Old Dalgety Parish
Picture : Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline
WITCHES in the Bay!
Contributor: Jonathan Ellington
Are you considered odd, strange or disagreeable by any of your neighbours?
….are you CERTAIN that the answer is no?….
If not, then you may be thankful that you live in the Dalgety Bay of 2020 rather than that of 1649…..
Certainly one witch, Isobel Kelloch, and probably another, Andrew Maxwell, were put to death in Dalgety in that year. It appears that both readily, and repeatedly, confessed their crimes. Of course, modern research suggests that those accused of being witches were suffering from learning disabilities, dementia or mental illness, often brought on by the extreme hardships of the time, or were very unfortunate in that they made spiteful enemies.
Isobel was alleged to have, amongst other things, offered a head covering to Isobell Scogian, who, when she used it, suffered a sore head due to a curse by Kelloch. Kelloch admitted this but she repeatedly asked for Scogians’ forgiveness. Kellochs’ confessions started before her trial had been even commissioned, vastly reducing any possibility that torture was used. Her fate is confirmed in the kirk session records thus:
“July 1, 1649 Given out of the boxe for Isobel Kelloch’s charges, in procuring ane comissione for her trial, and in things concerning her burning, 24 lib. 4s. 4d.”
Andrew was considered an ”ignorant” man, and it was him, along with some witches executed in Aberdour, who first implicated Isobel Kelloch. He was examined by the minister, Andrew Donaldson, and four elders. There is no
definitive proof of his fate but it is telling that at the investigation into Kelloch, he was described as “late
warlock”.
The witches were probably executed at either the historic execution area recorded in Fordell Woods, or at the traditionally known “Witch Knowe” for Dalgety, which was Pinnell Hill, now overlooking the east end of the industrial estate and the eastern entrance to the Bay.
Despite other investigations, Dalgety had many less witchcraft trials and executions than the neighbouring Inverkeithing and Aberdour (Inverkething’s minister in the mid 1600s was a renowned witch hunter). It is worth noting, in this respect, that Alexander Seton, First Earl of Dunfermline, had his “favourite” home at Dalgety House which was sited somewhere in the region of Dalgety Gardens, Bluebell Wood or Inchmickery Road (His original ornamental gardens were roughly in the same area as that featuring stone walls marking out the later, Victorian gardens of the Earls of Moray around the modern Dalgety Gardens). Seton was a high powered lawyer and considered the second most powerful man in Scotland after James VI. He was influential in the battle against superstition being a driving force in allegations of witch craft and was known to demand firm evidence in related trials. Seton died in 1622 but perhaps, (and this is the writers’ argument only), the memory of Seton and his seeking of true justice influenced the local church elders, Andrew Donaldson and the major land owners, the Hendersons and the Moray’s, causing a more cautious approach.
It is a fact that Donaldson himself was noted as a very strong advocate of education and this may have also
helped in the fight against superstition, this fight ultimately, and thankfully being successful.
References:
Glimpses of Pastoral works in the covenanting times – Ross
Wikipedia page re. Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline
Aberdour and Inchcolme – Ross
Witches, a tale of scandal, sorcery and seduction – Borman
Dalgety Bay Heritage and hidden history – Simpson
The Battle of Donibristle (The fechtin’ Bishop)
Contributor – Heritage Trail Brian
The Heritage Trail team have scoured the books and the internet over the last two years looking for the detail needed to be able to give an accurate account of the ‘Battle of Donibristle’. We have even approached the Sinclair Clan, however the reference material we have studied has only uncovered contradicting basic facts and not the nitty gritty details we hoped for.
There are two important sources available:
‘The Scotichronicon’ by Walter Bower, who was an abbot of Inchcolme Abbey and wrote that the landing took place at Donibristle (b 1385 – d 1449).
John Barbour a churchman and respected poet who wrote the poem ‘The Brus (The Bruce)’ in 1371 which indicated the landing was west of Inverkeithing (b 1320 – d1395).
But what we have found recently is a newspaper article from 1875 which told their version of what is believed to have taken place and an excerpt from a book from 1901, both favour the landing was in the vicinity of Donibristle, and we would like to share those with you.
The Battle of Donibristle took place in 1317 whilst Robert The Bruce was in Ireland, three years after Bannockburn and two years after the Battle of Fordel. To be fair, it wasn’t an invasion force but it involved at least two English ships entering the River Forth and disembarking on a sandy beach close to Inverkeithing and ultimately a lot of lives were lost.
