According to Scotland and her Tartans, by Alexander Fulton, Wallensis was a latin name for a Briton of Strathclyde. Richard Wallensis obtained the lands of Riccarton (Richard's Town) near Kilmarnock and he was a great grandfather of Sir Malcolm Wallace of Elderslie, near Paisley, who was father of William Wallace. I have also seen reference to Wallace being interchanged with Welsh, as a descriptive surname for anyone from Wales. To this day there are lots of people around the Paisley and Kilmarnock areas with the surname Wallace. I know that I had a great great great grandfather named Robert Wallace who was a weaver in Paisley two hundred years ago but before that it is just not possible to trace my Wallace line as there are little or no written records of ordinary working people in Scotland in earlier times. So unless your ancestors happened to be well heeled landowners or peers of the realm, you aren't going to be able to trace your ancestral lines back any further. So much as its a romantic notion to think of people called Wallace as being descended from the great Scottish patriot, I always take anyone who claims to be a descendent of William Wallace with a big pinch of salt,
Regional Director for Scotland for Clan Cunningham International, and a Scottish Armiger.
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