Masterton

Masterton

Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Masterton, Parish of Dunfermline, County of Fife

Masterton Map

From Fifae Vicecomitatus. The Sherifdome of Fyfe, by Joan Blaeu after James Gordon: Amsterdam: Blaeu 1654. Source: National Library of Scotland

Topographical Dictionary of Scotland

Samuel Lewis. Vol II. Lewis and Co. London 1846.

MASTERTOWN, a village, in the parish and district of Dunfermline, county of FIFE, 1.5 mile (N.) from Inverkeithing; containing 145 inhabitants. This village, which is but of small extent, is situated on an eminence in the south part of the parish, commanding a view of the Frith of Forth and the adjacent country; and is neatly built, on the lands of Pitreavie. An hospital was founded here in 1675, by Sir Henry Wardlaw, proprietor of the estate, who endowed it for four poor widows, who have each an allowance of six bolls of oatmeal, and 40s. in money, annually.

Note 1

(to Paton's Genealogy - 1893)

The tradition regard the name and early history of this property is referred to in the Introduction.

A charter of confirmation by Malcolm III. to the Monastery of Dunfermline (between 1153 and 1160, but undated) contains a grant of the lands of Ledmacduuegil, which afterwards came to be called Masterton. The transition from one name to another is shown by the charters printed in the Reg. de Dunfermline.

William de Masterton, whose ancestors had held these lands for at least five generations, conveyed them to the Monastery of Dunfermline in 1422, as noted in the Introduction. At a later date (1555-83) they appear to have been feued out in small portions (Reg. de Dun., p. 481). The name of William Kent appears among the feuars, and I am informed that, until a recent date, a portion remained in the possession of a family of that name.

The present proprietor of the property bearing the name of Masterton is Henry Beveridge, Esq., merchant in Dunfermline.

The Place-Names of Fife

by Simon Taylor with Gilbert Markus

MASTERTOWN [Dunfermline parish] Settlement; National Grid Ref NT121849; (accurate); OS Pathfinder Sheet 394; Elevation 70 metres; South West Facing

  Maistertun 1200 x 1225 RRS i no. 112 [=Dunf. Reg. no. 39; written above Ledmacduuegil in the phrase 'sicuti Magister Ailricus cementarius ('mason') illam tenuit'; in a hand contemporary with that of the main text (see RRS i no 112 note and Dunf. Reg. p. xix).]
 (Hugh de) villa magistri 1225 x 1235 Dunf. Reg. no. 171 [dates approximate]
 (William de) Maistertun c.1225 x 1231 Dunf. Reg. no. 174
 usque ad diusas de Maistertun 1230 x 1240 Dunf. Reg. no. 198 [as far as the marches of Mastertown]
 (William de) Maistertun 1230 x 1240 Dunf. Reg. no. 198
 (William de) Maystertun 1272 Dunf. Reg. no. 319
 (William de) Maistertun 1278 Dunf. Reg. no. 86
 (William de) Meistreton 1296 Inst. Pub.
 (Duncan de) Maystertona 1316 Dunf. Reg. no. 348
 (John Dauisone de) Mastirtone 1491 Dunf. Recs. {27}
 Masterton 1535 Dunf. Reg. Court Bk. 125 [Patrick Robertson and Robert Kent in Masterton]
 Maistertoun 1563 RMS iv no. 1476
 Maistertoun 1626 Retours (Fife) no. 382
 Maisterton 1642 Gordon MS Fife
 Mastertoun 1654 Blaeu (Pont) West Fife
 Maistertoun 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
 Mastertown 1753 Roy sheet 17,5
 Mastertown 1775 Ainslie/Fife

Scots maister 'master' + Scots toun.

'The estate of the master'. The eponymous master is Master Ailric the mason, fl. before 1153, presumably one of those in charge of building work at Dunfermline Abbey. As is clear from RRS i no. 112, it was called Ledmacduuegil or Ledmacdunegil before it acquired the name by which we know it today, and it serves as a reminder that names containing the generic toun do not necessarily mean new settlement on land previously unoccupied or unfarmed. It was given to Dunfermline Abbey by King Malcolm IV on the day of David I's funeral (24 May 1153) (RRS i no. 118).

