Newburn

The ScotlandsPlaces website lets users search across national databases by geographical location. It includes, amongst other material,

• catalogue entries for maps and plans held by the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh; some maps and plans can be viewed
• photos and details of historical buildings and archaeological sites recorded by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Edinburgh
• 17th and 18th century tax rolls
• Ordnance Survey [place] Name Books
• an opportunity to transcribe thousands of historic documents

A very good description is to be found in the relevant chapter in History of the County of Fife: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time by John M Leighton, published 1840, online at Google Books.

Newburn Churchyard (grid ref. NO 453035; GPS: 56.221226 -2.883933):

• The pre-1855 monumental inscriptions are listed in "Fifeshire Monumental Inscriptions (pre-1855) vol. 1 South east parishes" by John Fowler Mitchell & Sheila Mitchell, published by the Scottish Genealogy Society. ISBN 0901061948
• Another listing has been published by the Fife Family History Society in their Publication 18, Monumental Inscriptions.
• Some stones are recorded in Graveyard Monuments in East, North and Central Fife, John di Folco, published in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1969-70, vol. 102, pages 205-236, which deals largely with stones dated pre-1707. It can be downloaded from ARCHway.
• Transcripts of many of the older stones were made by an unknown hand in the 1870s. They are recorded in the Minute Book of the Anstruther Mortsafe Society, 1830-1874, held by the Special Collections Dept. of St Andrews University Library. They are included in Publication 38, Monumental Notes part 2, published by the Fife Family History Society.
• The current lair registers (dating from 1857) are administered by Fife Council, Bereavement Services East, County Buildings, St Catherine Street, Cupar, KY15 4TA. Tel. 01334 659336. Fax 01334 412896.
• A CD with photographs of the stones and transcriptions is available from Scottish Monumental Inscriptions or from The Parish Chest.

Parish / district reference number for 1841 - 1901 censuses: 451

The 1841 and 1851 returns can be searched on the FreeCEN website.

The 1851 census has been indexed by the Tay Valley Family History Society.

The 1861 census has been indexed and can be downloaded here

Some census records on microfilm may be consulted in  LDS Family Search Centres around the world.

LDS Library Film Numbers:

	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891
Newburn	1042703	1042270	103832	103994	203529	208765

(Data provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

Further information on the main Fife page.

The Old Statistical Account (written in the 1790s) gives this information about Dissenters:

• Independents - about 20; the only sect with a meeting house in the parish.
• Members of the Relief Congregation - about 20.
• Burghers - 12.
• Cameronians - 2.

The New Statistical Account (written in 1836) gives this information:

• There are now few seceders of any description.
• The sect of Independents which formerly flourished in this parish is gone, and the place where they were wont to assemble for public worship os converted into a granary.
• There are 3 Seceding or Dissenting families.

The 1865 Ecclesiastical Directory lists only the parish church.

Information and pictures of the churches at the Scottish Churches website. Details of church history:

• Newburn Church
  The church of Newburn, which was anciently known as Drumeldrie, was dedicated to St Serf and belonged prior to the Reformation to the Abbey of Dunfermline. Between the years 1522-1539 the old church was rebuilt by the Archbishop of St Andrews and this building was later replaced in 1815 by the present day church. In 1958 Newburn was united with the parish of Largo to form the congregation of Largo and Newburn and the united charge later established a link with Largo St David's in 1987. The kirk session sits within the Presbytery of St Andrews.

Data provided by the  Scottish Archive Network (SCAN)

The Parish Church (Established Church, Church of Scotland):

The original Old Parish Registers (of baptisms / births, proclamations / marriages, and deaths / burials) of the Church of Scotland, which cover the years up to 1854, are held in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, and they can all be consulted there at the National Records of Scotland. The baptisms / births, proclamations / marriages and deaths / burials indexes can be searched at the ScotlandsPeople website. Copies of the register entries may be purchased.

