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From 1592 to 1611 the
Councillors were very busy framing' a complete set of ordinances for the
management of the burgh. In fixing the prices and manner of sale of goods
the following articles appear:—“ Kaikes, aitmeall, bred, buttare, cheise,
fleshes, beif, muttony, swyne, fyslie, caiulill, aill, and luglis heir.”
About this time there is no notice of milk, eggs, or whisky; nor until later
do I observe coal. What passed down “Thrapple-tou’s Wynd” was a prime
consideration. The weight, quality, and price of “bred, maill," "fleshes”
received searching attention from the visitors to the “maill and fleslie
mercats.” “Fre-men baxtcrs” must sell “thair bred and maill” only “at ye
Mercat Cross Munday, Wedinsday, and Saturday,’’ though they might sell these
in their booths on other days. “Unfriemen” bakers —from outside or who were
not members of the Bakers’ Guild—bad always to sell at “ye croce,” and were
not allowed to go from door to door with their “ advantage bred.” “ That no
persone nor persones pretend nor tak upone hand to sell any advantage bred,
hot onlie sixpennie bred, twelff pennic bred, twa shilling bred, thrie
shilling bred, fjur shilling bred.” Elesliers had to break “thair fleshes
after nyne hours in ye day, on Mereat days,” and in presence of “ye comon
breker of flesche,” and not in “thair buiths or houses on Mercate days but
in ye Mercate.”
As showing the attention paid
to the rearing of animals intended for consumption in 1(509, “ Swyne neither
young nor olde” were allowed to walk about “ye streets,” and at one time on
a visit of the plague all were destroyed and their keeping tabooed. Butter
was a luxury in 1609: “Ordainis yat no buttare sal be sauld any derar within
yis burgh heirefter nor four shillings ye pund, and guid and sufficient
saltand, under ye paine of fortie shillings of' unlaw, Toties quoties.”
The authorities not only
prevented unauthorised persons coining into the town to sell, but the lieges
were forbidden to take wares of their own manufacture, or imported, out of'
the town to sell until the inhabitants or the Council were supplied at a
reasonable rate. A good example is given at a late date, 1728, when James
"Welsh was hauled up for carrying his “fyshe” out of tlie town without
offering them for sale there, he defended himself' by saying he could not
get a sufficient price in the town. The Council held this was not true, and
“ordained that the town’s fyshers in tyme coming bring thair haill f'yshes
to the full sea opposite the town’s dial, and there expose them to publick
sale till the town be served at reasonable prices,” and afterwards the
fishers “may carry tlrair fyshe wherever they please.” But it was sometimes
the other way about. In 1728 a whale had been driven ashore on the rands.
The Marquis of Tweeddale, possessing the rights of the Abbey, sent demanding
it. The Council, delighted with tlie providential flotsam, had already sold
it for “twentie nyne punds,” and in reply took to boiling down the
importance of the Cetacean, sarcastically terming it “a small fyshe called a
bottlenose”—a mere sprat, which ought to have been beneath the notice of a
Marquis! His Lordship, however, had the whale arrested in the hands of the
purchaser. The law’s delays were impossible in such a case; the “small fyshe”
jotting more offensive every hour, the Council had to hand over the shekels,
after again commenting very freely on the meagreness of the “fvshe’s”
proportions.
Speed says that at one time
there were over GO brewers, and that much of their produce was exported. I
find that in 1002, 31 brewers were fined for selling’ “dear aile." Their
malt and brew houses were in the gardens along the north side of the High
Street. In 1010 a committee of four was appointed to visit the markets,
including flit' “cunsterie of ye a ill. ” This committee tasted the ale—we
have never been hard up for men who at the call of duty would face any
risk—and examined the materials and method of its manufacture. In 16-Vi it
was “ordained that all aill must not be sold dearer than two shillings ye
pynt.” In 1GG5 the King was petitioned to gift the town a merk on the boll
of malt, and an agitation began to try to obtain for the town’s benefit “two
pennies on ye pynt of aill.” These efforts were revived with great energy
after the town's bankruptcy in 1700 and the union of 1708—after which all
the burghs on the Fife coast were in a languishing condition —and came to a
head in 1720. In that year, in language fitted to melt the heart of a stone,
the Council sends a long petition to Parliament, setting forth the national
services rendered by the town’s sheltering roads, the depth of water in “ye
har-horie,” its suitableness for victualling, cleaning, and “carooning his
Majestie’s ships,” it being environed on the East, West, and North pairts
with the finest and largest parks and enclosures (fences or walls were
unknown in Scotland before 1681.. “ This Burgh is also endued And adorned
with a church of the finest and handsomest fabrick of any of its bounds and
extent for North Britain. Which fabrick and the said useful And valuable
harbour with the toune lious? or Prison house That have always been in use
to be supported Upholden and Repaired out of the comon Revenue is now fallen
under a great decay and amounts to so small a matter As it altogether with
the monthly voluntar contributions of the Burgors” does not prevent it from
being “ sunk in debt And the very brink of Ruin” . . . ob-loiged to apply to
its creditors for a supercedere for several years before any Magistrate or
Council would accept office. Tlie petitioners finish up by asking leave to
impose “ two pennies Scots per pynt on all bear and aill brewed or sold in
the Burgh.” This petition was granted. From 1723 annually the tax was sold
to the highest bidder, in tlie presence of one or more of the Commissioners
for West Fife. One of these seemed to be very popular—John Moubray of
Cockairney—as in 1727 the Council “ordaiues a dinner to be provided for
Cockairnie,” the treasurer to pay the same, and Bailie Angus and the Clerk’s
charges for waiting upon him (at Cockairney to invite him). This twopence
011 the pint did not suit tlie brewers, who in 1726 petitioned the Council
to abate 4s on each barrel of “aill or bear brewed,” or they would be
ruined.
