King’s Mills
King’s Mills KWY S NO347015 1 373 40m SEF
Kingis Mylne 1619 Retours (Fife) no. 293 [ ... lands of Balbreikie (Balbrekie) KWY with the mill of ‘Balbrekie alias Kingis Mylne’ in the parish of Kennoway]
James Wilson of Kings Mill 1652 Stevenson 1900, 382
Kingsmill 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Kingsmylne 1667 Retours (Fife) no. 1007 [Euphemia Simpson (Symsone) ‘in the mill of Balbreikie otherwise called King’s Mill’ (in molendino de Balbreikie alias vocato Kingsmylne)]
Kingsmilne 1682 Retours (Fife) no. 1208
Kingsmylne 1682 Retours (Fife) no. 1208 [in the mill of Balbreikie otherwise called King’s Mill (in molendino de Balbreikie aliter nuncupato Kingsmylne)]
? Burns mill 1753 Roy sheet 18, 1 [at or near site of OS Pathf. King’s Mills]
Kingsmill Burns 1828 SGF [also Kingsdale at site of OS Pathf. King’s Mills]
Kingsmill 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Kings Mills 1888 x 1914 OS 6 inch County Series, 1st revision
Sc king + Sc miln
Part of the royal demesne lands of Balbreikie KWY q.v., and formerly known as ‘the mill of Balbrekie’ as indicated by the 1619 entry above. Given that Roy (1753) has Burns mill, shown at about the site of OS Pathf. Kennoway Burns, shown on Ainslie/Fife (1775) as Burn, these are all likely to be the same place.
In a charter dated 1593 the king confirmed the grant made by Robert Beaton (Betoun), feuar of Balfour MAI, to David Young in Largo and to his wife Margaret Addison (Ediesoun) of lands in KWY, requiring that David should be ‘astricted and oblest to cum with haill coirnes that growis on our landis of Kennoquhy to our mylne of Balfour, or to our mylne of Kennoquhy gif ony sal be biggit, and grynd thair corne at ony of our saidis mylnes in all tymes cuming’ (RMS v no. 2339). The phrase ‘if any shall be built’ (gif ony sal be biggit) suggests that a king’s mill at Kennoway was not yet in existence. But we know from the 1619 Retours entry given above that Kingsmill was formerly known as ‘the mill of Balbreikie (Balbrekie)’, and that it existed as early as 1528 (molendinum de Balbreky RMS iii no. 589). It is possible that in 1593 James VI was contemplating building a second mill at Kennoway, in addition to the mill of Balbreikie. Another possible explanation is that the Balbreikie mill had collapsed or been damaged, and was no longer working in 1593, and the king was then contemplating its future restoration.
The name appears in the singular, with milne, mill etc. until the 1st revision of the OS 6 inch map (1888 × 1914), when it first appears in plural form.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 2