Gospetry

Gospetry SLO S NO1606 1

    Kilcospardyn 1294 PRO E101/331/1 A [= Stevenson, Documents i, 413]
    Kilcospardy 1294 PRO E101 /331/1 B [= Stevenson, Documents i, 417]
    Gosperty 1506 Dunk. Rent. 195 [teind meal to Dunkeld from Gospetry and Bannaty SLO, 26 bolls]
    Gosperdy 1507 Dunk. Rent. 200 [teinds from Gospetry and Bannaty SLO]
    Gosperty 1508 RMS ii no. 3178 [Murray; see discussion]
    Cospartty 1510 Dunk. Rent. 215 [teinds from Gospetry and Bannaty SLO]
    Gosperte 1511 Dunk. Rent. 219 [teinds from Gospetry and Bannaty SLO]
    Gosparty 1518 Fife Ct. Bk. 93
    Gospert c.1560 s Assumption, 69
    Gesparty 1572 RMS iv no. 2002 [Andrew Murray; barony of Arngask]
    Gospertie 1590 RMS v no. 1776 [Andrew Murray; in barony of Arngask]
    villam et terras de Gospartie 1606 RMS vi no. 1746 [David Lord of Scone, the office of forester of Falkland, with various lands including those of Gospetry]
    Gospertie 1615 Retours (Fife) no. 251 [Murray; in barony of Arngask]
    Gospertys 1642 Gordon MS Fife
    Gosperties 1654 Blaeu (Gordon) Fife
    E. Gossiptree 1775 Ainslie/Fife
    W. Gossiptree 1775 Ainslie/Fife
    E<aste>r Gospetry 1828 SGF
    W<este>r Gospetry 1828 SGF
    Easter Gospetry 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn
    Wester Gospetry 1856 OS 6 inch 1st edn

This is a difficult name to analyse. Watson suggests that it may be a P-Celtic name, containing the cognates of Welsh gwas ‘abode, dwelling’, and perth ‘wood, grove’, thus ‘wood-dwelling’ (1926, 210). There are problems with both these elements, however. As regards the first element, all the evidence points to early Celtic w remaining in Pictish, spelt u (Jackson 1955, 163), frequently developing as f under the influence of Gaelic.[399] As regards the second element, Watson proposed pert(h) on the basis of the earliest form of which he was aware, Gospertie 1507. However, the late thirteenth-century forms Kilcospardy(n) make this highly unlikely. The extra element in these earliest forms, Kil-, probably represents G coille ‘woodland’, and has been lost by the time the name next appears on record in 1506. It is possible that Kilcospardy(n) is to be analysed as a Gaelic name, ‘wood of G.’, in which G. represents a male personal name beginning with Gos- or Cos-, the British equivalent of OG Mael- or Gille- ‘servant, devotee’, typically followed by a saint’s name. Such names were very much in vogue in northern England and southern Scotland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. One such, Gospatrick,[400] is found in the lost Dunfermline place-name uilla Cospatric (for which see PNF 1, 364–5).[401]

    As far as the diocese of Dunkeld was concerned, Gospetry seems to have been part of a single toun with Bannaty SLO, since they paid teinds to that church jointly (see above, 1506 and 1507). However, in near-contemporary grants of land, this connection does not seem to be made, since Gospetry is granted without mention of Bannaty.

    In 1508 the king granted to David Murray, son of Margaret Barclay of Kippo KBS the lands and baronies of Arngask and Kippo, including Gospetry (RMS ii no. 3178). In 1590 Andrew Murray was granted the same barony with the same lands, with Balvaird as his principal messuage (RMS v no. 1776).

    Sir David Murray of Gospetry, who owned land to the south of the Lomonds and became Keeper of the Royal Palace and Park of Falkland in 1602, was cup-bearer to James VI (McIlroy 2004, 6).

    The NGR given above is for the 1 km grid-square within which both Easter Gospetry and Wester Gospetry lie.

/ˈgɔspətrɪ/

This place-name appeared in printed volume 4