Lands of Pittencrieff

pett + G an + G craobh

/ˈpɪtən krif/ or /ˌpɪtən’krif/

Meaning of the Word: Pittencrieff

‘Farm of the tree’. On craobh as a toponymic element, see Elements Glossary (PNF 5).

History of the Lands of Pittencrieff

The marches of Pittencrieff are described in a charter of 15 July 1418 (NLS Adv. MS 34.6.24, pp. 440–1). In this charter Governor Albany, as earl of Fife, grants Pittencrieff to Murdac de Spensor son of Duncan and Isabel de Spensor, who had freely resigned the property derived from Isabel’s inheritance, into Albany’s hands. The marches had been described in an earlier charter issued by Duncan (IV) earl of Fife (died 1353). Albany’s charter of 1418 gives them as follows:

all and whole the lands of Pittencrieff with pertinents lying in the sheriffdom of Fife, by these bounds and marches, viz, beginning at the Key Burn on the north side of Pittencrieff beside the marches of Kingask, and thus walking towards the south to the cross beside the royal road which goes to the ferry of Port-on-Craig, and thus from that cross to the head of the lands of Thomastoun and so across to the west part of the Portarlands and from there to the south to Cupar Burn, towards the common venell of Cupar, and thus walking towards the west as the said water flows from Cupar Burn to the place which is called Lady Bauk, and so then to the north to the Key Burn where it started.

The grant included common pasture ‘in our muir beside Cupar which is called Earl’s Muir’ (in mora nostra juxta Cuprum que dicitur Erlismore). The Cupar Burn is presumably the Lady Burn.

A royal grant to David Spens of Wormiston, Crail Parish, in 1566 (RSS v no. 2738) gives detailed marches of ‘all the lands of Pittencrieff’ in almost exactly the same terms as the charter of 1418:

beginning at the Key Burn on the north side of Pittencrieff nearest the marches of Kingask CUP, and so going southwards to the Mary Cross <beside the royal highway> by which one goes to the ferry of Port-on-Craig, and so from that cross to the end of the lands of Thomastoun CUP, and so westwards to the west side of the Porterland CUP, and so from there southwards to the Cupar Burn towards the loan of the commonty of Cupar, and so walking towards the west as the aforesaid water [the Key Burn?] flows from Cupar Burn to the place commonly called *Our Lady Bauk [printed Bank], and so from there to the north to the Key Burn, where it started, with common grazing and fuel in the commonty of Cupar and Earl’s Muir.

It is named on OS Explorer 2001 as Pittencrieff Farm Steadings.

Records on the Lands of Pittencrieff

  • Petincreher 1294 PRO E101/331/1 B [printed Fostincreher Stevenson, Documents i, 415]
  • Pettincreiff 1390 x 1406 RMS i app. 2 no. 1734 B [17th c. index; to John (of) Wemyss; see LEU Intro., Lordship and Baronies]
  • Pettincreife 1390 x 1406 RMS i app. 2 no. 1742 B [17th c. index see LEU Intro., Lordship and Baronies]
  • terras de Pityncreffe 1418 NLS Adv. MS 34.6.24, pp. 440–1
  • (the lands of) Pettyncreif 1497 RMS ii no. 2360 [acres called Porterland (q.v.) lying between lands of Pittencrieff and Thomastoun]
  • terras de Pettincrefe 1517 RMS iii no. 149 [to David Spence of Wormiston (Wolmerstoun) and Margaret Stewart, his spouse]
  • Pyttincreif Spens 1521 Fife Ct. Bk. 227 [also 235 (suitor absent from court)]
  • Pittincreif Spens 1522 Fife Ct. Bk. 251 [suitor absent from court]
  • Pettyncreiff 1549 Retours (Fife) no. 24 [David Spence of Wormiston, Crail Parish, the superiorities of the lands of Wormiston (Wylmastoun), Crail Parish, and Pittencrieff]
  • Pettincreiff c.1560 s Assumption, 14
  • Pettincreiff 1566 RSS v no. 2738 [marches given]
  • Pettincreif 1571 RMS iv no. 1978 [king grants to Patrick lord Lindsay of Byres and his heirs the lands of Wormiston, King’s Cairn, Braidleas, Pittencrieff ‘and their pendicle called Lady Orchard’ (et pendiculum earundem vocatum Lady-orchard), the lands of Mairston, ‘a tenement with garden and butt in the town and burgh of Cupar in Fife, in the vennel called the Kirk Wynd … with the office of constable of Crail’ (tenementum cum orto et cauda in villa et burgo de Cowper in Fyfe, in vinella vocata lie Kirk-wynd … cum officio constabularie de Craill), all forfeited by the late David Spence of Wormiston]
  • Pettincreif 1595 RMS vi no. 338 [James Spence of Wormiston and his wife, Agnes Durie, ‘all and whole the lands of Pittencrieff commonly called the Mains and Bank of Pittencrieff’ (totis et integris terris de Petincreif vulgo lie Manis et Bank de Pettincreiff); marches given]
  • infra terras de Pittincreif 1618 Retours (Fife) no. 278 [to James Scrymgeour; acres called Portarlandis in the lands of Pittencrieff]
  • lie Maynes et Bank de Pittencreiff 1623 Retours (Fife) no. 1560 [John Preston]
  • Pittncreef 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
  • Pittincreiff 1691 Retours (Fife) no. 1321 [Margaret Philp, wife of John Corstorphine junior of Nydie, rent from the lands of Thomaston and Pittencrieff]
  • Pencrief 1775 Ainslie/Fife
  • Pittencrief 1828 SGF
  • Pittencrieff 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn
  • Wester Pittencrieff 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn [at NO370157]

Source: This place-name appeared in printed volume 4 in the Fife Place-name Data Project.