Spring Scoonie Cemetery Leven Fife Scotland

Tour Scotland 4K Spring travel video of Scoonie Cemetery on visit to Leven, Fife. Sited to the centre of a raised burying ground known as Little God's Acre, the original church of St Modwena, belonged to the priory of St Andrews and was dedicated by Bishop de Bernham in 1243, becoming Scoonie Kirk after the Reformation. By 1769 the building was declared unfit and in 1775 was converted to a burial a ground. Many 17th, 18th and 19th century headstones surrounding the Christie burial enclosure, mainly of local sandstone. Predominantly simple moulded apex style, with simple classical and obelisk 18th and 19th century monuments including; 1824 memorial to shipmaster David Thomson.

Emigration to New Zealand followed in the footsteps of the European explorers, such as Captain Cook, first came sealers, whalers, missionaries, and traders. By 1838, the British New Zealand Company had begun buying land from the Maori tribes, and selling it to settlers, and, after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, many British families set out on the arduous six month journey from Britain to Aotearoa to start a new life. Early immigrants include: John Christie, who landed in Wellington, New Zealand in 1840; Peter Christie, who landed in Wellington, New Zealand in 1841; Mr William Christie, born 1804, aged 37, British settler who travelled from Gravesend aboard the ship Lord William Bentinck and arrived in Wellington, New Zealand on 24th May 1841; Mrs. Christie, born 1814, aged 27, British settler who travelled from Gravesend with 2 children aboard the ship Lord William Bentinck and arrived arrived in Wellington, New Zealand on 24th May 1841; James Christie, aged 49, a sawyer, who arrived in Otago aboard the ship Philip Lain" in 1848.

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