The English navy wasn’t formally founded until 1546 by Henry VIII and the idea was installed by his father, Henry VII who built five royal warships. Prior to that it was a matter of hiring merchant ships and a mixture of soldiers and mercenaries to carry out activities from the sea.
In 1317 King Edward II would have hired merchant Cogs, which were single-masted vessels, clinkerbuilt with steep sides and a flat bottom, similar to these in the picture to carry out this attempt to disrupt and as it turned out, it would be the last skirmish on the Forth for quite a while.
THE NORTHERN WARDER and BI-WEEKLY COURIER and ARGUS, July 20th, 1875
Donibristle comes into view in the War of Independence. In 1317 Edward 11 of England fitted out a naval armament to revenge the ravages which the Black Douglas had committed on his territories.
The fleet sailed into the Firth of Forth, landed at Donibristle, and, in the words of Holingshead, “burned the countrie on each side, and took many rich booties from the inhabitants neare to the shore”. The Scots were panic struck. Five hundred men, whom the Sheriff of the county had hastily collected to oppose their landing, seeing the superior numbers of the enemy, made a precipitate retreat. They were met in their flight by William Sinclair, the Bishop of Dunkeld, a true son of the church militant. Hearing of the invasion and the terror it had inspired, he girded on his armour, throwing over it a linen frock or rochet, mounted on horseback, and, at the head of about sixty of his servants, rode with all speed from his seat at Auchtertool towards the place on which the invader had dared to set foot. Encountering the Sherriff’s fugitives by the way, he upbraided them for their
cowardice. “Out upon you, false knights’” said he, “who deserve to have your spurs struck from your heels.” Then seizing a spear from the nearest soldier, he shouted, “Turn, for shame, and let all who love Scotland follow me!” With this he made a desperate charge on the English, who were driven back to their ships with a loss of five hundred men, and many besides were drowned by the swamping of one of their boats. When King Robert Bruce heard of this exploit he was greatly delighted, and declared that Sinclair should henceforth be his own bishop; and ever after the soubriquet of the valiant Churchman was the King’s Bishop”.
The next text to share is an excerpt from:
THE KINGDOM – A handbook to Fife, Edited by KILROUNIE, 1901
During Bruce’s reign an English fleet anchored off Inverkeithing. Their forces landed at Donibristle and proceeded to plunder and destroy the houses near the coast. A small Scottish army retired before them, till met by William Sinclair, bishop of Dunkeld, who arrived with sixty- followers, and inspired them with fresh courage. They attacked the invaders with such fury that they drove them before them in all directions. The battle was fought in the grounds of Donibristle. Five hundred Englishmen are said to have been killed, and a large boat overcrowded with fugitives sank. Sinclair was made the King’s bishop.
————————————————————————————————————————————-
There are many references that the Bishop’s nickname was ‘the fechtin’ Bishop as well as the ‘King’s Bishop’
Personal Conclusion
My take from what I have read is that this event from over 700 years ago, is that it’s a formally listed ‘battle’ which took place in 1317 but it wasn’t a game changer or major point in history and therefore subsequently had limited records passed down however it was part of the series of battles during the independence wars of that time.
The accounts available to us certainly differ on where the boats anchored and disembarked. We can also assume that again, over time, that the amount of people who lost their lives cannot be verified but it is likely the English invading force did make progress in the area and that a force was hastily put together by the Earl of Fife to counteract their movements.
When the opposing sides met inland the Scots found themselves on the backfoot and started to retreat until the Bishop of Dunkeld intervened and it was he who drove them to a final battle near the shore. It is this final part of the battle that would have incurred the most deaths and probably took place in and around Donibristle House hence why the battle is called the ‘Battle of Donibristle’.
I am favouring Bowers version of events over the poet John Barbour but to allow others to form their opinion I have included this footnote on ‘The Scotichronicon’, which is a continuation of Chronica Gentis Scotorum by John of Fordunin, in 2019 by Jeffrey King.
Jeffrey King wrote an article about the book and said this:
‘The Scotichronicon’s age and background make it an essential source of medieval Scottish history, even if it is an unreliable narrative of ancient history. Both Fordun and Bowers included historical and legendary accounts in their composition, but Bowers is widely considered to be a less competent and reliable historian than his predecessor’.
Walking with our Bay Ancestors
Contributor: Jonathan Ellington
Many modern residents of the Bay live, work or travel over areas that, for centuries, were little settlements…
In times gone by residents of this very rural parish largely lived in settlements called fermtouns and cottartouns (or cottaries). Cottars were those who received the use of a small habitation, with possibly a very small area of land attached to cultivate for their own needs, all in response for the provision of labour when required by their landlord, in lieu of rent.
