WEST ANSTRUTHER
Erection of the Burgh.—In the old Satistical
Account, which was written by the Rev. James Forrester in 1791, it
is said, that “AnstrutherWester became a borough of barony in 1554, and
a royal borough in 1583.” The latter date is wrong. For in 1592,
Parliament rati fied the royal charter of 1587, by which James
the Sixth had erected “Anstruther be wast the burne” into a free royal
burgh; and erected it anew, “port and heavinning place thairof,” with
all bounds pertaining thereto, as a free burgh royal in all time coming.
The Parish Church, which belonged to the monks of
May, was dedicated to St Nicholas, and is said to have been consecrated
in 1243. When James the Fourth landed in Anstruther, on the 3d of
Jutie 1503, he gave twenty shillings “to the preistis of Anstrother to
say ane trentale of messes of Sanct Nicholass.” To Mr Forrester, it
appeared “to be a very antient building, from the remains of a large
choir, and the gothic structure of the steeple.” Alas! the choir and
rows of fine arches have entirely disappeared. The old
steeple survives,
however, and a gilded salmon crowns its slated spire as a weathervane.
The stone coffin, which was believed to have floated over from
the Isle of May, is kept in a small out-house on the south side of the
steeple. The church is now an exceedingly plain, small building, and,
like the tower, has been “harled.” On the outside of the south wall of
the church there are two old panels. Round the upper one there is a row
of “roaring-buckies," and on it there is this inscription :—
ANNO. 1598.
MY. HOVS. IS. THE.
HOVS. OF. PRAYER.
On the lower one, which is larger, there are two
gate-ways, side by side—one narrow and the other broad. Figures intended
to represent cherubs or angels are seen hovering under the narrow
portal, while flames are discernible in the other. We reproduce a sketch
of it underneatThe earliest volume of the session-records extends from
1577 to 1601, and, as a note on the title-page informs us, contains the
“transactions of the several kirk-sessions of Kilrennie, W. Anstruther,
Pittenweem, and Abercrombie, with marriages, and
baptisms, &c.,
interspersed from 1586 to 1601.” Fully forty years ago, there was a
dispute among these kirk-sessions as to the possession of this volume,
and on the 31st of January 1844, the Presbytery of
St Andrews
decided that the custody of it should be given to the session of West
Anstruther, and that it should be open to the other sessions. It is now
in the Register House at
Edinburgh, and there I examined
it several years ago. The mere fact of these parishes being under one
minister for some time does not altogether account for the common
register. It was difficult in those days to get a sufficient number of
qualified men to form a session in every parish, and therefore it is
expressly stated in the Second Book of Discipline, which was
adopted by the General Assembly in 1578, that—” When we speik of the
elders of the particular congregations, we mein not that every
particular parish kirk can, or may have their awin particular
elderschips, specially to landwart, bot we think thrie or four, mae or
fewar particular kirks, may have ane common elderschip to them all, to
judge thair ecclesiasticall causes. Albeit this is meit that some of the
elders be chosen out of everie particular congregation.” The old
minute-book sheds much light on the ways and means used by the early
Reforming Church for improving the people. Getting married, for example,
was not such a simple process as it is now. On the 25th of March
1588, “Patrik Gib and Katrin Hendersoun compeired desyring ther bandes
to be proclamed, which efter exhortation and admonition yes (i.e.,
was) granted to them.” When the would-be bride and bridegroom
appeared before the session, their religious knowledge was not tested
in a merely formal way; for, on the 26th of August 1589, “compeired
David Donaidsoun and Margrat Dairsy desyring ther bandes to be proclamed,
which efter admonitione vpone conditione that they suld learne better
agane this day aught dayes wer granted to them.” Thus the foundations
of family religion were laid. On the 30th of August 1592, it was
ordained that in time coming persons to be married “sail consigne ane
pand, which sail be als gud as fourtie shillings or therby, in pledg
that ther sal be na dansing nor insolent behavior without ther hous, or
at least without the boundes of ther clos and yaird.” The pledge, if
forfeited, went to the poor. Other matters were as vigorously and
rigorously managed. Visitors were regularly appointed to look after
those who did not attend the church. Sometimes the parishioners were