The chief of the remaining
“Statutes” of l696 were “ye harbourie,” middings, setting of houses,
injurious words, bauglie straikes, streking with bathons, drawing of wapous,
galloping horses. Two years earlier it was enacted that the “ red be part it
to ye lynks at ye eist end.” Later there was a Availed enclosure near the
centre used for this purpose. Each householder removed liis own rubbish. In
spite of severe penalties the midden system continued till 1833. In 1781
there was a petition from the inhabitants, who complained that “ when trying
to get home at night in ye dark they either tumble into ye muck middings and
dung hills, or break their heads on ye carts in ye High Street." The Council
thereupon gave notice by “tuck of drum” to liave the same removed within 8
days “so as to allow the water to run alongside the street.” In 1611 no one
was to “set a house to incomers” without acquainting the , “ Provost,
Baillies, and Counsall in wreit,” and no one was to give house room to any “
strong and ydle heggaris.” This supervision of incomers arose from the fear
of plague mainly, of which there were many visits during the 17th century
and later. In 1711 a night guard of 12 men were on duty at the harbour from
8 p.m. to 4 a.m. to prevent ships or boats from lauding, and there was a
barricade at the head of the West Bulwark. In 1659:—“This Burgh being a
place of comon passage for strangers, among them many idle vagabonds and
other wicked persons, ordains that the inhabitants of Burntisjand allow none
such to lodge in yr houses without intimating their names to the magistrate
under “ye paiue of f'yve pounds for ye first, doubling for ye seconde, and
sumarlie banished for ye third.” This threat of banishment was no idle one.
It was often put in force, whole families being put outside the town.
In 1657 Janet -— having
raised a scandal about “Captain George-his wyif,” which was enquired into by
the Kirk’ Session, “ordained the sd Janet to be whipped throu ye town and
banished . . . and if ever she be fund in that toun againe She shall be
burnt in ye theik.” Every burgess had the right to carry a sword, anil “the
drawing* of wapons” was a frequent cause of injury and even death. In 1611
William Balnerage, wriglit, and John Black, skynnar, were tried by “ane
assysis of 15 for drawing* of qulin-yarie upone ye comon streitis ... in hie
contempt of our statutes.” - They were fined “ilk ane of yame f'ortie
shillings and ordains ilk ane of jame to crave forgiffiness to ye toun upone
yair kneis and not to do ye lyk liierefter under ye paine of ane hundredth
lbs, and to remain in warde for twentie four houres.” As early as .1598 a
certain Councillor at the Council meeting* became very abusive, “drew his
whanger, threw down his glove and challenged any of them to single combat.”
Xobody took up the glove, so he departed triumphant, “ betook himself to his
hous, and harangued them from his windock.” He was fined only ten merles. In
another case, given by Speed, John Brown (1602) and his son were hanged at
Leith for causing the death of three Spanish merchantmen. The heads were
brought over and stuck on poles on the Island. In 1666 William Moncrief,
Talyeor in the Burgh, was murthered by William Groome of Dunbar, having* “
stricken him in ye bodie with a wliinyer.” He was tried at Edinburgh, the
Council hoping “ he would suffer here.” In 1660 Alexander Boswell, skipper,
was murdered by a trooper of Captain Fenner’s Company. He was surrendered to
Captain Fenner.