Picture : Google Earth view of modern day Dalgety Bay
The landlord himself may have been a more successful tenant of one of the major landlords. This “sub tenancy” definitely occurred in Dalgety, as evidenced by Hearth Tax records in the late 17th Century. Other workers were often “Day Labourers” (see the “Murderous Muirton” piece dated 15/4/21), who were paid in cash for a fixed term of work. In practice, with tenant farmers having their own cottars in close proximity, a pure “cottartoun” was probably in the minority.
Muirton (M on the map attached in Pic 1) and St Davids have already been discussed in detail on this page and Hillend and settlements north of the A921 Inverkeithing to Kirkcaldy road, in Fordell, deserve their own post at a later date, so today, we are concentrating on areas in the now “built up” and southern parts of old Dalgety.
All of the death figures given for the settlements in the periods shown will be significantly understated, as most deaths were purely attributed to Dalgety Parish. They can, as such, only be used to give a flavour as to the size of each settlement, which, it is safe to say, were all very small. Most of the areas below are mentioned as places of habitation going back several centuries, but the statistics quoted are largely from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
Picture : Extract from Roy’s Military Survey of Scotland (1747-1755) credit National Library of Scotland
Rough estimates of where these settlements were are marked on the Google Earth view (Pic 1). Early maps which show these areas of population are not accurate enough to show exact locations, and some are not shown at all, so I apologise for frequently using words such as “approximately” and “roughly” in describing their locations. Pic 2 shows the area as per Roy in 1755. This is the earliest map in Scotland that tried to show small settlements but there were many errors of omission and inaccuracies in it, with hamlets not being shown to scale, mis-located or even missed completely.
A – Letham
The settlement of Letham was situated close to the modern farm which superseded it. It was thus in the area of Farmstead Road, Chandlers Rise and Letham Way.
Deaths (1736 to 1775) 8
B – Seafield
The later farm which replaced this settlement was in Whites Quay, so the hamlet would have been here, or nearby in Breakers Way, Spinnaker Way or Harbour Drive.
Deaths (1724 to 1846) 10
C – Rimeltoun
This barely mentioned hamlet was possibly one of the biggest in Dalgety in its day. It was situated somewhere in the Spittal’s estate of Leuchat on the western centre of today’s Dalgety Bay. The area marked on the map, at Longhill Park, for its location is very much a guess, as there is no mapping evidence to firmly place it, though the ”Roy map” of 1755 shows some habitation, unnamed, north west of Donibristle House. Like many early place names there are various spellings of this settlement and it may be relevant that the old Scots word “Rummlie” means stony, loose soil.
Deaths (1728 to 1771) 31
Hearths per Hearth Tax (1691 to 1695) 12 (Meaning, probably, 12 cottages).
D and E – Barnhill and Seaside
Barnhill was a farm, and prior to that a settlement, situated where St Colme House now stands. People of Barnhill are mentioned regularly in the 17th century church records and the area is referenced as a dwelling place in 1533 per the Charters of Inchcolm. Seaside was just along the coast from Barnhill, nearer Aberdour (not in pic). The area is referred to as early as the 1400’s.
Barnhill Deaths (1721 to 1817) 21, Seaside Deaths (1719 to 1772) 4
F – Barns
Now the site of Barns Farm
Deaths (1824 to 1853) 8
One of the accused per the “Murderous Muirton” article of 15/4/21 was living at Barns in 1803, so the area may have been inhabited for longer than records for the actual farm show.
G – Alms Houses
An almshouse was housing provided for the poor by benefactors, probably in this case the church or local landowners. The location of these are unknown. The fact that they existed in old Dalgety may have been of some comfort to the population at large, who worked long and hard, largely to enrich the four major landowners.
Deaths (1731 to 1761) 7
Picture : Extract from The Hendersons Estate Plan
H – Little Fordell x 2 + Cottary
Little Fordell was long part of the Henderson Estate, eventually becoming part of the Earl of Moray’s enlarged Donibristle estate. Very roughly, Little Fordell was largely the area now covered by the industrial estates. In the late 18th century there were two farming units, Little Fordell Hall (HH), positioned in the proximity of Muirton Way and Little Fordell Easter (HE), which was possibly sited near the centre of Taxi Way. There was also a small settlement named as a cottary, or cottartoun (HC), which was north east of Letham Farm, approximately at the west end of Meadowfield. These locations are also marked in a Fordell
estate map (Pic 3 attached) of 1756.
Deaths (1586 to 1781) 47
I – Baronial homes and servants.
