Frithfield
Frithfield KRY S NO557075 1 374 80m SEF
? Forde 1359 x 1458 RMS ii no. 610 col. 3 [various lands belonging to Haddington Priory around Crail; text quite corrupt. For the full text, see CRA Introduction]
the Furthfield c.1560 s Assumption, 177 [mails and annuals to Haddington Priory, £11 16 s. 8 d.]
terras de Firthfeild 1578 x 1591 RMS v no. 1870 [royal confirmation of the charter of Isabella Hepburne prioress of Haddington granting in feu-ferme the lands of Frithfield to Margaret Kirkcaldy (Kirkcaldie) daughter of John Kirkcaldy of Frithfield (Firthfeild) and her spouse M. James Learmonth (Lermonth) provost of collegiate church of St Mary of the Rock, St Andrews]
(lands of) Furdefeild 1620 RMS viii no. 42 [‘capellam et capellaniam de Sanct-Maruiff infra castrum de Craill, cum terris, annuis redditibus et feudifirmis terrarum de Furdefeild, Pitcorthie et Pitfeild vic. Fyffe’]
Foorde 1622 RMS viii no. 306 col. 2 [listed amongst the lands and revenues of the ‘abbey of Haddington’: ‘the kirklands of Crail, half of the fishing of the whole parish, with the lands and pertinents of the chapel of St Maolrubhai, the lands of Sauchope CRA, Newton CRA?, Pitcorthie KRY, Frith(field), half a rood of Troustrie CRA, the burgage plots and the revenues of the church of Crail, 11 acres of Redermen, with the liberty of multures of teind sheaves as well as of others in the mill of Crail, with common pasture in the commonty of Crail, and fuel in the Kingsmuir beside Crail’ etc. (terras ecclesiasticas de Carraill, dimidium piscature totius parochie, cum terris et pertinentiis capelle de Sanct-Ruff, terras de Salchas (Salchop?), Newtoun, Pitcorthie, Foorde, ½ rodam de Trostry, tenementa /col. 3/ burgagia et redditus ecclesie de Carraill, 11 acras de Redermen, cum libertate multurarum in molendino de Carraill tam de bladis decimalibus quam aliis, cum communi pastura in communia de Carraill, et focali in mora regis juxta Carraill etc.)]
terris de Firthfeild 1623 RMS viii no. 491 [Turnbull of Airdrie (Airdrie) CRA to Sir John Preston (Prestoun) of Pennicuik and Elizabeth Turnbull spouse of Sir John the lands and barony of Airdrie (enumerated, for which see Airdrie CRA, above) ‘with the advowson of the chaplaincy or altar of St Mary in the parish kirk of the town and burgh of Crail, as well as of the lands of Frithfield within the parishes of KRY and CRA, with the garbal teinds and other teinds of the part of Frithfield lying in CRA, which (teinds) never used to be separated from the trunk’ (cum advocatione capellanie sive altaris Beate Virginis Marie in ecclesia parochiali ville et burgi de Craill, necnon de terris de Firthfeild intra parochias de Kilrynnie et Craill, cum decimis garbalibus aliisque decimis partis de Firthfeild in parochia de Carraill jacentis inclusis que nunquam antea a trunco separari solebant)]
Firthfeeld 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Firthfield 1654 Blaeu(Gordon) Fife
Firth Field 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Firthfield 1827 Ainslie/East Fife
Sc fyrth + Sc field
‘Field of or by the land overgrown with brushwood, scrubland on the edge of forest’. For more on Sc fyrth, see Elements Glossary PNF 5, s.v. There is another place-name containing fyrth on the KRY/CRA border, some 3 km to the east, in Oxefriht, occurring in the Caiplie charter of 1235 (see KRY Introduction for text and discussion). It occurs also in Firth Muir KCQ (see above).
OS Name Book, whose collectors of information were clearly not familiar with Sc fyrth, reported that ‘it is supposed that the farmhouse owes its name to the circumstance of being built in a field that commanded a fine view of the Frith [sic] of Forth’ (85, 10).
It is clear from the 1623 entry that Firthfield was a relatively extensive area which lay in two parishes, those of Kilrenny and Crail.
/ˈfrɪθfild/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 3