Tour Scotland short 4K Summer travel video clip of the Tolbooth on ancestry, genealogy, family Clan history visit and trip to West Wemyss, Fife, Britain, United Kingdom. The first municipal building in West Wemyss was a medieval tolbooth which was completed around the time that the village became a burgh of barony in 1525. After the original tolbooth became dilapidated, David Wemyss, 4th Earl of Wemyss, commissioned a new structure on the same site. The new building was designed in the Scottish medieval style, built in harled rubble and was completed in around 1700. The central bay was projected forward and formed by a 59 ft high, five stage clock tower; it featured a panel bearing the coat of arms of the Earl of Wemyss at the top of the first stage, lancet windows in the second, third and fifth stages and an opening to a pigeon loft in the fourth stage. The tower was surmounted by a pyramid shaped roof and a weather vane in the shape of a swan, recalling the crest of the Wemyss family. The principal rooms were the courtroom on the first floor and the prison cells on the ground floor, which were accessed from the pend. The courtroom was typically used by the Earl of Wemyss, as lord of the manor, for baronial court hearings. In common with many other burghs of barony, the burgh was abolished under the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892. A new clock, designed and manufactured by James Ritchie & Son of Broxburn, was installed in the tower in 1901. The surname Wemyss is derived from the Scottish Gaelic uaimh which means cave. It is believed to be taken from the caves of the Wemyss, Fife, by the Firth of Forth, where the Wemyss family made a home. Sir Michael Wemyss along with his brother, Sir David, and also Scott of Balwearie were sent to Norway to bring back the infant Queen Margaret, the Maid of Norway, in 1290. Sir Michael Wemyss swore fealty to Edward I of England in 1296 but then changed his allegiance to Robert the Bruce. In 1513 Chief Sir David de Wemyss was killed leading the Clan Wemyss at the Battle of Flodden. John Wemyss was knighted in 1618 and created a Baronet of Nova Scotia in 1625. David Wemyss, 4th Earl of Wemyss was nominated as one of the trustees for the Treaty of Union with England. In 1707 he became Vice Admiral of Scotland. During the Jacobite rising of 1745, David Wemyss, Lord Elcho, joined the Jacobite leader, Charles Edward Stuart in Edinburgh. Lord Elcho accompanied Stuart into England and was also present at the Battle of Culloden. The chiefship of the Clan Wemyss and the estates in Fife devolved upon the 5th earl's third son, James Wemyss, born 1726, died 1786, who was MP for Sutherland and married Lady Elizabeth Sutherland in 1757. James Wemyss's great grandson married Millicent, daughter of Lady Augusta Gordon, and illegitimate granddaughter of William IV of the United Kingdom. Their son, Michael Wemyss, married Lady Victoria Cavendish-Bentinck, last surviving god-daughter of Queen Victoria. Of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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