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Local: from the Castle of Leslyn in Hungary. The family are descended from Barth- lomew Leslyn or Leslie, son of Walter de Leslyn, a Hungarian noble, who in the year 1068, came to Scotland in the company of Margaret, wife of Malcolm Canmore. In crossing a river swollen by floods, the queen was thrown from her horse, and in danger of being drowned, when Leslyn plunging into the stream seized hold of her girdle, and as he brought her with difficulty towards the bank, she frequently exclaimed "grip fast," and afterwards desired that he should retain the words as his motto. He married the sister of Malcolm Canmore, and was by that monarch made Governor of Edinburgh Castle, Lord Leslie and Earl of Ross.
This family, according to tradition, descended from Bartholomew de Leslyn, a noble Hungarian, who came to Scotland with Queen Margaret, about the year 1067. He was the son of Walter de Leslyn, who had assumed this surname from the castle of Leslyn, in Hungary, where he was born. Bartholomew being in great favor with Malcom Canmore, obtained from that prince grants of several lands in Aberdeenshire, which it is said he called Leslyn, after his own surname. Malcom de Leslyn, who succeeded him, was the progenitor of all the Leslies in Scotland. Robert Verstegan, in his Antiquities, remarks on the word ley: "A combat having taken place in Scotland between a noble of the family of Leslie and a foreign knight, in which the Scot was victorious, the following lines in memory of tho deed, and the place where it happened, are still extant: "Between the Less-Ley and the Mair, He slew the knight and left him there." The name may be derived from 'Lesslo,' a maritime territory in Denmark.
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