Kenly
Kenly SSL S NO5612 2
Kenlachyn 1140 David I Chrs. no. 89 [o.c.; = St A. Lib. p. xxii and ESC no. 171; date ‘probably 1140’ (David I Chrs. no. 89); granted to the hospital of St Andrews (which later became St Leonards)]
terram de Kenlekin 1153 x 1162 RRS i no. 125 [= St A. Lib. 195; Malcolm IV’s confirmation of David I’s grant of ‘land of Kenly’ to the hospital of St Andrews]
Kenlekin 1165 x 1169 RRS ii no. 28 [o.c.]
Kenlekin 1165 x 1171 RRS ii no. 76 [o.c.; corresponds to St A. Lib. 211, which has Kenlakin]
Kenlachin 1165 x 1171 RRS ii no. 76 [o.c.; St A. Lib. 211 has Kenlakin]
Chennachun 1180s St A. Lib. 148
altera terra Kenlakin 1183 St A. Lib. 58 [‘the other land Kenly’]
grangiam de Kellakin 1248 St A. Lib. 103 [‘the grange of Kenly’ dependent on the hospital of St Leonard]
mora nostra de Kellauchy 1263 x 1304 St A. Lib. 404–5 [‘our (i.e. the priory’s) muir of Kenly’]
mora nostra de Kellauhy 1263 x 1304 St A. Lib. 404–5
(John of) Kenloqwhy 1421 SAUL LPW 116
(John of) Kenlochy 1434 SAUL LPW 27
Kenlochquhy 1452 x 1480 RMS ii no. 1444 [St Andrews Church land]
Kinnochy 1471 RMS ii no. 1039 [associated with the hospital of St Leonards]
terras de Kenloquhiis superiore et inferiore 1513 RMS ii no. 3812 [‘the lands of Upper and Nether Kenly(s)’]
Kennluy 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Kenluy 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Kenluy mills 1642 Gordon MS Fife
Keanluy 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Kenluy mills 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife [shown in error as two settlements, Kenluy and mills, with symbols]
Kinla W<ater> 1684 Adair/East Fife
Kenley 1753 Roy sheet 19, 5
Up<per> Kenley 1753 Roy sheet 19, 5
Overkenley c.1760 SAUL UY1386 [belonging to the United College of St Andrews, surveyed by W. Watt, marching with i.a. Netherkenley]
Nether Kinlay 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Upper Kinlay 1775 Ainslie/Fife
Kenlowie 1790s OSA, 732 [a reference to the burn]
Kenloway 1845 NSA ix, 450 [‘the stream denominated Kenloway or Kenly’]
Upper and Lower Kenloway 1845 NSA ix, 499
Lower Kenly 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
Upper Kenly 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
G ceann + G leac + – in
‘(Place at) the end of (flat) stones or flagstones’. The Kenly Water, which forms the north-west march of the lands of Kenly, and runs immediately below Lower Kenly, is notable for large bedded sandstone, no doubt the feature referred to in the name.
Kenly lay in St Leonards parish, and since 1891 has been part of St Andrews parish (see St Leonards parish Introductory Notes above). David I granted it for the support of the hospital of St Andrews, later St Leonards (St A. Lib. p. xxii). In the papal confirmation of 1183 (St A. Lib. 58) the land of Kenly which David I gave to the hospital is described as ‘the other land Kenly’ (altera terra Kenlakin), which suggests that part of the land of Kenly did not belong to the Church.
That this land was not part of the Boar’s Raik, that it lay to the south-east of the Kenly Burn, and that it was in the king’s gift in the twelfth century all suggest that it originally formed part of the royal lands of Crailshire.
Today Kenly belongs to the University of St Andrews as successor to St Leonard’s College, which acquired the land in 1513, with all the property of the old Hospital of St Leonard out of which the college had been founded in 1512 (David I Chrs. no. 89 p. 97, quoting Cant 1992, 35–6; RMS ii no. 3812).
The division of the lands of Kenly into two parts, which appear in 1513 as upper and lower, seems already to have taken place by 1183, when mention is made of ‘the other Kenly’ (St A. Lib. 58).
Black 1946 under the surname ‘Kinlochie’ has Kenlochy 1438, Kenloquhy 1557 Laing Chrs. no. 666, in St Andrews, but he does not make the connection with Kenly.
OS Pathf. shows Upper Kenly, Lower Kenly (beside the Kenly Water), Kenly Law, Kenly Bridge (on the SSL/KBS boundary) and Kenlygreen (see below).
/ˈkɛnlɪ/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 3