Corbie

Corbie BMO S NO335233 2

    Odone de Corby c.1210 NLS Adv. MS 15.1.18 no. 46 [o.c.; w.; for date and text, see BMO Intro., Coultra: Extent; a later 13th c. copy of this charter is St A. Lib. 271, which has miscopied the name as Odone de Corhri][78]
    Corbi 1232 Balm. Lib. no. 1 [one of the pertinents of the land of Coultra and Balmerino, along with Ballindard (Grange) and Ballindean (all BMO), all given by Revels and confirmed by Alexander II]
    Correby or Cort/ceby 1234 x 1241 NLS Adv. MS 34.5.3 fo 3v [printed Balm. Lib. no. 7, which has Cortiby; the fourth letter could be c, t or r]
    Corbi 1268 Balm. Lib. no. 56 [see BMO Intro., Medieval Marches]
    Corbiden 1268 Balm. Lib. no. 56 [BMO Intro., Medieval Marches]
    Corby 1459 RMS ii no. 736
    Corbedene 1539 RMS iii no. 1988 [the ferry-boats (cimbis lie ferry-bottis) between Corbie Den ‘and the mouth of the River Earn’ (et fauces aque de Erne)]
    Corby 1539 x 1542 RMS iii no. 2624 [to Andrew Leslie, the lands of Corbie, Corbiehill (Corbyhill) and 8 acres of arable lands beside Corbie (Corby), except for their fishings and wood (silva) ‘with 3 ells of lands within the ditches of the said wood’ (cum 3 ulnis terrarum citra fossas dicte silve); reddendo includes 3 suits of court at the head court of the barony of Balmerino]
    Corbyhill 1542 RMS iii no. 2624 [see previous entry]
    Corbe-hyll 1565 St A. Kirk Sess. 242
    Corbuy 1590 x 1599 Pont MS 54B
    (lands of) Corbe and Corbehill 1574 x 1603 Campbell 1899, 618
    terras de Corbie 1601 RMS vi no. 1267 [see discussion below]
    Corbie 1603 RMS vi no. 1411 [in barony of Pitgorno SLO, q.v.]
    Corbie 1634 NAS GD137/663 [lands of Corbie and Corbiehill, with principal manor place at Birkhill]
    Corbie 1652 Lamont’s Diary 43 [‘Sir Jhone Lesley of Newtone <Newton FGN> and Corbie in Fyfe, sold Corbie wood to some men therabout. The tries hire werre not vpon the decaying hand; for the most pairt all of them werre bot younge tries, and not one of ane hundred attained to ther perfection; it consisted of oakes, ashes, plains, allars <alders>, birkes, sauches <willows>’]
    Corbie wood 1652 Lamont’s Diary 43 [see preceding entry]
    Corbuy 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
    Corbuy 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
    Corbie 1684 Adair/East Fife [shown at or near OS Pathf. Birkhill’; called Birk hill 1703 Adair/Sea-Coast (Tay)]
    Corbie 1721 GD137/668 [‘Birkhill alias Corbie’]
    Corbie 1729 NAS GD137/669 [‘Birkhill alias Corbie’; see Birkhill BMO]
    Corbie Hill 1845 NSA ix, 578
    Corbiehill 1898 OS 1 inch 2nd edn

? pn Corcc + ON bý(r)

‘Corcc’s farm’? The personal name was borrowed by the Hiberno-Scandinavians from Irish, where the name is well attested (Fellows-Jensen 1990, 52). It thus has the same origin as Corby, Cumberland, which appears in the twelfth century as Chorkeby and Corchebi, and in the fourteenth as Corcabi (Ekwall 1960, s.n.; also Corkebi 1247 CDS i no. 1713; those places in Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire called Corby derive from the OScand personal name Kori, ibid. s.n.). For a full discussion of this and other bý-names, see Taylor 1995, especially 155–6.

    It lay on the estate of what is now Birkhill on the Tay, and the name survives in nearby Corbie Den (which forms the western march of BMO) and Corbiehill. The position of Corbie on early maps, particularly on Adair/East Fife (1684), and the occurrence of expressions such as ‘Birkhill alias Corbie’ (1721) strongly suggest that the manor-place of Corbie was on the site of today’s Birkhill.

    In 1601 John Learmonth (Lermonth) of Balcomie CRA sold to Lady Janet Durie, wife of Andrew earl of Rothes, lord Leslie of the lands of Corbie, Corbiehill, eight arable acres adjacent to the lands of Corbie, with teinds of all the said lands; the wood of Balmerino between Corbie Den on the west, the burn of Poyntok as it runs into the River Tay on the east, ‘the old embankment of the said wood’ (veterem aggerem dicte silve) on the south, the said River Tay on the north, the fishings of *Broomden and *Whitequarrelhope[79] and whatever others between the high and low tide mark on the said River Tay between Corbie Den on the west and the Barnden # BMO on the east, and the lands of the forester or keeper of the said wood, with the teinds of the said wood and sequels, with the principal manor-place of the said lands called Birkhill built near the *Lodge Den within the said wood, with the grove (nemore) <called> the Park and the trees growing in it, and the doocot etc., all once belonging to the monastery of Balmerino, in the barony of Balmerino’ (RMS vi no. 1267).

    OS Pathf. shows Corbiehill and Corbie Den.

/ˈkɔrbɪ/

This place-name appeared in printed volume 4