

In the years of Queen Elizabeth's reign in Ireland, Conn the Lame, & Baron of Dungannon died. Shane the Proud slew his half brother, the next Baron, and was inaugurated the O'Neill in Ulster.  Mercenaries from Scotland were hired to assist Queens' O'Donnels, Queens' O'Neills and the red coats to oust Shane the Proud and their Catholic supporters.  Years later, Shane's sons and Red Hugh O'Donnell escaped from the English and swept through Ulster driving out the English sheriffs starting the "Nine Year War".  The Earl of Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, head of the O’Neill clan in Northern Ireland, rebelled against English rule, cast off his title of Earl, and set himself up as King of Ulster.  Elizabeth recalled her best soldiers from the Spanish war in Belgium to send to Ireland.  This war continued with the King of England, King James I, himself a Scotch Presbyterian until the "Flight of the Earls", with the defeat of O'Neill and the other Irish chiefs who had supported him and fled into exile with their families. The English Crown took over the vast estates and parceled them out which included some land to the Kyle's around the year 1606.  King James gave Sir William (KYLE) a belt of land in Tyrone County Ireland where he moved with his family from Scotland.  This was only about 20 miles from the. Boarders of Scotland.  The KYLE'S supported Sir William Wallace ( also of Ayrshire) and when the Convenanters defied the king in 1638 many KYLE'S were numbered in that group.  The Kyle's survived the uprising of the Irish on October 21, 1641 and are mentioned at the historic Synod in Kilkenny in May of 1642 which created the Parliament.

The brothers ROBERT KYLE, JAMES KYLE and WILLIAM KYLE fought under Oliver Cromwell beginning August of 1640 to uphold Protestantism in Ireland, against Owen Roe O'Neill, a nephew of Hugh O'Neill, and commander of a hundred officers from Catholic King Charles I of Spain, and their invasion of Ireland.   As a reward they were awarded grants of land in Derry, Tyrone and nearby counties in Ulster located in Northern Ireland around 1649.  Around this time, the last of the KYLE'S from around Ayshire, Scotland moved, and most moved into Ireland.

This was during the period, which was known as the “Plantation of Ulster”.  In Ulster the family gained great prominence and was referred to as the well known “KYLES OF LAUREL HILL” in later years.

Some of the KYLES did find their way into the highlands;  today in Northwest Scotland, there is a town called “Kyle of Lochalsh” and you can stay at the Kyle Hotel which is ideally situated for touring the Highlands of Scotland as well as the Isle of Skye which is only a few minutes away.

Another group of early Kyles from Ayrshire in Scotland settled in Camnish, Londonderry County, in northern Ireland, arriving in the latter part of the reign of Charles II. However, records indicate that many of their progeny followed the migration to America.  This group numbers among their ancestors Samuel Moore Kyle, born in 1770, who became Bishop of Cork. Although he was born and reared a Presbyterian, he joined the Church of England and became a minister.  Although the Bishop of Cork, he lived primarily in Dublin and was in charge of Trinity College. (see Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ireland.)  Bishop Kyle died in 1848; his son, also named Samuel, became Arch-deacon of Cork.

In one of the Churches in Northern Ireland a monument to a KYLE has a “Cross and an Urn” on it, which was the usual symbol indicating a crusader in search of the Holy Grail.  In 1759 a monument was erected in the wall of Castleberg Church located in Tyrone County, Mournebeg Ireland carved in stone dedicated by JOHN KYLE to his brother ROBERT KYLE that included the words “Mournebeg House” and the KYLE Coat of Arms.

The KYLE Coat of Arms has been tracked back to around the year 1542.  a coat of arms is granted to an individual , not the family, but historical simiularities is consistent.  This is also the time true surnames, in the sense of hereditary appellations were found around England and required by the conquering Normans. Probably the Oldest recorded KYLE coast of arms was that shown in Lyndsay’s Heraldic Manuscripts, hand painted in 1542 http://www.heraldry-scotland.co.uk/Mitchell/Mitchellmain.htm and described below.

ALSO, in the general armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales first published in 1842, lists REVEREND SAMUEL KYLE, D. D. BISHOP OF CORK, whose family was long seated at KYLE, N.B.  And whose immediate ancestors settled Camish County, Derry, Ireland is listed with a similar coat of arms and uses the family motto of “Tibisoli”.  The Lyndsay manuscripts were reproduced in color in 1878 and consisted of only 130 pages.  This was dedicated to mostly kings and Nobles including the arms of about 500 of the principal families including the Kyle's.

The Kyle Coat of Arms is Argent (silver which denotes sincerity and nobility) with three candlesticks (religious significance) in sable (black which denotes repentance or vengeance).  Over the years a candlestick would be changed to denote a special accomplishment or the bearer was not the eldest son.  Under heraldic rules only the first son of each generation may use their exact ancestors Coat of Arms.  History denotes the third candlestick has been replaced with a mullet (star) in Gules (red) to denote military fortitude)  or a lion rampant (standing and facing) in Gules (red) on azure (blue representing loyally and splendor) background.  Sometimes over all is found a Saltire (Saint Andrews Cross) in Gules.

