Cambo
Cambo KBS CRA S NO603114 1 364 20m NEF
totam Camboc c.1171 x 1174 RRS ii no. 131 [17th c.; see discussion below]
totum predictum Kamboc c.1171 x 1174 RRS ii no. 131 [17th c; see discussion]
(William of) Camboc c.1230 St A. Lib. 272
(William of) Camboch 1278 Balm. Lib. no. 42
(William of) Camboc 1278 Balm. Lib. no. 43 [of the barony of Crail (Carale); see CRA Introduction]
de Cambhou 1294 Stevenson, Documents i, 411 [‘for the expenses of ... Walter going from Cambo as far as the castle of Cupar several times on the business of the earl of Fife, for going, staying and returning for 42 days’][224]
Walter<us> de Cambhow 1294 Stevenson, Documents i, 412 [keeper of the lands of Duncan, son of the late earl of Fife, being in wardship of the king by reason of minor age]
sire Wauter de Camhow 1294 Stevenson, Documents i, 415 [in French]
Willelmus de Cambov 1329 ER i, 160
Ale ander de Cambow 1359 ER i, 624
(superiority of) Cambock 1394 RMS i app. 2, no. 1703 B [17th c. index; granted to David Lindsay]
terras baronie de Cambo 1474 RMS ii no. 1191 [lands of the barony of Cambo to Alexander Lindsay heir of David lord Lindsay earl of Crawford]
terras de Cambok 1506 RMS ii no. 2961 [to David Morton (Miretoun) of that ilk the lands of Cambo and their mill, in the barony of Cambo, resigned by John lord Lindsay earl of Crawford and baron of Cambo (Cambok)]
baronia de Cambok 1506 RMS ii no. 2961
Cambo 1526 RMS iii no. 389
(lands and barony of) Cammo 1556 RMS iv no. 1023 [to Thomas Morton (Myretoun) of Cambo]
the barony of Cammo c.1560 s Purves 153
Cammo c.1560 s Assumption, 177 [parish of Crail, rent to Haddington Priory]
Cambo 1594 Retours (Fife) no. 1520 [Robert Lundy, lands and acres of Barns, lands of Cambo in parish of Craill]
Cambo 1594 RMS vi no. 100
Cammo 1623 Retours (Fife) no. 335 [Thomas Morton (Mortoun); lands and barony of Cambo]
Cambo 1646 Retours (Fife) no. 694 [Patrick Morton (Myrtoun) of Cambo, lands as in 1623 entry]
Cammo 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
Cambo 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Cambo Mill 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Cambo 1657 Retours (Fife) no. 871 [lands of Cambo, Belsie KBS, Muirhouse KBS, Grassmiston CRA and *Auld Leas CRA]
Cambo 1668 Retours (Fife) no. 1048 [William Wood, in lands of Cambo, mills of Cambo, etc.]
Campbo 1684 Adair/East Fife
Cambo 1698 Retours (Fife) no. 1402 [Robert Morton (Myrtoune), in the lands of *Auld Leas (Auldlyes) CRA, part of the barony of Cambo]
Cambo 1753 Roy sheet 19, 5
Cambo 1775 Ainslie/Fife [‘The Hon. Fran. Charters’]
Cambo 1828 SGF
Cambo F<ar>m 1828 SGF
Cambo Ness 1828
Cambo Farm 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
G cam or Pictish * cam(b) + – ōc
‘Crooked place’, referring either to the place on the bends of the burn now known as the Cambo Burn, or to the burn itself. The name could be Pictish. The first element is found in all the insular Celtic languages, from *kambo- ‘crooked’, giving G cam (OIr camb) and Welsh cam. It is relatively common in Scottish place-names (see Watson 1926, 143), and is found in Fife in such names as Cameron CMN (above) and MAI, Kemback and Camby (Burn) LSL (PNF 2); and in Angus in Cammock, Glenisla (Camboch 1301 × 1309 C. A. Chrs. no. 70). However, it is the suffix which points to a non-Gaelic origin of this name, since –ōc, Old and Middle Irish –óc, later –óg, probably derives from British (Russell 1990, 108–16), and therefore its occurrence in eastern Scottish place-names north of the Forth may well reflect Pictish influence.
Cambo can also be compared with the British name Cam (Beck), Cumberland, an early form of which is Camboc, identical, and contemporaneous, with the earliest recorded form of Cambo KBS (Ekwall 1960 under Cam Beck ).
Cambo is first mentioned in a confirmation of William I of a charter granted by his mother, Countess Ada, to Robert of Newham (Newham) by which Robert is to hold of Ada all Cambo and one full toft in free burgage in Crail, and common pasture, in return for the service of one man on foot in the king’s army, and performing forinsec service ‘for half a Scottish ploughgate of land’ (pro dimidia carrucata terre Scotica), probably half a davoch. Robert of Newham was yet another Northumbrian who came to hold land in Crailshire as a tenant of Countess Ada de Warenne (Chandler 1981, 128; for others see CRA Introduction and Wormiston CRA), taking his name from Newham in Belsay, Northumberland (RRS ii no. 131 and notes p. 207; see also under Belsie KBS).
In 1556 the land and barony of Cambo are defined as follows: the lands of Cambo (Cammo), Belsies # (Belsis) KBS, Muirhouse (Murehousis) KBS, Grassmiston (Girstmestoun) CRA, *Auld Leas (Auld-Lies) KBS, South Falfield (Southir-Faldfeildis) KCQ, Bowhill KCQ and Cumberland (Cummerland) KCQ.
OS Pathf. also shows Cambo Farm (west of Cambo), Cambo Lodge (NO598105), Cambo Brigs (a rocky islet just offshore at NO608123, for the generic of which see Carr Brig CRA, above), and Cambo Sands and Cambo Ness on the shore.
/ˈkambo/, locally /ˈkamɪ/.[225]
This place-name appeared in printed volume 3