Some Notable Chisholms


Not all Chisholms are dead.   What follows is my eclectic list of prominent Chisholms around today.  Below that list you will find some of the noted Chisholms from the past.

Annie Ruth Chisholm is the prophetess and pastor of the Jesus Christ Deliverance Tabernacle in Savannah.

Bill Chisholm was the Borders reporter for The Scotsman for thirty years until his retirement in 2006.

Charles Chisholm is a director of a firm of bookmakers in the northeast of England.  His grandfather started the business in the late 1950’s. 

Charlie Chisholm grew up in Savannah before moving to Philadelphia where he began to play the trumpet.  He has worked with such jazz greats as John Coltrane.

Duncan Chisholm from Inverness is one of the new breed of Scottish fiddlers.

Hayden Chisholm is a young saxophonist and composer from New Zealand.

Jeanne Chisholm and her late husband Hugh, a polo player, founded the Chisholm Gallery for sporting art in Palm Beach in 1978.

Jim and Helen Chisholm run Chisholm’s Timberwolf Lodge on a lakefront in Ontario’s northern wilderness.

Jimmy Chisholm is a well-known Scottish TV and film actor.

John Chisholm owns the Nova Construction Company in Nova Scotia.

Sir John Chisholm built up QinetiQ, one of Britain’s largest science and technology companies.  He profited greatly from its privatization in 2003..

Jori Chisholm, who lives in Seattle, is one of the world's top pipers and leading bagpipe instructors.

Lloyd Chisholm has been prominent in the standardbred industry in Ontario and led the way in promoting harness racing in the province.

Malcolm Chisholm from Edinburgh is an MSP in the Scottish Parliament.

Marie Helene Chisholm from Quebec competes on the international arena in judo. 

Mark Chisholm from New Jersey is a two-time world champion in tree climbing.

Melanie Chisholm from Cheshire, a singer in the Spice Girls, was the one known as “Sporty Spice.”

Robert Chisolm is lead singer of the Christian indie rock band Jonezetta.

Ron Chisholm is Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture for the province of Nova Scotia.

Sally Chisholm is an accomplished violist from Texas.

Sam Chisholm heads the Chisholm-Mingo advertising agency for African Americans in New York.

Sam Chisholm from Auckland in New Zealand made his mark as head of the Channel Nine TV network in Australia.

Susie Chisholm, born and raised in Savannah, is a sculptor.

And here is a list of some noted Chisholms of the past:


Alexander de Cheschelme was the earliest recorded Chisholm (from 1249). 

Alec Chisholm was a prominent Australian journalist and newspaper editor in the first half of the twentieth century.

Alice Chisholm grew up in Goulburn NSW and served in Egypt and Palestine during the First World War.  She received the honor of Dame for her work in setting up canteens for the troops.

Angus Chisholm, born in 1908 on Cape Breton Island, was one of the finest ever exponents of Scottish traditional fiddling ever to be recorded.

Archibald Mark Chisholm, a Scotsman from Canada, founded the iron ore mining town of Chisholm in Minnesota.

Brock Chisholm, from Oakville in Ontario, was the first Director of the World Health Organization in 1948.  He is quoted as saying: “You can only cure retail, but you can prevent wholesale.”

Caroline Chisholm, who had married Capt. Archibald Chisholm in 1838 and moved to Australia, sought housing and jobs for the young immigrant women who arrived there.  The character of Mrs. Jellyby in Dickens’ novel Bleak House was reportedly based on her.  

Dr. Catherine Chisholm was awarded a CBE in the 1935 Honours list for her contribution to child health care in the Manchester area. 

Colin Chisholm was among the Scots from Inverness who emigrated to Demerara (now Guyana) in the West Indies in the late 1700's.  He was a physician and was able to provide some early diagnoses for tropical diseases.

Donald Chisholm or Donald the blacksmith (Domhnall Gobha), a sheep farmer and Gaelic poet who was forced from his grazing lands in Strathglass and emigrated to Canada in 1803 at the time of the evictions.

Erik Chisholm, born in Glasgow, was a musical composer, with interests ranging from classical to Celtic folk songs and Indian music.  He lived most of his life in South Africa and died there in 1965.

George Chisholm from Glasgow was a well-known jazz trombone player during the swing era.

Henry Chisholm migrated from a coal-mining background in Fife in 1842 when he was twenty and was the first to introduce steel-making to Cleveland.  He has been called the “father of Cleveland.”

Henry Chisholm wrote the treatise on the National Debt (known as the "Chisholms") in the 1860's.

Hugh Chisholm from Ontario helped found the paper company now known as International Paper.  It started in the 1890’s with his company, Oxford Paper, and his mill town in Rumford, Maine.

Hugh Chisholm, born in London, was the city editor of The Times and became the editor of the eleventh and twelfth editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

Sir James Chisholm, a bishop from Cromlix in Perth, was denounced for his Catholic leanings as "a treason against the true religion" in 1592 and subsequently departed for France.

James Chisholm, the son of an early immigrant into Australia, was a pioneer in the Australian wool and wine industry.  He built the family home at Gledswood near Goulbourn.

Janet Chisholm was an MI6 agent during the Cold War.

Jesse Chisholm, who was born in Tennessee and built trading posts in western Oklahoma in the 1850’s, gave his name to the Chisholm Trail, a cattle trail which stretched from southern Texas to Abilene in Kansas.

John Chisholm, an Indian agent and a soldier of fortune from South Carolina who hatched a plot against the Spanish in the 1790’s.

John Chisholm from South Carolina was a prominent mid-nineteenth century surgeon and wrote his Manual of Military Surgery in 1861.

Joseph Andrew Chisholm was appointed Chief Justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in 1931.

Mairi Chisholm, the daughter of a Chisholm chief, was one of the first women to ride a motorbike.  She became a dispatch rider for the Women’s Emergency Corps and drove an ambulance at the front line in World War 1. 

Robert Chisolm ran plantations on the sea islands of South Carolina in the years prior to the Civil War.

Roderick Chisholm was the Chisholm clan chief who led his men in the doomed rebellions of 1715 and 1745, but survived with his life and his estates.

Roderick Chisholm, the chief draughtsman at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, designed the lifeboats for the Titanic.  He was onboard the Titanic when it sunk.

Roderick Chisholm was a noted American twentieth century philosopher (from Harvard).  He died in 1999.

Ronald Chisholm started his firm Chisholm in Toronto in 1938.  It has expanded to become one of the world’s leading agrifood dealers.

Sir Samuel Chisholm grew up in Dalkeith and moved to Glasgow to become one of Glasgow's most formidable and outspoken civic politicians at the turn of the century.  However, his temperance advocacy was not liked in Glasgow and this helped cause his downfall.

Sheila Chisholm arrived in England from Australia in 1916 and became a high society beauty in the inter-war years.

Shirley Chisholm from Brooklyn was the first black woman to sit in the US House of Representatives.  She and her first husband, Conrad Chisholm, were both of Jamaican origin.

William Chisholm, the twenty-fourth chief of the Chisholm clan, burned his family’s supporters out of their homes in the 1790’s in order to clear the way for Cheviot sheep.

William Wallace Chisolm was a judge in Klu Klux clan country in the  1870's.