Troustrie

Troustrie CRA S NO592076 1 374 50m SOF

Trostory 1235 NLS MS Acc. 8487
fon<s> de Trostory 1235 NLS MS Acc. 8487 [‘well or spring of Troustrie’]
sicketum de Trostory 1235 NLS MS Acc. 8487 [‘small burn of Troustrie’]
inter duas Trostoryis 1235 NLS MS Acc. 8487 [‘between the two Troustries’, part of the boundary of Caiplie KRY]
veterem viam plaustrorum de Trostory 1235 NLS MS Acc. 8487 [‘the old wagon road of Troustrie’]
Trostre 1517 Crail Register no. 20
Meikill Troistrie c.1560 s Assumption, 162 [amongst lands belonging to Haddington Priory]
Littill Trostrie c.1560 s Assumption, 177 [to Haddington Priory, 2 bolls meal]
Little Trostrie c.1560 s Assumption, 178
Trostrie 1573 Assumption, 181–2
Littill Trostrie 1594 RMS vi no. 100 [see Minarbowhill # CRA]
(half a rood of) Trostry 1622 RMS viii no. 306 col. 2 [see Frithfield KRY]
Trystry 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Troistrie 1714 Laing Chrs. no. 3071 [Margaret Dishington, spouse of Andrew Robertson of Troustrie (deceased)]
Troustree 1753 Roy sheet 19, 5
Trustree 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Troystrie 1806 Sasines no. 7509
Troustrie 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn

? Pictish * tros + ? Pictish * trev

‘Farm lying athwart, crossways’ was the suggestion of Watson, Pictish *trostrev (1926, 350), and Nicolaisen follows him in this, adding that there are no early records of this name (1976, 169). However, the name occurs several times in the 1235 charter cited above, and the consistent form in that charter, Trostory, raises a question-mark over the *trev element proposed by Watson. However, the second o in Trostory may well represent an epenthetic vowel, breaking up that three-consonant cluster –str- and realised as a mid back rounded vowel (/o/ or //) because of the presence of that vowel in the first syllable. In this context it is worth noting that Trostrie KCB, a British name which contains the same elements, also developed an epenthetic vowel in the fifteenth century, appearing as Trostaree in 1456 (ER vi, 192).[123] This makes the second o of Trostory less of an obstacle to Watson’s interpretation. In any case, the form Trostory appears in only one charter, albeit one almost three centuries older than the next reference, and we should not put too much weight on this single early form, especially given the lack of any such intrusive or epenthetic vowel in all the subsquent forms, and in the modern local pronunciation (for which see below).

If we accept Watson’s suggestion of Pictish *trostrev, the question naturally arises ‘across what’? Three candidates present themselves. The first is the ‘old wagon road’ mentioned in the 1235 charter. This seems to correspond for at least part of its course with the modern B9171 road, which lies more or less on the border between CRA and KRY. That Troustrie was divided in 1235 is clear from the phrase ‘between the two Troustries’ (inter duas Trostoryis). It is also divided in the sixteenth century, when forms such as Meikle Troustrie and Little Troustrie clearly represent a contrastive pair. Ainslie/Fife (1775) may also indicate something of a division, for it shows Troustrie (Trustree) apparently at around the site of OS Pathf. Sypsies Plantation, 700 m north of OS Pathf. Troustrie. If Troustrie is *trostrev, it may have referred to the fact that these two sites lay on either side of an important road.

Another possibility is that the two Troustries were on either side of a very old boundary. This is supported by the fact that the boundary of the lands of Caiplie KRY, as described in the 1235 charter, goes between them. This boundary was also that between CRA and KRY.

A third possibility is that Troustrie lay ‘across’ a burn, possibly the burn that is also for much of its course the boundary of the Caiplie estate in the 1235 charter, the Merisburne or the Troustrie Burn (sicketum de Trostory).

For the full text, translation and discussion of the charter of 1235, see PNF 3, KRY Introduction, Caiplie Charter of 1235, and Márkus 2007.

ˈtrəustrɪ/

This place-name appeared in printed volume 3