A Fife author’s fascination with 16th century witch trials has uncovered an intriguing connection between an ancestor who was burned at the stake in St Andrews and the drowning of a local laird in a loch skating tragedy.
Leven-based author and witch historian Lenny Low was fascinated to discover that a Latin-inscribed manuscript he acquired from a source in Glasgow, detailed the handover of Kilconquhar estate to Thomas Bellenden, Lord Newtyle in the 1590s.
The handover followed the drowning at Kilconquhar of his older brother James Bellenden of Kilconquhar who drowned in the loch in 1593 aged 27 or 28.
Lenny said Thomas later sold it to his other brother Adam who was Bishop of Aberdeen.
However, Lenny, who authored The Weem Witch, now believes history has gone full circle as his ancestor Bessie Mason was arrested in Kilconquhar in 1644 and burned as a ‘witch’ in St Andrews. He’s certain that the then Baron of Kilconquhar would have had some say in the execution.
“I am a collector of witch trial related articles, tools used in the torture of the witches and the manuscripts, diaries and letters which cover the stories as they happened,” Lenny told The Courier.
“Dealers search me out when witch related material and papers come their way.
“That’s how I came to acquire this manuscript. A Glasgow source gave me an option on a bundle of manuscripts from Scotland, 1593-1650.
“I couldn’t afford the gamble on buying what could turn out to be shopping lists. But one from Kilconquhar 1593 took my interest so I obtained it with a bit haggling.”
Lenny described it as a “gorgeous wee debenture of land” – called a “sasine” in Scots – meaning a delivery of feudal land.
Apart apart from the date “1593” and “Kilconquhar”, the whole document was written in Latin – a language he doesn’t speak.
It was after he approached the School of Classics at St Andrews University to have it deciphered, however, that he realised it wasn’t just a castle debenture – it was for the whole barony.
“This debenture/sasine, is the barony passing to his younger brother,” explained Lenny.
“I can find no date to when the deeds passed to Adam the Bishop of Aberdeen but his brother Thomas Bellenden (whom the deeds mention) of Newtyle died in 1597. I would expect the deeds to have passed then.
“The father of this lot – James Bannantyne of Newtyle which was near Forfar – had 23 children! This is why it’s so hard to track these buggers!”
“According to the book Guide to the East Neuk by D. Flemming 1886, the deeds went to Adam Bishop of Aberdeen who sold it to Sir John Carstairs.”
Lenny has now handed the document over to James Lindesay-Bethune 16th Earl of Lindsay whose family once owned the castle.
The irony of handing over the deeds to a descendent of someone linked to the death of his own ancestor Bessie Mason has not been lost on him.
But Lenny added: “It gets even better. Bessie Mason was caught up in an adultery case with Alexander Beatoune – an ancestor of James Lyndsay Bethune. Alexander fled the scene, and while he was in hiding the church burnt her in St Andrews! You couldn’t make it up!”
