Grassmiston
Grassmiston CRA S NO602097 1 364 55m SEF
terras de Gresmanston 1325 RRS v no. 268 [to William of Cambo KBS i.a. ‘a hundred merklands and ten shilling-lands of Grassmiston and Kirklands by Crail’ (terras de Gresmanston et terram que dicitur Kircland iuxta Carale in extentum centum marcatarum et decem solidatarum terre); appears also as RMS i app. 2 no. 496A, B, but seriously garbled e.g. Campbell for Cambo and Glensmanstoun for Grassmiston]
(lands of) Grenanstoun 1306 x 1329 RMS i app. 2 no. 636 A [16th c. index; to Thomas of Cambo (Combew)]
(lands of) Grosmanstoun 1306 x 1329 RMS i app. 2 no. 636 B [17th c. index; to Thomas of Cambo (Cambow) the lands of Grassmiston ‘in the tenement of Crail’ (in tenemento de Craill)]
(lands of) Girsmerstoun 1489 NLS Adv. 35.4.12 fo 76v [for Girsmenstoun; David Morton (Myretoun) of Cambo (Cambo) is served heir to his father John Morton in the lands of Grassmiston and Kirklands of Cambo (Cambow)]
Girmerstoun 1623 Retours (Fife) no. 335 [Thomas Morton of Cambo, lands of Grassmiston and *Auld Leas (Auldleyis) CRA in barony of Cambo (Cammo)]
Grismeston 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Girmistane 1653 RMS x no. 105 [to James Wood baillie of St Andrews ‘the lands of Cambo, Cambo-Milnes, Belsches (Belsie KBS) and the mill lands thereof, Murehouse (Muirhouse KBS) and Girmistane’]
Girsmestoun 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Gerfunstoune 1657 Retours (Fife) no. 871 [for Gersmistoune; editorial misreading of long s as f and mi as un]
Girsemestoune 1668 Retours (Fife) no. 1048 [William Wood, in barony of Cambo]
Girsmistoun 1686 Retours (Fife) no. 1274 [Lord Alexander Erskine (Arskine)]
Gersmerstoune 1698 Retours (Fife) no. 1402 [Robert Morton (Myrtoune)]
Grassmiston 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Sc gresman + Sc toun
‘Gresman’s (grassman) toun or gresmen’s toun’. Gresmen appear in Scotland first in the reign of David I in a charter anent the soke or shire of Stirling (1147 × 1150), which lists hirdmen (hurdmanni), bonders (bondi) and gresmen (gresmanni) as the tenants of this royal demesne land (Dunf. Reg. no. 4; see also Barrow 2003, 31–2). In 1294 fourteen cottars and nine gresmen are listed in Auchtermuchty, and five cottars and one gresman in Strathmiglo, all tenants of the earl of Fife (Stevenson, Documents i, 416). Another place-name which contains the same elements is Grassmainston by Clackmannan CLA (Barrow 2003, 33; 1981, 18).
Found as far south as Lincolnshire, a gresman was of lower status than a bonder, and was in origin a landless man, perhaps a young man migrating from one settlement to another, who was offered pasture on which he could raise stock (the name meant literally ‘grass man’ or ‘grazing man’), and which in some cases he could pioneer by breaking out new arable from waste (‘assarting’) (Barrow 1981, 9).[107]
/ˈgrasmɪstən/, locally /ˈgrɛsɪ/[108]
This place-name appeared in printed volume 3