Spring Road Trip Drive With Music To High Street On History Visit To Pittenweem Fife Scotland

Tour Scotland short 4K Spring travel video clip, with Scottish bagpipes music, of road trip drive to the High Street on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to the old fishing village of Pittenweem, East Neuk of Fife, Britain, United Kingdom. Pittenweem was founded as a fishing village around an early Christian religious settlement, it was granted the status of a Royal Burgh by King James V in 1541, giving it the right to self government and the right to trade with other countries in return for paying taxes to the crown. By 1587 Pittenween ranked as the twelfth richest town in Scotland. The Cook family had its foundations as burgesses in the royal burgh of Pittenweem. The family founder John was probably born in Pittenweem around 1620, the son of a Pittenweem burgess. He became a merchant burgess himself in 1648, shortly after his marriage to Christian Stevenson whose family was also part of Pittenweem’s privileged ruling elite: John was well positioned at the pinnacle of the burgh power structure by virtue of his own family connections, his status as a merchant burgess rather than a craftsman and because he had married the daughter of a merchant burgess. As John came to manhood, Pittenweem’s comfortable prosperity came to an abrupt end with the depredations of the Covenanting movement and the Civil War. The Fife burghs supported the Covenanters, and the battle of Kilsyth in August 1645, won by the Royalists under Montrose, proved particularly calamitous for Pittenweem. The burgh was ‘left destitute of men’ with no means ‘for helping the present indigencie of fourty-nine widows and ane one hundred fatherless children’ as well as an unquantified loss of single men. The burgh also suffered heavy material losses to its economic infrastructure with six ships either wrecked or being sold at considerably less than their real value because all the masters and crews were dead. John probably made his money in the relative boom years of the 1670s so that by the time of his death, aged about sixty five, in March 1685, he was comfortably off. Two of John’s sons, James and Thomas, continued their father’s occupation as merchant skippers. James, like his father, was always associated with Pittenweem, while Thomas lived and operated out of Elie, marrying a daughter of Alexander Gillespie, an Elie skipper. Thomas and his father-in-law certainly had a close working relationship. In April 1684 Alexander took salt on the James of Elie to Danzig and three years later, Thomas himself was master of the same ship. It is possible that the relationship had evolved from one of master and apprentice. James also represented Pittenweem in Parliament in 1685 and 1686 and such a public office required James to sign the controversial Test Act of 1681, confirming that he accepted that the monarch was absolute even in matters of religion. The Cook brothers were supportive of the Revolution settlement of 1689. The Act in favour of some noblemen and gentlemen in the shire of Fife’ of May 1689 recorded peacekeeping proposals involving the raising fighting men and named amongst others Captain Aitchison and Captain Cook in Pittenweem, and Thomas Cook in Elie as ‘empowered’ to raise such a force. In 1695 James’s business appeared to have undergone a major strategic shift when he may have sold his shipping interests, probably reduced his trading in goods and concentrated on acting as a moneylender. Whereas aspects of John and his merchant skipper sons James and Thomas typified East Neuk business folk of the period, Robert, the middle surviving son, presented a somewhat different figure. As far as is known, Robert was the first family member to enter the professions and whether Robert’s training as an advocate was a farsighted business move of his father’s or an expression of Robert’s personal preferences and aptitudes, will never be known. There might also have been limited room in the family business for apprentice skippers and an element of a desire for upward social mobility and business diversification. The Pittenweem witches were five Scottish women accused of witchcraft in the small fishing village of Pittenweem in Fife on the east coast of Scotland in 1704. Another two women and a man were named as accomplices. Accusations made by a teenage boy, Patrick Morton, against a local woman, Beatrix Layng, led to the death in prison of Thomas Brown, and, in January 1705, the murder of Janet Cornfoot by a lynch mob in the village. The date for astronomical spring is Sunday 20th March 2022, ending on Tuesday 21st June, while by the meteorological calendar, spring will start on Tuesday 1st March All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Spring Road Trip Drive With Music On History Visit To Wester Anstruther East Neuk Of Fife Scotland

Tour Scotland short 4K travel video clip, with Scottish bagpipes music, of a road trip drive to Wester Anstruther on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit and trip to East Neuk of Fife, Britain, United Kingdom. I was raised in Anstruther and Cellardyke. Originally founded as a fishing village, Anstruther is home to the Scottish Fisheries Museum. Its main industry is now tourism. The Fife Coastal Walking Path goes through Anstruther and Cellardyke and runs from the Forth Estuary in the south, to the Tay Estuary in the north and stretches for 117 miles. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome. When driving on Scottish roads in Scotland slow down and enjoy the trip. The date for astronomical spring is Sunday 20th March, ending on Tuesday 21st June All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Scotsman Walking Wearing Kilt In Garden of Cosmic Speculation On Spring History Visit To Scotland

Tour Scotland short 4K Spring travel video clip of a Scotsman wearing a Kilt and Sporran and walking by daffodils in the Garden of Cosmic Speculation on ancestry, genealogy, history visit and trip to Dumfries and Galloway, Britain, United Kingdom. This land art project uses modern cosmology, physics, and complexity theory as structural metaphors. Instead of prioritizing traditional flower focused layouts, the landscape relies on massive earthworks, geometric fractals, and architectural installations to depict natural phenomena. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome. The date for astronomical Spring is 20th March, ending on 21st June All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Scotsman Walking Wearing Kilt On Fuiay Island On Spring History Visit To Outer Hebrides Scotland

Tour Scotland short 4K Spring travel video clip of a Scotsman wearing a kilt and sporran and walking by the coast of Fuiay Island on ancestry, genealogy, history visit and trip to Outer Hebrides, Britain, United Kingdom. Fuiay, Gaelic: Fùidheigh, is one of ten islands in the Sound of Barra. The island had six households located along Rubh' an Aiseig, ferry headland, in the north west at some point, probably in the early 19th century. It has been uninhabited since about 1850. There is a tidal inlet here that may have been an effective fish trap. The island's name may be of Norse origin, potentially meaning " house island " or a combination of Gaelic and Norse elements. Fuiay is one of several uninhabited islands off the northeast coast of Barra and other islands in the vicinity include Orosay, Fuday and Gighay. The sea to the north west is peppered with small islets and skerries. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome. The date for astronomical Spring is 20th March, ending on 21st June All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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Scotsman Walking Wearing Kilt On Hascosay Island On Spring History Visit To Orkney Scotland

Tour Scotland short Spring 4K travel video clip of a Scotsman wearing a kilt and sporran and walking by the coast of Hascosay Island on ancestry, genealogy, history visit and trip to Orkney Islands, Britain, United Kingdom. Hascosay; Old Norse " Hafskotsey " is a small island lying between Yell and Fetlar. The population of the island was 42 in 1841, but had shrunk to thirteen within a decade. In 1871, the population numbered 4, and in 1881, the island was uninhabited. The laird, Arthur Nicolson, who had bought it had " cleared " parts of Fetlar, and it is possible that the islanders removed themselves in anticipation of a possible future forcible eviction by this landowner. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day. Find things to see and do in Scotland where you are always welcome. The date for astronomicl Spring is 20th March, ending on 21st June All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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