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STRATHKINNESS
LANDS
The St.
Andrews Register (a register kept by the canons for recording gifts
and
donations and for transactions relating to their lands) first
mentions
Strathkinness in 1144
when Bishop Robert gave the ‘Lands of Strathkinness’
to the
St. Andrews Priory. The next date of importance is 1160 when the
Register
states that the land was divided into Strathkinness and ‘alia’, or
other,
Strathkinness. Where
the original Strathkinness was sited is not known,
although
it is thought to have been nearer to Nether Strathkinness than to
the
present
centre of the village. In 1797 a manuscript collection compiled by George Martine
(secretary to
Archbishop Sharp) was printed by the University of St. Andrews.
This col-
lection
of manuscripts known as Reliquiae Divi Andreae states that at the time
of the mortification, or disposition, of the Priory lands there
is a place called
‘Stirkinness’ and a
place called ‘Poffel of Stirkinnes’. It has been assumed by
many
that The Poffle (a small farm or pendicle) was part of a larger
farm.
This
assumption seems to be based on the ownership of The Poffle by the
owner of
Monksholm Farm earlier this century. Monksholm Farm and The
Poffle
were not adjacent; there was common land between them. Also, there
are
documents showing that The Poffle, or the ‘Town and Lands of Poffle
of
Strathkinness’ were of
a considerable size, probably including all the land
between
Nether Strathkinness to the Turnpike Road (Main Street) and from
the
common land south of the present High Road down to the Burn. Before
1754 the
Poffle Lands were divided among several owners. It seems more
likely
that The Poffle was a pendicle, or part, of the original settlement
of
Strathkinness and is
the ‘alia Strathkinness’ of the St. Andrews Register of
1160. A
charter dated 1659 confirms that at the time of the Reformation,
about
one
hundred years earlier, a large part of the Lands of Strathkinness, and
the
Lands of
The Poffle, were given by James, Earl of Moray and Regent
of
Scotland, to Michael Balfour son of Sir James Balfour and Margaret
Balfour,
heiress
of Burleigh. In 1607 Michael Balfour had been made the first Lord
Balfour
of Burleigh. The
fourth Lord Balfour of Burleigh settled the Burleigh estates in Fife
upon his
brother John Balfour of Ferny. They both took part in the Jacobite
Rebellion of 1715 in
support of James ‘The old Pretender’, and in conse-
quence
title and lands were forfeited to the Crown. In 1723
the forfeited Burleigh lands were put up for public roup, or
auction,
and were bought by Margaret Balfour, the daughter of the fourth Lord
Balfour,
and neice of John Balfour of Ferny whose lands had been forfeited.
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