perverse as well as careless. On the 4th of April 1598, “The Magistrates
(were) yet again desyred to tak ordor with Sandie Reid and the rest that
was absent fra the kirk the last Sabeth.” The session met every Tuesday,
and contumacious offenders were compelled to appear before it. On the
17th of March 1594, “Katrin’ and Bessie Gilgours called, cornpeired
not, therfor the Magistrats desyred to impreson them till Tysday.” In
1596, an offender, who had relapsed a third time into sin, and who was
seriously dealt with by the session with no apparent effect, was shut up
for twenty days in the steeple, to see if repentance would be wrought
in his heart. There are occasional cases of men being cited for “golfing
on Sabbeth,” and women for laying out clothes to dry on that day. If
children had to be baptised when their fathers were at sea, one of the
elders presented them. It is not said whether any of these officials
were nervous bachelors or not. The most widely known ministers of the
parish have been James Melville, his brother-in-law, Robert Durie, and
Hew Scott. Many good stories are told about the last, who in his earlier
years had to fight hard with penury. But, perhaps, no other man of this
century, has left such a monument of patient, pains-taking, and
laborious research behind him, as the Fasti Ecclesice Scoticanae—the
succession of ministers in the parish churches of Scotland, from
the Reformation to the present time. All honour to the man who spent
fifty years in pursuit of his object, and who travelled over all
Scotland to accomplish it. His is no mere compilation of dry facts, for
he knew how to relieve his work by a genuine good story and interesting
detail. That he was a man of taste—though careless in his apparel—is
evidenced by his beautiful book-plate, the motto of which may be freely
rendered, “I dearly love old books and worthies.” He entered into his
rest on the 12th of July 1872, aged 81. A granite obelisk has been
raised over his grave, near the east end of the church, in which he
ministered for 33 years. Forrester, who wrote the old Statistical
Account, was minister here for 30 years, before he was translated to
Kilrenny, where he died after ten years’ service.
The Town Hall is a very small, modest, dingy building, adjoining the
steeple of the church. But, to Mr Milligan, of Elie, who drew up the New
Statistical Account of this parish, it seemed “a large and handsome room
!" Two centuries ago a third of the town was destroyed by a high sea.
Scarcely a vestige of the Fore Street was left, and the rock on which
the old town-house stood is now covered by every spring tide. Formerly
there were three bailies, a treasurer, and any number of councillors
from six to eleven. Like Kilrenny, West Anstruther was among the nine
burghs in schedule F, which were excepted from the Burgh Reform Act of
1833. In the New Statistical Account, which was drawn up in 1838, it is
said that “the municipal authorities still continue to be appointed
according to the old system, under which, notwithstanding all its
alleged corruption and abuse, the corporation lands have been preserved
entire; not an acre having been alienated since the issuing of the royal
grant in its favour, upwards of 250 years ago.” By the Act 15 and 16
Vict., C. 32, passed in 1852, the number of councillors was limited to
9, including 2 bailies. And, by the Municipal Elections Amendment
(Scotland) Act of 1868, the old form of election was entirely abolished.
The Civil War was severely felt in West Anstruther. In August 1641, the
burgh advanced £540 Scots, which was afterwards ordered to be re-paid
with interest. “They were zealous covenanters,” says Mr Forrester, “and
there are few old inhabitants of the parish who do not talk of some
relations that went to the battle of Kilsyth, in the year 1645, and who
were never afterwards heard of.” The English usurpers paid them a visit
in 1651, and were outrageous enough to cast the pulpit Bible into the
sea, and to carry off the sand-glass with their plunder. By an Order of
Cromwell’s Council in Scotland, on the 21st of December 1655, for
raising a monthly assessment of £10,000 for 6 months, towards “the
maintenance of the forces, which must be kept up for the preservation of
the peace, and security of the good people of this Commonwealth, and
for the defraying of other necessary charges,
This shows the relative position of the burghs at that time. “Ever since
the battle of Kilsyth,” says Mr Forrester, “the people here have a
strong aversion to a military life; in the course of twenty-one years
there is only a single instance of a person inlisting.”
