St Nicholas
St Nicholas SSL S NO518159 1 10m
infirmis leprosis de Sancto Andrea 1178 x 1185 RRS ii no. 202 [16th c. copy; survives only in confirmation to the Dominicans of 1540, RMS iii no. 2132 (3): ‘to the infirm lepers of St Andrews’ two oxgangs of land in Powgavie (Polgavie) PER granted by Hugh Giffard]
infirmis fratribus hospitalis Sancti Nicholaii de Sancto Andrea 1189 x 1195 RRS ii no. 370 [16th c. copy; survives only in confirmation of 1540, RMS iii no. 2132 (1): ‘to the infirm brothers of the hospital of St Nicholas of St Andrews’, the right to have a cart going to the King’s Muir CRA to fetch heather for their own use for ever][335]
infirmis fratribus hospitalis Sancti Nicholai apud Sanctumandream 1195 x 1196 RRS ii no. 385 [16th c. copy; survives only in confirmation of 1540 RMS iii no. 2132 (2); the land of Peekie (Putekin) SSL]
infirmis fratribus Sancti Nicholaii apud Sanctum Andream 1227 RMS iii no. 2132 (4) [16th c. copy; survives only in a confirmation of 1540]
hospitali Beati Nicholaii de Sancto Andrea 1203 x 1244 RMS iii no. 2132 (5) [16th c. copy; survives only in confirmation of 1540; to the hospital of the blessed Nicholas of St Andrews ‘and to the lepers serving God there’ (et leprosis ibidem Deo servientibus), a toft and a croft in Lundin (Lundyne) LAR which John Melville held; for a full discussion of this text and its dating, see LAR Introduction, PNF 2]
magister hospitalis sancti Nicolai iu ta Sanctumandream 1431 St A. Cop. no. 25 [John Feldew, ‘the master of the hospital of St Nicholas beside St Andrews’]
(lands of) S. Nicolaii de Kinkell 1452 x 1480 RMS ii no. 1444 [‘of Kinkell’]
Sanct-Nicholas-Place 1555 RMS v no. 883 [name of lands adjacent to the hospital or leper-house]
lands of St Nicholas 1650 Lamont’s Diary 25 [‘Mr Charles Geddie in St Androus bought the lands of St Nicholas that lyes beside the Boughe-bridge (see Bowbrig # SSL)’]
St Nicolas 1684 Adair/East Fife
(John Geddie of) Saint Nicholas 1691 Retours (Fife) no. 1313 [held the lands of ‘Wester Kincaple alias Neutoun-Geddie’; see Kincaple SSL, above]
St Nicholas 1753 Roy sheet 19, 5
St. Nicholas 1775 Ainslie/Fife
St Nicholas Place 1789 Sasines no. 2343 [‘a piece of land adjacent to the Hospital’]
St Nicolas [sic] Burn 1820 Wood/St Andrews [small burn which flows north from Grange and into the Kinness Burn downstream from Shore Bridge]
St Nicholas 1828 SGF
St. Nicholas 1855 OS 6 inch 1st edn
St Nicholas 1927 OS 1 inch ‘Popular’ edn
Sc sanct + pn Nicholas
This was a leprosy hospital, dedicated to St Nicholas, the site of which after the Reformation was occupied by a farm of the same name, known also as Liberton (‘leper toun’) according to St A. Cop. p. 409. It lay on the lands of Kinkell SSL, which belonged to the Culdees of St Andrews, later the collegiate church of St Mary’s of the Rock.
In the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries it was the recipient of several royal grants, including that of Peekie SSL, as well as of a toft and croft in Lundin LAR (PNF 2). These grants are known only from a royal confirmation charter issued to the Dominicans in 1540 (RMS iii no. 2132). It is therefore not entirely certain whether the dedication to St Nicholas has been retrospectively inserted, although the different wording in each of these documents, and the fact that St Nicholas is not mentioned in the earliest (3), suggest that they are fairly accurate copies of the originals. The earliest mention of St Nicholas otherwise is in 1431 (St A. Cop. no. 25).
Both the Dominicans and the Franciscans had a stake in this hospital. For more details see St A. Cop. p. 409. Also RMS v no. 883 (1555) is issued solely by the Dominicans.
This place-name appeared in printed volume 3