Timor Omnis Abesto

Above the stairwell in my grandparents’ home in Washington state is a copy of the Macnab family crest, which boldly proclaims “Timor Omnis Abesto”, or “let fear be far from all”. This is the family motto, and it plays out differently through the history of my family. The most famous of my ancestors, Francis Macnab (pictured below), also known as Francis More (or Big Francis), was one of the most notorious of the Scottish chiefs. He drank a lot of whisky, gambled, sired at least 32 children (despite being unmarried) and generally lived a lavish lifestyle. He was a large man who was said to “carry a golden eagle” on his arm, and feared no debtor.

The Macnab, by Sir Henry Raeburn (1802)

This lack of fear was unfortunately the downfall of the Scottish home to the Macnabs, as The Macnab’s heir was unable to handle the high level of debt, lost the ancestral lands and eventually fled to England and then Canada. Many clan members followed him to settle the Mcnab territory, and my family line remained there until my grandfather immigrated to the US in his early twenties. The lack of fear drove my family to seek new lands, which in turn led my grandfather to the US where he met my grandmother and joined the LDS church, and so I believe that the family motto has served us well, even if we don’t aren’t living as large as The Macnab did in the 1700s.