Some notices of the surname of Shand, particularly of the County of Aberdeen

In the year 1539, Robert Schand was co-owner of the
lands of Udoch, (now Idoch) in the said parish of Turriff,
along with Forbes of Brux and Con of Auchry. — Spalding
Club Antiq., ii. 358. In the same parish the lands of Shand's
Cross are situated, but so far as we are aware the precise
origin of this name has not been preserved. In the middle
ages, as is well known, crosses were set up to mark the
limits and boundaries of girths, jurisdictions, and franchises;
the marches of lands, and the spots where any incident had
happened, such as seemed worthy of commemoration or
remembrance, in the more simple and credulous manners
of the day.
On the 16th January, 1460, the Bishop of Aberdeen,
Thomas Spens, granted a precept for the institution of
Mr. Gilbert Hay as Prebendary of Turriff in the Cathedral,
an office then vacant by the death of Master John de Campo,
the last incumbent. — Ibid., p. 344. It has been suggested
that the name of Shand's Cross may be connected with this
ecclesiastic, in whose name of De Campo or De Campis some
antiquarians have recognised the older form of Shand, passing
through the changes of Deschamps, Dechamp, and Champ,
pronounced Shan, which has always been the local pronun-
ciation of the name, all these names being met with in the
older records of that part of Scotland. This origin of the
surname has been advocated with considerable plausibility
by contributors ,to Notes and Queries, and the local sound
of the name which, as we have seen, rejects the final d,
may be thought to support the theory. But, till further
evidence is produced, we think the verdict ought, in the
language of the country itself, to be " Not proven." "We
are the more inclined to arrive at this conclusion from the
fact that the word "Schand" is given by Dr. Jamieson in
his Dictionary of the Scottish Language as the form of an
adjective of Teutonic origin, signifying " elegant, bright,"
&c. It is well known to every archaeologist, that very