How Lesmahagow got her name!

This is the answer most people ask, usually after asking: Where is it you're from? What was that, Lesma-what? And it would appear, people through the centuries have always had difficulty pronouncing the name!

It is evident from some charters that Lesmahagow was being recorded by it's Gaelic name. Between 1147 and 1218, there were references to the Parish being called Gilmalagon when it should have been Gilmahagou. There is also a reference to the district as Gilmehaguistoun. Watson (p196, 1926) suggests that these forms of the name establish the vernacuar pronunciation of the 12th Century when Gaelic was being spoken in the parish.

Watson (pp196-197, 1926) also informs the reader that the parish was recorded three times in King David I's 1144 Charter as 'Lesmahagu' and later that same year, the Bishop of Glasgow confirmed Kelso's grant of the lands of 'Lesmahagu'. Fourteen years later, the Parish was recorded as being called 'Lesmagu'. I find this particularly interesting, as even to this day I hear people calling Lesmahagow that after they try to repeat it back to me!

Later on, in 1315, King Robert the Bruce granted eight pounds of wax candles for the tomb of St. Machutus. Bruce's grants were made 'to God and to the Blessed Virgin Mary and to St. Machutus and to the monks of Lesmachu'. Interestingly, this would lead to the assumption that St. Machutus is buried at Lesmahagow.

King David's use of the parish's name is derived from the Latin translation of the patron saint's name: Sancti Machuti (Sanctus Machutus). This is the form from which the modern day name of Lesmahagow has derived.

Who is the Patron Saint of Lesmahagow?

St Mahagu; or
St Machutus?

The most recent explanation is that Lesmahagow gets its name from another Celtic saint - Saint Fechin (Lios Mo-Fhégu - 'the enclosure of Saint Fechin). John Field (1980) informs the reader that St. Fechin died about the year 666 and that his feast day is celebrated on the 20th January. Watson (1926) on the otherhand, gives a more balanced account He concedes that Mahagu and Machutus are independent and different names and explains that Machutus was apparently a British (Celtic) saint with connections in Wales where there is or was a church of Machutus and where he is called 'Lann Mocha'; and he has connections with Brittany where he is called 'St. Malo'. [British in this sense refers to places where the Celtic language 'British' was spoken - the closest language to British today is the Welsh language. It in no way refers to today's 'British' State.] As for 'Mahagu', he belives this name is also derived from Saint Fechin and has come to this conclusion linguistically as a result of how Lesmahagow is pronounced.

Sources:

Field, J Place-Names of Great Britain and Ireland (David and Charles, London,1980, p103)
Johnston, J. B. Place-Names of Scotland (London, 1892 (1934), p237)
Watson, W. J., The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (Wm. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh & London, 1926, pp196-7)