Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

PITTENWEEM
and delt with Pittenweim, and causit thame prepeare
ane auditorie and kirk within thair awin town, in the
quhilk he teaohit to thame, bathe on the Sabothe and
week dayes, nocht intermitting his ordinarie doctrines
in the uther kirkis, untill Pittenweim was provydit and
plantit with a minister of thair awin, and that without
hurt or impearing of the stipend of the kirk of An-
struther Waster;' and the parish became independent
about 1588. The churches are noticed in connection
with the burgh. Landward valuation (1875) £904, 19s.
8d., (1885) £658, (1893) £575, 8s., exclusive of railway.
Pop. (1801) 1072, (1831) 1317, (1861) 1710, (1871) 1803,
(1881) 2119, (1891) 1991, of whom 913 were males and
1078 were females.
The Town of Pittbkweem, near the E end of the
parish just described, is a seaport and a royal burgh,
and has a station on the Thornton and Anstruther sec-
tion of the North British railway. By rail it is 9 miles
E of Largo, 17J E of Thornton Junction, and 1J mile
W of Anstruther. By road it is 5J miles SE of Crail,
and 11 S by W of St Andrews. Like so many of the
Fife fishing towns, it is a place of considerable antiquity,
and probably dates back to the 13th century. It be-
longed originally to the priory, afterwards mentioned,
and was by James III. created a burgh of barony. In
1542 James V. granted a further charter constituting
the town a royal burgh, and in 1547 the prior and
convent executed two charters granting to the ' provost,
bailies, council, community, burgesses, and inhabitants,
the burgh as the same was builded or to be builded, and
the harbour thereof, and all moors, mosses, and waste
ground, common ways, and other commonties, liberties,
customs, anchorages, etc., belonging thereto.' In 1593
James VI. further increased the property of the town
by granting to it the 'great house or lodging of the
monastery of Pittenweem,' and all these charters were
confirmed by Act of Parliament in 1633. Nor were the
inhabitants unmindful of their royal benefactor, for
when James passed through the burgh on his way
to Anstruther House, where he spent a night, he was
received by the magistrates, councillors, and minister
'in their best apparel,' and accompanied by a guard of
twenty-four of the stoutest men of the place also in their
' best apparel ' and armed with partisans ; and besides
these there were 'other twenty- four with muskets.'
Substantial provision was also made for the royal
appetite at a table spread at 'Robert Smith's yeet,'
where, for the entertainment of the King and his train,
there were provided ' sundrie great bunns of fine flour
and other wheat bread of the best order, baken with
sugar, cannell, and other spices fitting, as also ten
gallons of ale, with canary, sack, Rhenish wine, tent,
white, and claret wines;' and when his Majesty departed
there was a salute of 'thirty-six cannon, all shot at
once. ' It was at Pittenweem that the customs collector
of Fife was, in 1736, robbed by "Wilson and Robertson —
an incident which, though of little local importance,
resulted in the Porteous riots in Edinburgh, and thus
aided in the invention of the plot of Scott's Heart of
Midlothian. The house in which the robbery took place
is on the N side of the street to the N of the church.
In 1779 the squadron of Paul Jones lay for some time
off the harbour, but otherwise the 18th and 19th cen-
tury history of the place has been of a most uneventful
nature.
The town has three main streets with cross inter-
secting lanes. Of these one follows the line of the
coast along the low ground at the harbour; a second,
High Street, runs parallel to this on the top of the
slope; and a third, still farther N, is along the Elie
and Crail road : the second is the principal thorough-
fare. Near its E end is the parish church, originally a
structure of the first half of the 17th century, but ex-
tensively remodelled and altered in 1882. The old
tower at the W end still remains with the old clock
and bells. It has a balustraded top and a spire, and in
the base is a small chamber, with door and grated
window looking to the street, which has evidently been
used as the tolbooth. Fixed to the W wall of the
1336
PITTENWEEM
steeple is the town cross, a simple pillar with the town
arms in the middle and the date 1754 on the top.
Down the slope to the S is the Cove Wynd, in which
the plain town-hall (1821-22) occupies the site of the
refectory of the priory. Farther down the lane on the
E side is the entrance to the cave or weem from which
the name of the town is said to be derived. It is a
long cave with two branches, in one of which is a small
hollow supplied with good water from crevices in the
rock, and both well and cave are associated with the
name of St Fillan. In one corner are the remains of a
spiral stair, cut in the live rock, which led to the
grounds of the priory above, where it is said to have
been connected with a secret underground passage.
The priory buildings and grounds covered a space of
from 2 to 3 acres to the E of Cove Wynd and the
church. The northern gateway was removed in 1805
to make room for the Episcopal church. The chief
entrance was on the E side, and not far off is the Great
House of the priory, and to the S what is termed the
Prior's Hall. The priory dates from about 1114, but
the buildings that remain are of much later date. The
ruins, about 30 feet in height, are composed of massive
blocks mantled with ivy. One of the later priors was
John Rowle, who was a lord of Session in 1544, and
accompanied the Regent Moray to France in 1550. In
1583 William Stewart, a captain in the King's guard,
descended from Alan Stewart of Darnley, obtained a
charter of the priory and lands of Pittenweem, and in
1606 his son, Frederick Stewart, got them erected into
a temporal lordship with the title of Baron Pitten-
weem; but he disponed the superiority to the Earl of
Kellie, and dying without issue, the title became ex-
tinct. The superiority was afterwards surrendered by
the Earl of Kellie to the Crown. The Great House
is intimately associated with David Low (1768-1855),
the well-known Episcopalian Bishop of Ross and Argyll.
Behind the eastern entrance is the ' witch corner, '
where the Pittenweem witches were buried. The town
seems to have been very much troubled with witches
at various times, and the last of them caused a great
commotion in 1705, when several poor women were,
at the instigation of a hysterical boy, imprisoned and
placed at the mercy of a guard of ' drunken fellows,
who, by pinching and pricking some of them with pins
and elsions, kept them from sleep for several days and
nights together.' Under this gentle treatment some
of them became ' so wise as acknowledge every question
that was ask'd them.' One of them, Janet Corphat,
was put in the prison under the steeple— probably the
cell that still remains — but escaped by the low window,
and got away to Leuchars. Sent back by the minister
of that parish, she was set on by a rabble, ' who fell
upon the poor creature and beat her unmercifully,
tying her so hard with a rope that she was almost
strangl'd ; they dragg'd her through the streets and
alongst the shoar by the heels ■ till they were disturbed
by one of the magistrates. Gathering again, however,
they ' streach'd a rope betwixt a ship and the shoar to a
great height, to which they ty'd her fast; after which
they swing'd her to and fro from one side to another, in
the meantime throwing stones at her from all corners
until they were weary. Then they loos'd her, and with
a mighty swing threw her upon the hard sands, all
about being ready in the meantime to receive her with
stones and staves, with which they beat her most
cruelly. . . . They laid a heavy door upon her,
with which they prest her so sore that she cried out to
let her up for Christ's sake and she would tell the truth.
But when they did let her up, what she said could not
satisfy them, and therefore they again laid on her the
door, and with a heavy weight of stones on it prest her
to death; and to be sure it was so they called a man
with a horse and a sledge, and made him drive over her
corps backward and forward several times.' These and
other particulars of similar brutal behaviour may be
read in the pamphlets published at the time in connec-
tion with the case, which excited a great deal of atten-
tion, and led to legal proceedings against the magistrates,