New Spalding Club > Thanage of Fermartyn including the district commonly called Formartine

Preface. ix
of David and his immediate successors, we find in Aberdeenshire the names of
the ancient Earldoms of Mar, Buchan, and the Garioch, which were then fully
established.
The Thanage of Fermartyn extended from the Thanage of Conveth, which
was co-extensive with the parish of Inverkeithney, to the eastern seaboard
between the Ythan and the Don. The principal seat of the Thanage was
Fyvie Castle, which, with the parish church, the lands of Gight and Monkshill,
&c., being on the north bank of the Ythan, are now included in the district of
Buchan. The Thanage of Fermartyn, like other Thanages, consisted of
Thanage and Forest, and among the missing charters of Robert I. was one to
Sir John Brown of the Thanage of Fermartyn, and another to Patrick de
Monteith of the forestership of Kilanell and Fermartyn, showing that the
Forest was a royal one. Afterwards in Sir Henry Preston's time, when the
Norman system of tenure was pretty fully introduced, Fyvie or Fermartyn is
found as a barony.
The district of Formartine was formed after the war of independence ; but
there is no date of its formation, and no note of its boundaries. It includes
the larger portion of the Thanage of Fermartyn, the smaller Thanage of
Belhelvie co-extensive with the parish of that name, the northern portion,
including Kinkell church of the great and important Thanage of Kintore. It
includes also the ancient regality of Frendraught, commonly called " the
Kingdom of Forgue," and the baronies of Lessendrum and Drumblade.
According to an old writer in the " View of the Diocese," the district of
Formartine is about thirty miles round. Its parishes may be divided into such
outer ones as lie on the border, and such inner ones as lie in the middle of the
district. The outer parishes are part of Oldmachar, Newmachar, Fintray, part
of Kinkell (this being part of the Thanage of Kintore) with its church, part of
Monkeggie, part of Bourtie, part of Bethelnie, part of Fyvie, part of Auchter-
less, the parishes of Forgue and Drumblade. Here Formartine ends as it were
in a point, so that in going round it, we must turn back through the four last-
named parishes, till descending along the Ythan we find part of Methlick with
its church, part of Ellon, part of Tarves with its church, Logie-Buchan with its
present church ; also Foveran, which has between it and Oldmachar the parish
of Belhelvie. There is only one inner parish, that of Udny.
Another writer, Sir Samuel Forbes of Foveran, thus describes Formartine :
— " But whatever land lies between the rivers Ythan and the Don, one hears
called by the name of Formartine among the inhabitants,' who disdain to con-
sider themselves as belonging to Buchan.' There is no town in Formartine,
for Aberdeen being in the neighbourhood intercepts all traffic. But if the