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The lands of Pitcairn lie in the Parish of
Leslie in Fife, and are reputed to be one of the oldest of the ancient
Kingdom.
William de Petkaran was a juror at
Dunfermline prior to 1249. Sir Hugh de Abernethy granted to his Kinsman,
John de Pitcairn, the lands of Innernethie.
Piers de Pectarne of Fife appears on the
Ragman Roll, swearing fealty to Edward I of England in 1296. Andrew Pitcairn
and seven of his sons were killed at Flodden in 1513.
Nisbet states that Robert Pitcairn,
Commendator of Dunfermline Abbey and Secretary during the Regency of Moray,
Lennox, Mar and Morton, was a great Timeserver, a great enemy to Queen Mary
and a humble servant of the Regents.
He accompanied the Regent Moray to England in
1568 to Justify his procceedings against the Queen, and was one of the
commissioners at York.
The Pitcairn's were to prosper as Fife Lairds
but suffered heavily for their support of the Jacobite cause in the 15 and
45 rebellions.
Pitcairn Island (famous as the last refuge of
the Bounty mutineers) was discovered in 1767 by Captain Robert Pitcairn,
John Pitcairn, a major in the Royal Marines, was in command of the unit
which fired the first shots in the American Wars of Independence.
Criminal Trials of Scotland, edited by Robert
Pitcairn and published in 1833, provides a wealth of information gleaned
from trials between 1487 to 1624, and is still regularly consulted by
historians and geneaologists. |