It was known as Maistertun already in the first half of the thirteenth century, as this is written above Ledmacduuegil in RRS 1 no. 112 in a hand of that period (see RRS i no. 112 note and Dunf. Reg. p. xix). Furthermore, in the early thirteenth century William of Maistertun witnesses Dunf. Reg. nos. 174 and 198.

Sources:
RRS i Regesta Regum Scottorum vol. i (Acts of Malcolm IV) ed. G.W.S. Barrow, Edinburgh 1960.
Dunf. Reg. Registrum de Dunfermelyn, Bannatyne Club 1842.
Inst. Pub. Instrumenta Publica sive Processus super Fidelitatibus et Homagiis Scotorum Domino Regi Angliae Factis 1291-96, Bannatyne Club 1834 [Ragman Roll].
Dunf. Recs. The Burgh Records of Dunfermline, ed. E. Beveridge (Edinburgh 1917).
Dunf. Reg. Court Bk. Regality of Dunfermline Court Book 1531-1538, ed J.M. Webster and A.A.M. Duncan 1953.
RMS Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scottorum ed. J.M. Thomson & others, Edinburgh 1882-1914.
Retours Inquisitionum ad Capellam Domini Regis Retornatarum, quae in publicis archivis Scotiae adhuc servantur, Abbreviatio, ed. T. Thomson (3 vols., 1811-16) vol. 1 Fife and Kinross.
Gordon MS Fife Fyfe Shire MDCXLII - Fife Provincia Noviter Delineata, James Gordon, 1642, NLS (National Library of Scotland). Adv.MS.70.2.10.
Blaeu (Pont) West Fife 'Fifae Pars Occidentalis, The West Part of Fife', Timothy Pont's map of West Fife compiled in the 1590's with minor additions made by Robert or James Gordon, printed in Blaeu 1654.
Blaeu (Gordon) Fife 'Fifae Vicecomitatus, The Sherifdome of Fyfe', James Gordon's map of Fife, completed in 1645, and printed in Blaeu 1654.
Roy 1753 The Military Survey of Scotland, supervised by General William Roy, the 'fair copy', BM. Ref. K. Top XLVIII 25-1b, c; photocopies available in National Library of Scotland (NLS)Edinburgh University, Royal Scottish Geographical Society.
Ainslie/Fife Map of the Counties of Fife and Kinross compiled and engraved by John Ainslie 1775.

The Lands of Dunfermline

by J M Webster - typescript notes in Dunfermline Public Library

THE LANDS OF MASTERTON

There is this to be said for taking the lands of Masterton first that their story reaches further back than that of any of the others - back beyond the time when charters came into use in Scotland, - back to the time when the Saxon Royal Family of England landed at St. Margaret's Hope, in the immediate neighbourhood of what is now Rosyth Naval Base. The course their flight had taken is variously accounted for. One version is that they wished to return to the Hungarian Court, from which they had come to England; but, under pressure of heavy weather, had been driven into the Firth of Forth. Another, quite as plausible, is that Malcolm Canmore, then King of Scots, had, as a young man, fled to the Saxon Court of England on the death of his father Duncan, who had been defeated by Macbeth. He had, in fact, been resident there a considerable time; and, when Edgar and his mother and two sisters were faced with the necessity for flight, it was not unnatural that they should think of him.

Not quite sure of their reception, it was in accordance with the spirit of the times that they should keep a look-out for favourable omens; and when, as they were approaching the land, five sea-birds were observed over-head in the form of a cross; and when, later, on the sails being lowered, the birds landed on the rigging in the same formation, their hearts were much uplifted and they set out on foot with increased hope for Malcolm's Tower at Dunfermline.

The five birds, it is worth noting, were afterwards embodied in the Coat of Arms attributed to Edward the Confessor and St. Margaret - originally sea-birds, then doves, afterwards that heraldic monstrosity - martlets - birds without legs.

Wearied, as they no doubt were, after a long voyage in so small a vessel, the ladies rested for a time on a great stone afterwards known as St. Margaret's Stone - a short distance from the entrance to Pitreavie Castle, on the west side of what is now the road from Rosyth to Dunfermline.

Afterwards, as land came into cultivation, a farm in the immediate neighbourhood was given this same name and, like Masterton, was one of those eventually incorporated in the barony.

Soon after the arrival at the Tower - one of the oldest royal residences in Scotland that can be confidently identified - Malcolm married Margaret, their elder daughter, in a little Celtic Church whose foundations, with its belfry and holy well, can still be seen under the floor of the Nave of Dunfermline Abbey.

