KYNNINMOND,
the surname of an ancient family who possessed the lands of that name
in fife. Three of its members attained the episcopal dignity. Matthew
Kynninmond, archdeacon of Lothian under the bishop of St. Andrews,
became bishop of Aberdeen in 1172. Alexander Kynninmond was bishop of
the same see in 1329, and in his time the city of Aberdeen, in 1333,
was burnt by thirty English ships, when his own palace and the houses
of the canons were entirely consumed. In 1357 another Alexander de
Kynninmond was elected bishop of Aberdeen. He laid the foundation of
the new cathedral, and in 1381 was sent by Robert II. on an embassy to
France to renew the ancient league with that country. He died at Scone
the year after his return. The family, about the middle of the 18th
century, terminated in an heiress, Grizel Kynninmond, who married Sir
William Murray of Melgund, descended from a younger son of the Murrays
of Philiphaugh (Nisbet’s Heraldry). Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto,
baronet, father of the first earl of Minto, married the heiress of
Melgund, and his family assumed the names of Murray and Kynninmond in
addition to that of Elliot.