Dimission of the Burgh.—On the 23d of August l6e 2, David Wilson, one of
the burgesses, humbly supplicated Parliament, as he had been empowered
to do, that he might be allowed to resign, renounce, and overgive all
their privileges as a royal burgh in favour of the King and his
successors, so that the burgesses and inhabitants might be free from
bearing charge or burden with the other royal burghs. The reason urged
was “ther poor and indigent condition to which they are reduced by the
late troubles and severall other accidents.” The petition was granted in
similar terms as that of Kilrenny (see p. 39) on the same day. The
Convention of Estates, in 1678, having continued their cess and stent as
formerly, and the collec— tor threatening to quarter upon them, “the
poor touns of Anstruther-Wester and Kilrinnie” jointly petitioned
Parliament in 1681, stating that they were altogether unable to pay,
“albeit their whole goods and gear were rouped!" West Anstruther had no
vessel of any kind, except “one small bark of the burding of six lasts
or therby. . . which is onlie for carieing peats and coalls!" The
petition was remitted to the Privy Council with power. A commissioner,
however, was regularly sent by West Anstruther to Parliament from the
Revolution until the Union. Harbour.—The ports of Amestroder and
Pednewem are mentioned by William the Lion in a charter granted to the
Prior and monks of May. The harbour of West Anstruther was greatly
damaged by violent storms in the seventeenth century. It was about 1670,
according to Forrester, when the sea “destroyed or chocked up the
harbour, washed away the bulwarks, and rendered many of the houses
unsafe to dwell in.” He says that it was about the end of the same
century that Fore Street was washed away. The great storm of 1655 was
severely felt along the coast. Lamont, in his Chronicle of
Fife, says :— “1655, Dec. 10. Being Moneday, all that
day, for the most pairt, it did snow, bot at night ther fell
extraordinar mutch snow, and all that night ther blew a great wynde,
which occasioned great losse and damage to the shyre of Fyfe, both by
sea and land. As for the sea, it did flow far above its . . . . banks.”
There “were many small barkes and other vessells that perished, laying
in harbrees, as in Enster, Dysert 28, Craile 30
Also piers were doung downe in severall places, as in St Androus, Enster,
Craill, Weyms, Leith; a pairt of the salt-girnell in
Leven
broken downe; many shipes in seve— rall places overbiowen by the snow
and perished; some lesser houses blowen downe ; several: tries, in
severall places, blowen over and broken by the violence of this storme;
also severall salt-panns wronged both in Fyfe and Louthian syde.”
Perhaps, the piers were not very difficult to “ding doune,” for, in the
map
of the East Part of Fire, in Blaeu’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, published
in
Amsterdam,
in 1654, a wooden-looking barricade extends along the coast in front of
Anstruther, and a pier of a similar kind shelters a harbour from the
east and the south. Ships cannot enter the harbour, which is only used
now by a few small boats. A little to the westward, there is a creek
called West Haven or Hyne; where, it is said, a Dutch company, who had
leased some coal pits in the neighbourhood, built a harbour. Traces of
the landing place can still be seen at low tide.
Decay and Revival of Trade.—” The old people,” says Forrester, “date the
decay of the towns on this coast to the Union with England. It is
evident that that event did undoubtedly give a great shock to the trade
of these towns. Their staple commodities were malt, herrings, and cod.