Both in Hungary and in England Margaret had been accustomed to the Roman rites and, not taking kindly to the rites observed in the Celtic Church, she prevailed upon her husband to have another church built in the immediate neighbourhood where the service would be such as she had hitherto been accustomed to.

The difficulty was to find an architect, or master-mason, capable of building such a church. There were dry-stone buildings in Scotland before this date; but few, if any, of stone and mortar. The little Celtic Church in which they were married - the date of it can only be a matter of conjecture - had stone foundations, but is unlikely to have been built of stone and mortar.

Faced with this difficulty, their thoughts turned either to other Saxon refugees like themselves who had sought refuge in Scotland, particularly in the Lothians; or to the possibility of inducing a mason to come north from England.

In any case, the difficulty was overcome; the desired church was built; and in the monastic chartulary we find reference to a man, Aelric (Aelricus) by name, presumably a Saxon, described as a master-mason (Magister-cementarius), in possession of the lands of Ledmacduuegil - the spelling varies - in the neighbourhood of Dunfermline; an entry which leaves little room for doubt that these are the lands now known as Masterton (Maistertoun).

The whole question is dealt with at considerable length in Dunfermline Abbey (pp. 215-8) in the light of an old tradition that these lands were given to a master-mason in recognition of work done at the monastery.

The conclusion there reached is confirmed by a letter to the writer of these notes by Mr. John Harvey, author of Gothic England and recognised as the outstanding authority on early ecclesiastical architecture, as follows:-
"You are certainly right in suggesting that "Magister-cementarius" is equivalent to "Master-mason" and that such a master was the nearest equivalent to an architect. I have looked up your references in the Dunfermline "Registrum" (chartulary) and I have not the slightest doubt that Aelricus was the "architect" of the church of Dunfermline in the time of Malcolm Canmore."
The change of name from Ledmacduuegil to Maistertoun was doubtless due to the fact that, in time, people got to know and speak of the place as that where the master-mason lived.

Later, Aelric's successors adopted the name of their lands as their surname, becoming known as Mastertons of that Ilk.
"In 1422 William of Masterton, Laird of Dalis (Dales), quite possibly a descendant of the mason, resigned all his lands into the hands of William, Abbot of Dunfermline, and dedicates to God and bestows on the monks of the Holy Trinity there, all the said lands for the salvation of his own soul and the souls of his predecessors and successors. The church already possessing the superiority, the rights of superior and owner once again merged in the same hands - not now the king's, but those of the Church."
(Dunfermline Abbey, pp. 217/8).

Still later, the lands were divided into eighths - in consideration, one would like to think, of prospective owners who could not afford a larger holding.

Following the Reformation (1560), the superiority of the lands "in terms of a decree before the lords of council" fell into the hands of John Pitcairn of that Ilk, a brother of the Commendator.

Later, they formed part of the "temporal lordship" of the Regality of Dunfermline - the wedding-gift of James VI to Princess Anne of Denmark.

Dunfermline Regality Register of Decreets 1582-1595

24 March 1592

Division of lands between the portioners of Masterton

And both the said parties dwelling on both sides of the lone to have privilege to shull to gather fulzie from the myd of the lone only, and according to the roods designed to each man.

Dunfermline Regality Register of Decreets 1582-1595

31 March 1592

The portioners of Masterton compeared re the division:

Robert Lunn freely exchanged the 9 roods lying in the hill pertaining to William Kent and heapetoin to the said William therefore 9 roods of land lying on the north end of the said Robert's rigs, lying on the west side of the wynd, ane gait to lie between the mane yard and the said 9 roods of ten foot breadth. And if the said Robert tak his own daill rudin yairdin for his own commodity that not to be counted in tosteine but esteemed to be steid land. Also all the tenants and feuars obliged themselves to hold the whole lone of the said onn free containing 8 ells broad and that they nor none of them shall have privilege to make or lay ane middens steid on within the bounds and property of the said lone but to lie free all guds each man for net his own head room to have privilege to lay xxx to the middle of the lone and to gidder and shull the same to his own behoof.

The community of Masterton probably reached its greatest extent in the mid-19th Century. The 6-inch Ordnance Survey shows a sizeable group of buildings, including Pitreavie's Hospital.