Tour Scotland 4K Spring travel video, with Scottish music, of Earlshall Castle and gardens on ancestry, genealogy, family history visit to Leuchars, Fife. The castle was built by Sir William Bruce, a survivor of the Battle of Flodden, in 1546. One member of the family died at the battle of Worcester in england in 1651. Another, Sir Andrew, gained himself the name “ Bloody Bruce ” by hacking off the hands and head of Covenanter Richard Cameron after defeating him at the battle of Airds Moss during the Killing Time. The castle became abandoned and ruinous, until it was restored by Sir Robert Lorimer in 1892, for R W R Mackenzie, a bleacher from Perth, Perthshire
The origin of the name, Earlshall, is lost in the mists of antiquity. Tradition has it that it takes its name from the site of a hunting lodge the Erlis Hall, owned by the ancient Earls of Fife. The Barony of Leuchars including the land on which Earlshall now stands, is first recorded as being owned by the powerful Anglo-Norman family of de Quincey, Earls of Winchester, during the reign of William the Lion, born 1165, died 1214. At the end of the 14th century, the larger Barony of Leuchars was sub-divided into three separate baronies, one of which was known as Monypenny Leuchars, after Thomas Monypenny to whom the lands were granted.
The surname of Monypenny is one of great antiquity in Scotland. Ricardus Monypenny obtained from Thomas, prior of St. Andrews, in 1211, the lands of Pitmullen or Pitmilly in fife. John Monypenny of Pitmilly was one of the Scottish barons whose name appears in the Ragman Roll as having sworn fealty to King Edward I. of England in 1296. Another, or probably the same John Monypenny, was one of the ambassadors from the pope and the French king to solicit Edward III., on behalf of the Scots, and he obtained a safe conduct to pass into Scotland, 22d January 1336. Thomas Monypenny and Christian Keith, his wife, had a charter from King Robert III. of the third part of the lordship of Leuchars in Fife, which third part was afterwards called Leuchars Monypenny. Another third part, that to which the castle was attached, was conferred on Sir Alexander Ramsay, whose only daughter married Eustachius de Monypenny, and their successor leaving only a daughter, she married Ramsay of Colluthis, and this portion of the lands, with the castle, passed to that family. Thomas Monypenny is supposed to have been the father of John Monypenny of Pitmilly and Sir William Monypenny. The latter’s son, William Monypenny, had a safe-conduct, dated December 5th, 1444, to go to England, to the coronation of King Henry IV. He acquired the lands of Congressault in France, and appears to have resided, in the latter part of his life, in that country. He had another safe conduct, 14th July 1447, in which he was styled Natif d’Escosse, escuier d’escuieres of the king of France, to negotiate the marriage of the princess Eleanor of Scotland to the dauphin. Three commissions passed the great seal of Scotland, 8th November 1458, to the same William Monypenny, baron of Retre, lord of Conquersault in France, and John Kennedy, provost of St. Andrews, to proceed on an embassy to the French king, to demand the earldom of Xantoign, which had been granted to King James I. They were also directed to form a treaty with the king of Castile, to settle the debt due by Scotland to the king of Denmark, and afterwards to pass to Rome, to testify the king’s obedience to the new pontiff Pius II. This William Monypenny was created a peer of Scotland, under the title of Lord Monypenny of Conquersall, a corruption of Congressault, by king James II., before 1464. He was ambassador from France to England, 16th February 1471. His son, Alexander, second Lord Monypenny, having no male issue, exchanged, in 1495, his barony of Earlshall, in Fife, with Sir Alexander Bruce of the Airth family, for his lands of Escariot in France, and on his death the peerage became extinct. David Monypenny of Pitmilly, an eminent lawyer, born in May 1769, eldest son of Lieutenant-colonel Alexander Monypenny of Pitmilly of the 56th foot, who died in 1800, passed advocate 2d July 1791, was appointed sheriff depute of the county of Fife, 7th February 1807, solicitor general, 22d February 1811, admitted a lord of session, 25th February 1813, when he took the title of Lord Pitmilly. He also became a lord of justiciary, and at the original constitution of the jury court in civil cases in Scotland, he was nominated one of the lords commissioners, 13th June, 1815. His lordship retired from the bench in October 1830. In 1831 he published a pamphlet on the Scottish poor laws. 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, while by the meteorological calendar, Spring starts on 1st March
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