Note on the probable origin of the Scottish surname of Gemmill or Gemmell

GEMMILL OP TEMPLEHOUSE.
Arms: — Gules, a Cross (Templar's) between two bars geinels, argent.
Crest : — Two lions pambs couped in Saltire proper.
{From Heraldic MSS. of date 1624 and 1061, in the Lyon office, Edinburgh.)
Motto : — Crux hereditas mea.
The writers of the several historical accounts of the
County of Ayr agree that the family of Gemmill of Temple-
house, although of no historical importance, can boast of con-
siderable antiquity. 1
Writing about 1604, Timothy Pont mentions " Temple-
Housse" in his Ciminghaine Topographised, and Mr. James
Dobie in his notes to this work adds that " this property of
old belonged to the Knights Templars." 2
The Knights Templars originated about 1119, with nine gallant and pious
Knights who had laken part in the First Crusade, and who then formed a
brotherhood in arms and entered into a solemn compact to aid one another
in protecting the countless crowds of worshippers and pilgrims who thronged
to Jerusalem in the early ages of Christianity. Warmed with the religious
1. Statistical Account of Scotland, Aurshire, 1842, p. 282 ; Paterson's History of Ayrshire, 2nd
Edition, vol. IV, p. 238.
2. Dobie's Pont's Cuninghame, 1874, p. 379.