Dalgety House (ID), situated somewhere close to the modern Bluebell Woods, Seton Place or Dalgety Gardens was the baronial home of the Dalgety Estate, owned by the Abernethy family, the Setons, then Lord Yester. Populations around the estate appeared to be very small, eg in the Hearth tax returns of the late 17th C, there were only 20 hearths declared, of which 8 related to “The manor place and office houses of Dalgattie” and some of the remainder would have probably related to Muirton. Any further, scattered, housing related to the estate may have been in the same area as Dalgety House or possibly in the “early build” areas of Frankfield, St. Colme, Barnhill or possibly the woods either side of St Bridgets. The Dalgety estate was cleared of housing by the Morays when they took over, near the turn of the 19th century.
The much larger Donibristle House (IH), centre of the Moray estate of Donibristle had a large complement of servants who would have lived in the house, or very locally. Of course, the later service wings of Donibristle still exist, redeveloped into housing.
Examples of numbers of Donibristle servants from Servant Tax Rolls:
Females in 1786; 11 servants, Males in 1786; 22 servants.
Leuchat House, the home of the Spittal family, will be dealt in a forthcoming article by Brian, “Mr
Heritage” soon. There are servants referenced here in historical literature, but the number is unknown.
J – Victorian Cottages.
Whilst the Earls of Moray removed the homes in the Dalgety and Leuchat estates in their quest to “beautify” the enlarged Donibristle estate, a number of lodge houses and cottages were then built, several of which still remain. We shall, again, discuss these in more detail at a later date.
References:
Scotland’s People
Scotland’s Places
Charters of the Abbey of Inchcolm (Easson & MacDonald)
Dalgety Bay Heritage and Hidden History (Simpson)
Fife Family History Society
National Library of Scotland
The Auld Village of Dalgety
Contributor: Jonathan Ellington
This post is a personal position and argument. Historian Eric Simpson has agreed with the conclusions and this is now the stated position of the Dalgety Heritage Trail.
Picture : Extract from Roys Military Survey of Scotland 1747-1755, National Library of Scotland
A number of modern publications and history websites have suggested that there may once have been an old village of Dalgety, often proposed as being sited along the shore of Dalgety Bay, near St Bridget’s Kirk. These suggestions are based entirely on an extract from the description of the Parish of Dalgety in The New Statistical Account, written by the Rev Alexander Watt in June 1836: “The old village of Dalgety, along with the parish school, and some other houses which were situated near the
old church, have all been removed.”
However:
1) The village is never shown in any old maps, unlike, say, Letham and Muirton. Why would these early maps, albeit flawed, all show St Bridget’s Kirk and the manse but never pick up the village next to them? The Roy map of 1752 shows one dot just to the west of the manse – Pic 1). I would suggest that this was the school. It is recorded as being built on the original glebe. The Crowhill Wood area is shown to be planted with trees by 1752.
2) The village is not mentioned in any other source documents, unlike the Dalgety fermtouns of Letham, Remiltoun and Muirton etc. This specifically includes many records relating to the parish from NRS and the comprehensive “Charters of the Abbey of Inchcolm”.
3) The Reverend Alexander Watt was ordained in 1828, many years after the “clearances” of the old Dalgety and Leuchat estates would have taken place. Did he have any first-hand knowledge?
4) The (First) Statistical Account by Peter Primrose, serving minister in 1795 makes no reference to a Dalgety village. This account is more contemporaneous to the alleged “village removal” than the 1828 New Statistical Account.
5) Seven “local” men made statements in the Henderson “Declaration of people in the neighbourhood” in relation to an access dispute with the Earl of Moray, when the latter stopped shipment of coal from the piers on the Dalgety shore in the early to mid-18th century. These can be analysed according to their likely residence: 2 have specific Fordell residences noted, 1 is recorded
in Fordell per the Hearth Tax returns, 3 have family surnames recorded in Fordell Hearth Tax returns and for 1, I cannot find evidence of residence. None of the seven have family names appearing under the Dalgety, Leuchat or Donibristle estate listings for the Hearth tax returns. The evidence points to these all being Fordell residents. Henderson’s argument would have been strengthened by calling on statements from Dalgety village/coast dwellers who were even closer to the “neighbourhood” in question. It is possible that the other local estate owners may have wished to keep out of this argument and stopped their people from making a statement but, once again, there is no positive evidence of a “Dalgety Village”.