Before the Union, there were 24 ships belonging to Easter and Wester
Anstruther, and 30 boats employed in the fishery. In 1764, there were
only two ships, each 40 tons burden, and three fishing boats belong to
AnstrutherEaster, and one of 20 tons, and two fishing boats to
Anstruther-Wester. At present (1791), the number of ships belonging to
Easter and Wester Anstruther is 20; their tonnage, 1172; men employed,
94; of which six in the foreign, thirteen in the coasting, and one in
the fishery trade; eight of these belong to Anstruther-Wester, whose
tonnage is 532, and they employ 36 men. At present there is not a single
person in the parish who can properly come under the denomination of a
fisherman; yet in the herring season there are four boats, which are
manned by the tradesmen of the place, and some mariners, and fitted out
for fishing.” It is difficult to see how the Union could affect the
herring and cod fishery; but the malt-tax was so obnoxious that it
seemed to involve the dissolution of the Union. In a rare pamphlet
entitled, Reasons for improving the Fisheries, and Linnen Manufacture of
Scotland published in 1727, it is said :—“The fishing of herrings and
cod, by bushes in deep water, has been since the battel of Kilsyth, in
anno 1645, entirely laid aside.” in the same pamphlet it is stated that
a vessel of proper size for deep-water fishing, sufficiently equipped
and provided, could not be put to sea for less than £1000, that is, £83
6s 8d sterling. The remarkable decay in the fisheries is strikingly
brought out by a few facts which Forrester further mentions. The
minister drew the teinds of the fish as part of his stipend, and the
town had generally farmed them at £10, £12, or £15 a-year. But for
twenty years they had not let for more than 13s, and they had been as
low as 5s. In East Anstruther, a somewhat similar tale could be told. Mr
James Nairne had drawn £55 yearly for the teinds of the herring fishery
alone, while his son let them for £22 4s Sd. But even when Forrester
wrote the tide had again turned. The population was increasing, “owing
to the revival of the coal and salt works at Pittenweem, and the
consequent increase of shipping.” Within the previous twenty years, four
new houses had actually been built, but one of them was unlet, as the
enormous rent of £10 was demanded for it! Wages, too, had risen. In
1764, a day-labourer received sixpence in winter and sevenpence in
summer; whereas in 1791 he got tenpeuce in winter and a shilling in
summer, and in harvest time men were paid ninepence per day and their
food, and women seven-pence. They were also more constantly employed
than at the former period. All sorts of provisions, except pork and
rabbits, had risen one-third in twenty years. Yet, when the people were
frugal and industrious, they lived very comfortably, and their children
were well fed and educated. Agriculture was much improved, the cattle
employed were of a better breed, and in finer order, and the tenants
enjoyed more of the comforts of society, and were more affluent than
their predecessors. The great prices of cattle and grain, and the
opening of the Forth canal, had given a spur to industry. The young
cattle were more liberally supplied with turnips than before, and
consequently, Forrester says, “a young ox of 20 months old sold lately
for 7 guineas. It was much stouter, and fitter for work, than a
three-year-old one fed in the common way, with straw in the winter.”
Land had also risen greatly in rent within the preceding twenty years—to
wit, from 7s and lOs per acre to 21s and 30s. The sea-weeds growing on
the rocks were farmed likewise, and were cut and burned into kelp.
Osnaburghs and green linen were exported. Haddocks were sent to Cupar;
and lobsters to London. And there were three ale-houses in the parish,
which did not seem to have any bad effect on the morals of the people.
Altogether, things were looking better in 1791 than they had done for
some time.
Chesterhill is the name of a mound, supposed to be partly artificial,
and ten acres of land around it, which belonged to Mr Conolly, the
industrious and kindly compiler of the Eminent Men of Fife and Fifiana.
Chesterhill, he said, meant Castlehill. It is at the west end of the
town, and there was a fine well in the middle of the mound. A century
ago, when a foundation was being dug for a house on the side of the
mound, “two skeletons were found in the most perfect preservation, at a
small distance from each other. They were inclosed in a kind of coffin,
consisting of a large stone at each end and side.”
Population, &c.—In 1755 the population of the parish was only 385, and
in 1191 it had decreased to 370, but in 1811 it was 405, in 1831 it was
430, and in 1881 it had risen to 673. Nearly all the parishioners live
in the burgh. In ancient times a weekly market was held on Sabbath, and
there were, two yearly fairs in March and December; but, in 1705,
Parliament changed the weekly market to Thursday, and the fairs to the
first Tuesday of July, and the second Tuesday of October. Now, however,
they are all given up. Mr Milligan, in 1838, thought the people enjoyed
more comforts than before, and that hard drinking was dying out; but he
had to bewail the discontent introduced by the new notions, the wearing
out of the spirit of independence, and the pernicious effects of the
inn. There are some handsome villas at the west end of the town. The
burgh seal bears three salmon.