Ethie
Ethie * LEU S NO4519 3
Dauach Icthar Hathyn x 1199 St A. Lib. 290 [rubric and text; granted by Orabilis daughter of Ness to St Andrews Priory]
per totam Hathin x 1199 St A. Lib. 290 [see discussion, below]
Davach Ictar Hathyn x 1199 St A. Lib. 290–1 [rubric and text; exact repetition of preceding, with same witness list]
per totam Hathin x 1199 St A. Lib. 291
Dauac Icthar Hathyn 1192 x 1207 St A. Lib. 291 [rubric and text; date from St A. Lib. Syll., 24; confirmation of Orabilis’s grant by Saher de Quincy, son of Orabilis and Robert de Quincy][280]
per totam Hathyn 1192 x 1207 St A. Lib. 291
G àth + – in
‘Ford-place, place at a ford’. Initial h- is purely graphic (cf Allan SSL, PNF 3). The location of this place is unknown, and it is quite possible that it refers not to a place in Fife at all but to Ethie, Inverkeilor ANG, which shares the same derivation and whose early forms are very similar, viz <A>thin 1178 RRS ii no. 197, (shire of) Athyn 1202 × 1213 RRS ii no. 436, Athin 1213 RRS ii no. 513, and (church of St Murdoch (Murdaci) of) Hathyn 1219 × 1226 Arb. Lib. i no. 152. It is known that Saher de Quincy held Gardyne in the neighbouring parish of Kirkden (formerly Idvies) ANG, since in 1207 he grants to Coupar Abbey a silver mark yearly from the rent which Roger the mason of Forfar and his heirs give him from the land held of him in Gardyne (Gardin) (C. A. Chrs. i no. 19). It may be assumed that, as with his other lands north of the Forth, Saher inherited Gardyne from his mother, Orabilis, and maternal grandfather, Ness son of William, and it may well be that this was not the only property in this part of Angus. Another reason, and perhaps the most compelling, for considering that Dauach Icthar Hathyn was part of Ethie ANG, besides the similarity of early forms and the (albeit tenuous) tenurial links, is the fact that the witness-list of Orabilis’s charter contains some names which are otherwise unknown in a Fife context, such as Gillemoluog (Gillemelooc), Adam Mathin (St A. Lib. 290) or Machin (ibid. 291), Gilleìosa son of Gillemhuire (Gilisu / Gillesu filio Gillmur / Gillemure), Eoghan (Ewan) brother of Brocein[281] (Ewen fratre Brokin(’)) and Irgalach (Yrgalac) mac Dafreth or Dafrech.
In the late twelfth century part of the land of *Ethie was the subject of a grant by Orabilis, who styles herself daughter and heiress of Sir Ness (son of William), to the priory of St Andrews, that part being termed Dauach Icthar Hathyn (variously spelled). This is a G phrase consisting of G dabhach ‘a davoch’, a term for a large unit of land (see Elements Glossary PNF 5, s.v.), G ìochdar ‘lower’, and the existing name *Ethie. It is probably best interpreted as the davoch of Lower *Ethie, suggesting that *Ethie consisted of two davochs, the other presumably known as *Uchtar Hathin, containing G uachdar ‘upper’ (*Auchter-Ethie). At the same time the priory was granted common pasture ‘throughout all *Ethie’ (per totam Hathin).
A. O. Anderson’s suggestion (ES ii, 493) that Hathin etc. is a form of the river-name Eden can be safely discarded in the light of early forms of Eden, all of which have a first syllable (H)ed- (see PNF 2, Section 1, s.n.).
If *Ethie is a now lost name in Fife, and not Ethie ANG, then the following assumptions lie behind the above NGR: (a) this land granted by Orabilis was in LEU, and (b) the eponymous ford was a crossing of the Motray Water, at or near where a bridge had been built by the mid-thirteenth century, which became known as Inner Bridge LEU (q.v. below).[282]
This place-name appeared in printed volume 4