Dairsie
Dairsie DAE PS NO414161 1 363 30m EAF
Hywan<us> macmallothem thain de Deruesin 1160 x 1162 St A. Lib. 128
ecclesiam de Deruesin 1160 x 1162 St A. Lib. 128 [Bp Arnold grants ‘church of Dairsie’ to St Andrews Priory with a carucate of land ‘in that same vill of my lordship’ (in eadem uilla de meo dominio)]
ecclesiam de Deruisin 1163 St A. Lib. 55 [papal confirmation]
molendino de Deruesin 1178 x 1188 St A. Lib. 44 [‘mill of Dairsie’ built on kirkland of Dairsie]
terram ecclesie de Deruesin 1178 x 1188 St A. Lib. 44 [‘kirkland of Dairsie’]
(William parson of) Deruesin 1178 x 1187 St A. Lib. 45 (1) [St A. Lib. Syll., 2 dates this 1187]
terra de Deruesin 1189 x 1198 St A. Lib. 45 [held of priory by Elias (Helias)]
(William chaplain of) Deruesin 1189 x 1198 St A. Lib. 45 (2)
(William chaplain of) Deruessyn 1189 x 1198 Barrow 1974 no. 1 [o.c.; w.]
(William of) Dervesin 1202 x 1206 Barrow 1974 no. 3 [o.c.; chaplain?]
ecclesiam Sancte Marie de Deruesyn 1240 x 1245 St A. Lib. 306 [David bp of St Andrews grants to John son of John Sellar [177] his clerk ‘the church of St Mary of Dairsie with chapels, teinds, lands, offerings’ etc (cum capellis decimis terris obuencionibus), and installs him as parson (personam)]
Deruesyn 1243 MS Paris BN latin 1218 [Bp David dedicates the kirk]
apud Deruasyn 1262 Lind. Cart. no. 142 [Bp Gamelin grants charter at]
(mill of) Deruesyn 1266 St A. Lib. 311
(William of) Deruesyn’ 1288 St A. Lib. 346
(church of) Deruesy 1301 St A. Lib. 120 [granted ‘with land of *Duffcupar’ (cum terra de Dufcupir) to St Andrews Priory; DAE Intro., Church]
ecclesia de Deruesyn 1304 NLS Adv MS 15.1.18 no. 23 [DAE Intro., Church]
(John of) Dersy 1381 CPP i, 558 [holds vicarage of Dairsie (Dersy), and is ready to resign it (May-June)]
(John of) Dersy 1381 CPL Clement VII of Avignon, 66 [canon of Cambuskenneth Abbey, awarded an annual pension of 10 merks sterling for 5 years to pursue studies at a university (September)][178]
(manor of) Dorvesin 1387 CPL Clement VII of Avignon, 132 [DAE Intro., Medieval Dairsie]
vicario perpetuo ecclesie parochialis de Dersy 1403 x 1440 St A. Cop. no. 48 [‘to the vicar perpetual of the parish kirk of Dairsie’]
ecclesi<a> parochial<is> de Dersy 1421 St A. Lib. 413
de consilio tento apud Dervesi 1440s Scotichron Bk. 13, ch. 33 (vol. 7, 109) [in April 1335 a parliament held at Dairsie]
Deresy 1452 x 1480 RMS ii no. 1444 [St Andrews Church land]
ecclesiam de Dersy cum crofta et brasina ejusdem 1471 RMS ii no. 1039 [‘the church of Dairsie, with its croft and brewery’]
Jacobo Leirmonth de Dersey 1537 RMS iii no. 1710 [James Learmonth]
(fermes of the lordship of) Dersy 1539 St A. Rent. 89
(the lordship of) Dersy 1562 Assumption, 2 [‘in money and fermes of the lands of Mydil and Craigfudie’]
Kirkland of Dersy c.1560 s Assumption, 10
Kirk of Dersy c.1560 s Assumption, 14 [also toun (villa) of Dersy]
vicari<a> de Dersy c.1560 s Assumption, 79 [‘Mr Robert Wynrame possessor’]
Patricium Leirmonth de Darsie 1569 RMS iv no. 1836 [Patrick Learmonth]