6) Hearth tax returns of the late 1690’s quote the Dalgattie estate of the Earl of Dunfermline as having 20 hearths. There would have been a very small addition for the deserving poor, who were not taxed (there were 10 or 12 persons on the poor roll 1795 for the whole parish). 8 of these hearths related to the “manor place and offices of Dalgattie” leaving 12 plus any paupers for the rest of the estate (probably 12 cottages), which, in all likelihood would have included Muirton and a few dwellings around Dalgety House, eg the Umquihile (deceased) William Liddel’s house is one of those named. I believe that he may be the “William Lithell” who is named in a church session relating to witchcraft as Lady Callender’s officer, so it may be reasonable to suggest that he would have lived close to Dalgety House. The Leuchat estate declared 29 hearths, 10 of these at the “manor place and offices” and 12 in Remiltoun – possibly the biggest settlement in the southern part of the Parish. This is evidenced as being in Leuchat’s “Eastfield”. Thus Remiltoun was likely in the furthest east extent of the Leuchat estate – possibly Couston, Jubilee Park, the Primary School or Inchview areas?
This would leave barely enough houses to constitute something as grandiose as a village on the shoreline of Dalgety or elsewhere on the Dalgety (or Leuchat) estates? It could be argued that the village sprang up over the 100 years after the Hearth tax, but why? The Henderson’s industrial activities were increasing over this time and the population had started to drift northward. What new opportunities were there to be capitalised upon that have not been recorded anywhere? This was also a time of better recording of local events, so why no mention of the village?
7) The Fife Family History Society has made a large database of recorded deaths over several centuries. For the Parish of Dalgety about half of these are recorded as “Dalgety” with no further detail. The rest are recorded as eg, Dalgety – Fordell Green, Dalgety – Letham, Dalgety – Remiltoun etc. There is not a single death recorded as anything like “Dalgety – Dalgety Village” or “Dalgety – Cottartoun of Dalgety” etc.
8) In the database of deaths, there are mentions of “Dalgety – College”, with various spelling alternates. College was a park in the expanded Donibristle estate. It stretched from College Bridge (across from the “old” shops) to St Bridget’s, including the coast. There was an oral tradition that College Bridge was named after a house in the area called College. It seems that the area was known as College for many years. There are only eight deaths recorded in College (various spellings, but including “College of Dalgety”) between 1729 and 1756. Coaledge in Fordell was mentioned in an early map as Colledge (but just after the dates shown) and this may, or may not, reduce further the “Dalgety” College figures, but again, there is nothing to suggest a significant population hot spot in the “College” area of Dalgety.
Summary
I have referenced 8 distinct areas of information above, each of which is characterised by AN ABSENCE of any expected reference to a village of Dalgety. None are proof on their own of there never being such a village and all individual arguments could be challenged but I would suggest that the accumulation of so many relevant sources not mentioning such a village is telling.
I am NOT arguing that no-one ever lived in the extreme south of the Bay. Watt states that “Some other houses near the church” were removed. If that covers say, the (now) woods of Crowhill and Kirk Field, and the older build areas of St Colme, Crowhill, and possibly Frankfield, Sealstrand (though this area appears to be the site of the original glebe) and Barnhill – where would the village be? I would argue that Watt, with only oral tradition to rely upon, has confused one of; 1) the fermtoun of Muirton, 2) A very few houses near Dalgety House, or 3) the fermtoun of Remiltoun, as the “Village of Dalgety”. Even if Watt has carelessly substituted “village” for fermtoun or cottartoun, there is no evidence for such a settlement on top of those in the parish already identified. I know that there will probably never be a certain conclusion to this argument, but any thoughts are welcome.
Pic 1
Pic 2
NOTE: There is evidence of a, possibly very old, building/house at “Kirk Field” (the old name for what is now the wood to the east of St. Bridget’s) that I have covered, amongst several other interesting sites, in an e mail sent to FC archaeologists – Pics 2) and 3). FC has not replied. There is a “possible building” listed on the Canmore site, as discovered by the team preparing for the Coastal Path. The coordinates given for this are a hundred yards to the east of the site I mention, actually on the beach, but the coordinates given on Canmore are often inaccurate, so it may be the same site. If anyone knows of any archaeological resource that we could question regarding these sites, we would be grateful for advice or help.
References:
Of Monks and Ministers – Arnott
Dalgety Bay Heritage and Hidden History – Simpson
Various National Records of Scotland web pages
Statistical Account of Scotland (Parish of Dalgety pages) – Rev Peter Primrose
New Statistical Account of Scotland (Parish of Dalgety pages) – Rev Alexander Watt
Fife Family History Society
Charters of the abbey of Inchcolm – Edited by Easson & MacDonald
Glimpses of pastoral work in the covenanting times – Ross
Special thanks to Eric Simpson and Robin Arnott