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DARSIE,
a surname derived from the lands of that name, in Fifeshire, now
comprehended in the parish of Dairsie. these lands were anciently held by
the Dairseys of that ilk, under the bishops of St. Andrews, the hereditary
offices of bailie and admiral of the regality of St. Andrews being also
possessed by them. The family ended in an heiress, Janet de Dairsey, who,
marrying a younger son of Learmonth of Ercildoune, Berwickshire (see
LEARMONTH), brought to him the lands of Dairsie and the heritable offices
attached to them. They continued in the possession of his descendants,
until the whole were purchased from them, during the reign of James VI.,
by the then Lord Lindsay of the Byres. The lands afterwards belonged to
the Spottiswoodes. In the old castle of Dairsie a parliament was held in
the reign of David II. About 1590 the name of Darsie is found to occupy a
prominent place in the records of the two neighbouring parishes of Easter
and Wester Anstruther. In the Commissariat records of the diocese of St.
Andrews the Darsies of Anstruther are mentioned in 1594, 1626, &c; and in
an old folio volume of Retours the name of Darsie has been noticed in
connexion with property in Anstruther. In some of the old Records, the
name is spelled Darsie and not Dairsie. James Melville in his Diary, and
Sir Walter Scott in Red-gauntlet, adopt the same spelling. Arms of the
Darsies, Az. on a bend argent three roses gules. Crest, a rose slipped
gules. Motto, Spero. |