The crest was added in the 13th century and contained a ducal coronet surmounting a helmet, Dexter, arms in armor elbowed, holding a dagger.

The family motto AFIDES NON TIMET is Latin for "Faith Fears Not".

I have found several Kyle Tartans. But remember, Kyles were not of the High Lands, but from the coastal plains and our Tartans came along later in history.

The KYLE men were known to be of powerful physique, both tall and broad shouldered.  The KYLEs were fair of skin, fair hair, and blue eyes with little exception.  Long life was another common characteristic.  The KYLE VOICE  is mentioned over many generation and described as "very pleasant" and unquestionably a useful feature in the ministry.

Thus many of the KYLE’s of today are descendent of the Scottish/Irish Kyle's that migrated to the United States of America beginning  @ 1720 because of religious persecution of Staunch independent Presbyterians who refused to support the Church of England during the previous 60 years. Kyle's were associated with the United Presbyterian Church in America as well as the early Episcopal Church, Baptist, Church of Christ and one Boston Group (from Ireland) continue to be Roman Catholics.

To leran more or participate in the Coil DNA Project

Visit and join the KyleFamily Society

I am still working on my family history. See my home page for more on my family info. A brief history is below.

Joseph Sylvester Kyle No other information known - had a son William Crawford listed below
William Crawford Kyle (farmer/preacher) date and location of birth unknown - D Feb. 1871 wife
        Rachel d 1856 they had three sons:

    A..Robert – have no information
    B. Cliff – have no information
    C. Samuel Crawford b 9/8/1852 Indiana D 12/21/1906 wife
    Sarah Elizabeth Collier b 1860 in Dyersburg, Obion County Tenn. D 1/19/1926. Glenn Flora, TX;  S. C. Kyle and Sarah had five children:

          1. Samuel Zora Kyle B 11/15/1893 in Wharton Texas, d 12/12/1917 in Tarrant County
          2. Rachel Rebecca Kyle Litton B 2/12/1896 Wharton TX d 1/23/1990 Married William C. (Joe) Litton
            brother of Edna Mae Litton
          3. Ola Mae Kyle McKee B 12/26/1894 Tenn. D 3/20/1979 Married Richard McKee B 1882 in
            Wilmer TX D 1936 Big Spring TX.
          4. William Crawford Kyle B 4/13/1887 In Ridlley, Lake County Tenn. D 1954 in Austin TX. Married
            Mary Clementine Brummett
          5. Joseph Sylvester Kyle B 2/2/1892 Cuero, Dewitt County TX. D 2/17/1958 in Wortham TX.
            Married Edna Mae Litton B 9/21/1894 Dyersburg Tenn. D 8/15/1970 in Terrel TX. They had
            three children.
                A.  Iva Mae Kyle b 1916 d 1916 TN
                B. Hazel Lee Kyle b 11/25/1922 in Wharton TX
                C. Joseph Crofford Kyle and Alda Yvonne Cook Kyle  Joseph b 12/24/1918 TN
                    1. JOSEPH CROFFORD KYLE, JR. b; 07/06/50 married 11/23/1974 Brenda Jean Davis
                            b 1/5/1954 daughter of Arvil and Arnel Davis of Waco TX
                            1 Joseph Mikel Kyle b 2-3-79 Married Leslie Renee Evans 5-26-01, b 7/10/80
                            2 Laura Yvonne Kyle b 11-7-82 Married Ali
                    2. WILLIAM FREDRICK KYLE Born 6-19-56 in Garland, TX Married Paula Kay Rogers
                            b 8/29/1957 m 8/17/1974 in Calvert TX
                            1 Sarah Elizabeth b 9-11-79
                            2 Joshua William b 6-26-85
                    3. ROBERT CHARLES KYLE Born 8-27-58 New Orleans, La.
                            Married & Divorced Debbie ______and have one child and two from Debbie’s previous marriages.
                            1 Lana Ray (theirs) but removed by court in divorce
                            2Shellie
                            3 Robbie
                    4.CAROLYN ANN KYLE Born 2-20-60 in New Orleans, La. One adopted child
                            1 Andrea Kathleen b 12-12-84
                    5. MARY KATHLEEN KYLE KLEPPEL Born 3-21-62 in New Orleans. La.
                        Married 6/7/1980 Randy Allen Kleppel b3/19/1960
                        Randy is the son of Alfred Albert and Eddie Jo Bruce  Aldridge Kleppel
                            1 Jennifer Marie b 8-2-87
                            2 Rebecca Michelle b 6-3-91

Any comments or further information is greatly appreciated.
Joseph Crofford Kyle, Jr.
422 Morning Dove Drive
Duncanville, Texas 75137 U.S.A.
Phone:  972-296-6244
mailto:kyle@alumni.utexas.net
Started in 1989
last revised 7/6/2004
Visit and join the KyleFamily Society