Darsay 1625 Retours (Fife) no. 364 [mill-lands of Dairsie, waulk mill of Dairsie, and lands called *Kirklands of Dairsie (Kirklandis de Darsay)]
kirk of Darsie 1642 Synod of Fife, 129 [‘superstitious’ (i.e. Catholic) practices noted; this concern repeated at several assemblies: 133, 141 (‘the leavelling of the queere’, i.e. choir), 146 (this last dated 1646)][179]
Dairsie 1647 RMS ix no. 1837 [lands of Dairsie, Arindinage, *Smiddyhouse (Smiddiehous), *Hallyards (Halyairdis), the waulk and grain mills of Dairsie, with the manor place of Dairsie and fishings; also kirklands of (terris ecclesiasticis de) Dairsie]
Dairsie 1654 RMS x no. 279 [to Hugh Scrymgeour lands of Dairsie, Arindinage # (Dardynie), Smiddiehouse, Hallyeards, Milne of Dairsie]
Dairsie 1654 RMS x no. 350 [to Marion Spence i.a. lands, barony and mains of Dairsie, mansion, manor-place, mills, mill-lands etc. thereof, lands of New Mills DAE, Middle Foodie DAE, Todhall DAE and Arindinage # DAE, pertaining to Sir George Morrison (Moriesone) of Dairsie etc.]
Daersie 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
Darsie 1655 Lamont’s Diary 88
molendino fullonio de Dairsie 1691 Retours (Fife) no. 1311 [‘waulk mill of Dairsie, otherwise called Stankhill’ (alias vocato Stankhill)]
Darsie 1762 RHP3904 [a western part of Drone Muir LEU allotted to Dairsie ‘for the Right Honourable the Earl of Elgin’]
infra parochiam de Dairsie 1695 Retours Fife no. 1370 [in lands of Newmills, Middle Foodie, Todhall and Arindinage #, with parts of the lands of Kincaple SSL and the advowson of the church of Dairsie ‘in parish of Dairsie’]
Dairsy Kirk 1753 Roy sheet 18, 2
Dairsie 1775 Ainslie/Fife [General Scott]
Dairsie 1845 NSA ix, 771 [Chapelwell and Dairsie owned by Judge Erskine]
Pictish * deru- + ? – es + – in
‘Place of oak(s)’. The presence of the labial u in the early forms suggests that this is a Pictish place-name. In Old and Middle Irish the related word was dair (gen. daro/darach) ‘oak’; or daire/doire ‘oak-grove’ (Modern Gaelic darach ‘oak’).[180] We do not know what the word for ‘oak’ was in Pictish, but it was no doubt similar, from the Early Celtic *derv-, which has yielded Welsh derw ‘oak’. In the above analysis it is assumed that Pictish retained the radical labial v in certain combinations (see also Taylor 2008, 275–6). This is preferable to W. J. Watson’s ‘oak-stance’ (with second element fas) (2001 [1913], 131). It would seem rather to have two place-name suffixes, the first –es, found for example in Ceres and Wemyss, the second the common–in, with standard reduction to –ie.
The NGR is of the site of the old parish kirk, near the castle and beside the River Eden. Dairsie village, formerly Osnaburgh, is a modern foundation, for which see DAE Intro. OS Pathf. also shows Dairsie Mill, Dairsie House, q.v., Dairsie Castle and Dairsie Mains, q.v. below; also Dairsie Bridge, shown as an antiquity: it has a panel on its east side bearing the arms of James Beaton, archbishop of St Andrews (1522–38), so it was probably built during that period (Gifford 1988, 169).
/'derzi/ or /'dersɪ/
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4