What Are The Origins Of The Surname Jardine?

This surname is most probably topographical in origin. It is used to describe someone who lived in or near a garden, or who perhaps worked in a garden. The surname, like the word garden, comes from the old French word jardin.

The early references to the surname crop up in different places. There is on in Kelso in Scotland in 1153 and another in 1194. Later, the surname Jardin and Jardyn occur in the subsidy rolls of Sussex in 1296. The arms of the family were granted to a family of Jardines in Edinburgh in 1672.

Famous people to carry the surname include Alexander Jardine who was a colonel in the British Army, who wrote the book "Letters from Morocco" after serving there in the 1700s. David Jardine (1794 – 1860) was also a writer. He was a policemen and he wrote, among other books, "Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot) in 1857.