The new princess with her parents

The Clan Hay Society today congratulates their Royal Highnesses the Earl and Countess of Strathearn, as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are known in Scotland, on the birth of their daughter, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.

Her Royal Highness has a number of Hay ancestors, although we have to search through many generations to find them.  Among her 10 times great grandmothers are Anne Hay, Countess of Morton (1636-1700), daughter of Sir James Hay of Smithfield, 1st baronet, and a great granddaughter of the third Lord Hay of Yester.  In the same generation, she descends from Elizabeth Hay, daughter of Sir Thomas Hay of Park, 1st baronet, who died in 1680.  Among her 11 times great grandmothers is Lady Elizabeth Hay (d. 1695), daughter of the 10th Earl of Erroll and wife of Harry, Lord Ker, a roistering character of whom his Hay wife despaired and who died "after ane great drink" in Edinburgh in 1643.

It is believed that her name was chosen in honour of her grandfather, Prince Charles, although there has been cynical speculation that she may have been named after the last royal Charlotte, her great great grandfather, King George V's, parrot.  Charlotte the parrot, the king's most constant companion, was apparently permitted to walk on the royal dinner table, behaviour we anticipate the new princess will not be encouraged to emulate.

John Sinclair, owner of the butcher's shop in the Aberdeenshire village of Ballater, has developed a new sausage named the "Wee Strathearn" to commemorate the birth of the new princess, made from pork, stilton and apricot.  Mr Sinclair supplies meat to the Queen at the nearby Balmoral Castle and has said he will be sending a sample of the "Wee Strathearn" to Her Majesty.