Ormiston
Ormiston ABE S NO245170 1 362 110m NWF
Ormestoun c.1560 s Assumption, 33
(James Philip of) Ormstoun 1564 RMS iv no. 1787
Ormestoun 1564 Lind. Cart. 301
(James Philip of) Ormestoun 1565 RMS iv. no. 2666
Ormestoun 1590 x 1599 Pont MS 54B
Ormstoune 1600 RMS vi no. 1032 [in barony of Grange of Lindores]
(James Chaip, feuar of) Ormestoune 1652 RMS x no. 35
Ormeston 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
Orumstoun 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
Ormiston 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn
pn Orm + Sc toun
‘Orm’s estate’. The eponymous Orm, an Anglo-Scandinavian name, is either the local aristocrat and lay abbot of Abernethy, Orm son of Hugh (Orm mac Aeda) and grandson of Gillemícheil earl of Fife, who lived in the late twelfth century; or someone with the local surname Orm(e), which no doubt derives from this same Orm of Abernethy, first recorded in the early sixteenth century (see Lind. Cart., 297–8, for Stephen Orme, proctor of Lindores Abbey in 1502; also 310–12 for Abbot Henry Orme 1502–23; another Stephen Orme appears in 1564 and 1565 as burgess of Newburgh (RMS iv nos. 1787, 2666) and Henry Orme of Mugdrum is granted lands by John abbot of Lindores in 1564 (RMS iv no. 2666).
Since many Fife place-names consisting of a personal name + toun date from the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it is probable that the Orm in question was Orm son of Hugh. He received royal confirmation of the lands of the abbey of Abernethy in feu and heritage, with full lay jurisdiction, in 1173 × 1178, including the right of pit (for ordeal by water) and gallows at Abernethy for his vassals of Fife and Gowrie (RRS ii no. 152). He also appears in a slightly earlier charter by which he is granted Glenduckie FLK and Balmeadie DBG (1165 × 1171, ibid. no. 14). He may have died c.1190 (see RRS ii p. 343, note to no. 339).
/ˈɔrmɪstən/[38]
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4