The history of The Lordship and Barony of Pittenweem

Tracing its history back to the 12th century, the Lordship and Barony of Pittenweem has been held by some of Scotland’s most prominent families and individuals.

In 1143 monks from Reading in Berkshire under the leadership of Prior Achard founded a priory on the Isle of May to tend the shrine of St Adrian who is believed to have been killed on the Isle of May by Vikings in 875 AD. The priory was given the lands of Pittenweem and St Monans by King David I. In the fourteen century the priory came under the jurisdiction of the Augustinian monks at St Andrews and was moved to Pittenweem.

The Priors had many of the rights and obligations of the later barons and so, in a way the Barony can be traced back to the 12th century. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century ended the rule of the priors. Their lands were forfeited to the Crown and the king granted these to laymen called Commendators.

The first Baron of Pittenweem was Sir John Roule, who had been the prior at the Monastery of Pittenweem for a number of years. When the first Baron died in 1560, the priory was secularised and granted to James Haliburton. In 1588 King James VI granted the land to Sir William Stewart as his personal possession. In 1605 the Barony was also erected into a Lordship in favour of Sir William's son Frederick Stewart, who took the title Lord Pittenweem.

The 1st Lord Pittenweem died without heirs in 1624. Before his death he conveyed the Lordship and Barony to Thomas Erskine, Viscount Fenton, who later became the 1st Earl of Kellie. The Barony remained with the Earls of Kellie until the middle of the 18th century, and the title "Lord Baron of Pittenweem" was used as a courtesy title for the eldest son, who also resided at the Prior’s Hall in Pittenweem.

The 6th Earl of Kellie, 6th Lord Baron of Pittenweem, sold most of his Kellie estates, including the Lordship and Barony of Pittenweem, to the Anstruthers of Anstruther and Elie in 1769. The Anstruthers took possession both of the title and the Prior's Hall.

In 1853 the industrialist William Baird became the 13th Baron of Pittenweem when he purchased the priory and the adjacent land from Sir Windham Carmichael-Anstruther, 7th Baronet, 12th Baron of Pittenweem. His son, John Baird, acting as Trustee to his deceased father, obtained a Crown charter of confirmation of the Barony of Pittenweem in 1869. The Barony remained with the Baird family until 1978 when Lavinia Enid Muriel Baird, 16th Baroness of Pittenweem, sold the Lordship and Barony to the lawyer and Writer to the Signet, William Ronald Crawford Miller. In 2015 the Barony passed to the current Baron of Pittenweem, Claes Zangenberg.

Ratifyis and apprevis inlikwise the charter, donacioune and erectioune of the landis and toune of Pettinweme unyt and create in ane Barony and burgh in Barony in all punctis and artikulis efter the forme and tenour of the said infeftment maid to Jhone, prioure of Pettinweme, tharupoune. [King James V, 1526]