There is no means of knowing;
what were the piers built by James V. just previous to its erection into a
Royal Burgh in 1540. But I find tlie Gray Sunday, West Bulwark, and Earne
Craig-existed in 1600. The Graysunday was a half tide pier used by the ferry
boats, and in 1804 the back wall of it, as it were, was the North face of
the East Head. Its peculiar name, sometimes in the more misleading form of
Grey Sunday, lias often attracted attention without its derivation being
guessed. Farnie got in a temper over it, and thought it insoluble. Here is
my translation —Grace a Dieu—God be thanked—so appropriate and like the
spirit previous to the Reformation. The East Head was necessary to the
existence of the Greysunday. Both it and the West Head are mentioned in the
report of the Military Commission in 1627 who advised forts to be built at
each side of the entrance to the harbour. The exact position of one of these
on the East Head is known. The West Bulwark was what is now called
Cromwell’s Pier. The Earne Craig ran south into the harbour from east of the
Castle. Burntisland and Ivinghorn had one Customs officer between them till
1598, when (Privy Council Records) “ Scliir. George Home Wedderburn,
comptroller to our sovereign Lord, constitute Maister William Syme coquett
clerk of Brintiland, and delivered him the half of the coquette sele to he
used by him as clerk. Vigesimo Julie 1598.” There was a Bailie William Syme
at that time. Laing in his “ Aucieut Scottish Seals ” gives a list of 7
“eokete” seals only. Was Syme’s ‘k cocquett sele” that mentioned by Speed as
showing an image of James V. in armour? In “Cardonnel’s Scottish Coinage” 8
coins of James V. are mentioned as showing him in mail.
According to Speed, nine
vessels belonged to Burntisland in 1640—two of 115 tons each, two of 1G0
tons each, and the remainder 120, 105, 85, 80, and 50 tons respectively, as
well as coasting vessels, crears, and ferry boats decked and open. He gives
the principal imports about 1G80 as wood from Norway, flax from Flanders,
French wine, malt and grain from England, beef, hides, and grain from the
Highlands. Most of the goods from the Highlands was for Dunfermline, Cupar,
and Dundee. 1 have heard that live stock were landed at Burntisland and
driven overland as far as Dundee, or transhipped to Leith by means of the
fleet of luggage boats, termed “ big boats.” No doubt there would be cases
like this, as there was an important luggage service from the first. The
carriage of cattle by this service entered 011 a new phase 011 the advent of
the Messrs Young’s cattle rearing industry in 1840, when from 700 to 800
cattle, besides sheep, were disposed of annually, value about ill0,000. The
boats at this time were from 50 to GO feet long, about 18 feet wide, and
very fast. One may be seen in “ Swan’s Views of Fife,” Vol. 2, page 281. The
boats were decked, and the cattle walked down an inclined plane into th?
hold.
In 1555 “ Bruntlieland ”
exported hides, herring-, and cod. About 1680, cortl, ale, and table linen
were the chief exports. Defoe on his visit about 1710 writes thus:—“Linen
was made in Burntisland and all the coast towns of Fife, and was much liked
in England.” Speed says the coal as late as 1680 was brought from Fordell in
paniers, on horseback, by the beach, and was shipped chiefly to Holland. It
was not till well through the 18th century that there were any further
attempts to add to local industries. In 1776 Thomas Parker made additions to
“ his Sugar House,” and later the Vitriol "Works were founded. In the first
half of last century the herring fishing and curing assumed vast
proportions, at one time some 30,000 barrels being exported annually. I
think the harbour approach to the curing houses may have received its
curious name of “Spice rue” during this period. Somerville Street bad a
manifest odour, and a great many French craft were engaged in the export,
bringing fruit in exchange. The French epice was humorously correct.
Small customs were levied on
the following articles in 1670:—Lint, wool, cloth, merchant goods, iron,
cuil (coal), salt, timber, malt, draft', beef, sheep, cow, hors, swyue,
fishe, meal, butter, cheise, bred. In 1685 the anchorage was rouped for
£175; Boatsilver, £146; Small Customs, £174; Coals, £50; the Comon lands,
314 merks Scots; booths under the Tolbooth, eight in number, from £3 10s to
£10 eacli = £34 10s. At the same period the “cess” on proprietors and
traders amounted annually to from £800 scots to £1200 scots. For strictly
local purposes “ the haill inhabitants ” were always being applied to in
addition to their liability to serve in defence of the town, for special
night and day committees, as well as ordinary watching and warding, and to
assist in cleansing the harbour or paving the streets, at both of which
women helped.
Anchorage ranged from 2s for
tlie smallest boat to £6 5s for ships of “300 tunes” as long as these were
Scottish. “Foraigne” ships, in which were included English as late as 1685,
were charged •double. (Free trade had been introduced by Cromwell, but it
disappeared with him. All attempt was made to reintroduce it about 1688,
which was strongly resisted by Burntisland.) For .shipping coal 3s per load
was charged, and about the same time (1680) for the purpose of relaying tlie
“calsie from the foot of the North Wyinl to the Sea Milne dams, the duty was
raised to the townsfolk to £2 scots per load. |
