the schoolmaster was David Peattie who remained in Strathkinness as school-

master until 1778.

By this time many changes had taken place in subjects taught and ways of

teaching them. Reading, writing and arithmetic were still important, as was

F

studying the Bible and learning the Catechism. In addition, geography, ‘singing

of common tunes’, English grammar, spelling and sometimes Latin were being

taught. As fees were paid for each subject, it is unlikely that poor scholars

were taught much more than the three Rs, unless sponsored by someone who

had spotted the child’s ability. The Kirk Session might foster talent by

appealing to ‘persons of quality’ to help with a gifted child’s education. Not

all heritors were anxious to help, however, and there were times when they

hindered payment of schoolmasters’ salaries, and appeals had to be made to

exact payment from them. This never happened in Strathkinness, but there

are reports of appeals on behalf of schools in Leuchars, Dunino, St. Monans

and Kemback.

It is not known where any of the these first schools in Strathkinness were

situated. The first mention of a site for a school is in 1777 when four acres

of ground, part of one of the Strathkinness commonties, was set apart by the

St. Andrews Kirk Session as the School Glebe. A plan was adopted for a

schoolhouse two stories high with a ‘roof of thatch sewed on’. The estimated

cost was thirty-nine pounds nine shillings and seven pence ‘not including

carriage of materials which was to be performed by the Gentlemen and Tenants

in the Neighbourhood’. The Kirk Session decided to start the work

immediately, even before the money had been fully subscribed. ‘Tenants and

other householders’ asked the Session to appoint as schoolmaster Robert

Richard, a young man they knew and thought ‘to be well qualified for being

there’. After an examination in reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic he

was appointed and was allowed to charge fees of ‘one shilling per quarter per

child for English, and an additional sixpence for writing and arithmetic’, and

‘he shall not be entitled to demand more’. His salary, in addition to whatever

he could earn in fees, was £3 per annum. He was given strict instructions as to

how he was to enclose the school land and was ordered to plant, at his own

expense, given numbers of various specified trees totalling not less than one

hundred. He asked if ‘in case it should be found after some years that Trees

cannot be made to grow in that cold muir he would be relieved of the

obligation’. The children fron Denhead and Kincaple were to go to the new

school in Strathkinness. Mr. Peattie, the former schoolmaster, was to receive

half a guinea yearly for his twenty-one years as schoolmaster in Strathkinness.

In 1781 Mr. Robert Richard went to be schoolmaster in Cameron; the salary

was higher there, and he did not have to plant trees and look after them, as

well as teach.

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