Sage Origins.

In Inverness where the recording of persons should be good the Sages appear in the record in 1657. Before this time records are very sporadic and not normally from a Official source. Two persons Donald and Alexander have families that start at the same time, 1680 to 1683. Close behind is Robert with a child in 1684. There may have been five or even more families in Inverness. They could have started in early 1600's with a single family.
These three, Donald, Alexander, Robert are probably brothers but could represent different families, this is unlikely to be found out. After this about 20 families were established until 1854 when they Vanish. This is a constant population by Sages in Inverness.

In Nairn, Ardclach, Auldearn and Petty the people seem to be from the same group, Sages are recorded in;
Invernness from 1657 to 1900 Most Early Sages in Scotland.
Auldearn from 1682 to 1730 One in 1774 this was our William
Perth from 1782 to 1999 Descendants of William Sage
Petty from 1688 to 1750 Isolated Marriage in 1817
Ardclach from 1705 to 1742 Not consistently inhabited, people arrive and depart.
Cawder from 1713 to 1761 This was one family, the Kenneth Branch.
Nairn from 1777 to 1782 Our William Sage the preacher who went to Perth.
Caithness from 1670 to 1846 Missionary Sages. Arrived in Caithness about 1625.
Greenock from 1759 to 19xx First one came from Cawdor, a Kenneth line.
Hamilton from 1813 to 19xx Kenneth Line expands.

These groups disappear from the record, so far, about 1840. It is possible and even likely that some Sages were about these areas prior to the first record in 1687, this is a country area where poor recording can be expected, so to find any may imply more.

The Highland clearances were earlier in the areas of Banff, Nairn and Inverness so the disappearance of the name Sage may be related to this. In this area they started about 1688.

The Sutherland Sages seem to be self contained within the recorded time. However none of them actually appear in the Records and all have been found from a List of Ecclesiastics active in the Church of Scotland. Also the Church records do not include the marriages to non-ministers. This means that there must have been at least several more Sage families in the Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland and Caithness areas. After all Murdoch 1670 did not materialise from thin air. There also is the two known Angus Sages, one from LochCarron who joined up with the other in Kildonan it would appear that there was a lot of invisible Sages. It seems people from the Inverness Area went to Locharron to start the Caithness Sages.

Conclusion.

Overall the most likely source of the Sage line is Inverness. It is possible that several unrelated people called Sage arrived from England but then would expect that the population would be larger as the number of lines would be more and they would appear in more places. Effectively we only have two places, Sutherland/Caithness and Inverness/Nairn, and they are all related. The numbers and distribution can be explained by a single family arriving in Inverness about 1590. Why they should is a Mystery.

The names Alexander and Donald appear in most known Sage families, this would indicate they all were related. The Perth names seem to have started with William and his son Joseph and are mostly from him that they derive.

Other Sages.

A scattering of early Sages have been found in several other places but in no case do they seem to have established themselves.

Created 10/Aug/2004 JPR