BALGONIE, BARON, a title of the earl of Leven and Melville, conferred in 1641, on his ancestor, General Alexander Leslie, commander of the Scots army at Dunse Law in May 1639. (See LEVEN and MELVILLE, earl of.) The lands of Balgonie, in the parish of Markinch, Fife, originally belonged to the family of Sibbald. (See SIBBALD, surname of.) Sir Andrew Sibbald of Balgonie, sheriff of Fife, in 1457, and again in 1466, had an only daughter, Helen, who married Robert Lundin, second son of Sir John Lundin of Lundin. Their son, Sir Robert Lundin of Balgonie, was lord high treasurer of Scotland. His descendant, Robert Lundin, sold the lands of Balgonie in the sixteenth century, to General Alexander Leslie, the first earl of Leven, whose first title was Lord Balgonie, as already stated. They continued in possession of the Leven family till 1823, when they were purchased for the sum of one hundred and four thousand pounds, by James Balfour, Esq. of Whittingham, brother of the late General Balfour of Balbirnie. Balgonie castle, on the south bank of the river Leven, is of great antiquity. The woodcut at right is a representation from Natte’s Scotia Depicta.