Parish reference number: 451

The Old Parish Registers (OPRs) span the following dates (although there are gaps within these ranges):

Newburn OPR	Births / baptisms	Proclamations / marriages	Deaths / burials / mortcloths
451/1	1628-1678	1628-1678	1630-1669
451/2	1678-1819	1678-1819	1760-1819
451/3	1820-1854	1820-1854	1820-1854

(Data supplied by the National Records of Scotland)

The Detailed List of the Old Parochial Registers of Scotland, published 1872, provides this information about the content of the OPRs, including the gaps within them:

B.  and M.  intermixed from 1645 till Nov. 1704. No entries of B. Aug. 1690 - Aug. 1692, nor of M. Oct. 1689 - Sept. 1692. Separate Records of B. and M. from May 1705. Mothers' names not recorded till 1678. No entry of M. for 1731. Blank Nov. 1754 - Oct. 1756. No entry for 1775. Blank (exc. one entry) Aug. 1777 - Jan 1783. No entry for 1790.
D.  (Deaths and Burials) blank Feb. 1638 - Feb. 1643. No entry March 1650 - Aug. 1655. Blank (exc. one entry for 1669) March 1658 - Jan. 1760.

Copies of the registers on microfilm may be consulted in some local libraries and at LDS Family Search Centres around the world. The indexes to baptisms / births and proclamations / marriages can also be searched on the LDS Family Search website or on the IGI on microfiche in local libraries.

LDS Library Film Numbers:

1040169 Items 3 - 5

Baptisms, Marriages, 1628-1644; Session book (includes Baptisms, Marriages), 1645-1678; Burials, 1630-1658, 1669, 1760-1854; Baptisms, Marriages, 1678-1854.

(Data provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

Deaths / burials are listed on Fife Family History Society's  Pre-1855 Fife Deaths CD.

Further information on the main Fife page.

Kirk Session records (CH2/278) are held at the Special Collections Dept. of St Andrews University Library. Some Kirk Session material is to be found in the OPR records (451/1).

Heritors' Records (HR666) are at the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh.

At the Special Collections Dept. of St Andrews University Library, with digital copies of the earlier volumes at the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh:

• CH2/278
  Newburn Kirk Session
  Minutes, 1628-1687, 1692-1764 and 1824-1958; Communion roll, 1884-1889 and 1893-1942; Accounts, 1746-1756 and 1769-1828; Baptismal roll, 1855-1958; Proclamations, 1855-1880, 1884-1917 and 1919-1958; Cash book, 1828-1910; Mortsafe subscriber's cash book, 1824-1877; Lair plan and heritor's division of kirk, 1886.

Included in the Old Parochial Registers on microfilm and at the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh but not online:

• 451/1
  Newburn Kirk Session
  Minutes 1645-78

At the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh:

• HR/666
  Newburn parish heritors' records
  Minutes, 1853-1929.

The Newburn page of the LDS Family Search Research Wiki has more information about church history and records.

Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths began in Scotland on 1st January 1855. Full information on the main Fife page.

Registration districts covering this parish:

Registration districts did not necessarily coincide exactly with parishes. In the 20th century especially, there were frequent changes in registration districts.

Surrounding parishes: Elie, Kilconquhar, Largo.

• Geograph
• Flickr

Westwood's ParochialDirectory for the Counties of Fife and Kinross for 1862 and 1866 are online at Google Books. On the Records pages of the Fife Family History Society website there is a transcription of the 1862 edition.

Several old gazetteers are available. They all contain descriptions of the parish and many are also worth searching for entries of places within the parish.

• David Webster's Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, published 1819, online at Google Books.
• Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, published 1846, online at British History Online.
• Barbieri's Descriptive and Historical Gazetteer of the Counties of Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, published 1857, is at Google Books.
• Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4) and John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887), are on A Vision of Britain (click on "Historical places and writing").
• Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland(1892-6) on Electric Scotland

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Newburn to another place.

A Vision of Britain provides historical descriptions, population & housing statistics, historic boundaries and maps.

Details of historic buildings and archaeological sites in this parish held by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Edinburgh, are catalogued at ScotlandsPlaces. In the results, click RCAHMS. Unfortunately, not all entries have digital images.

Historic maps:

• On-line maps:
  • National Library of Scotland map collection - main page
  • For 17th, 18th and early 19th century maps, see the National Library of Scotland map collection.
  • Using the geo-referenced maps at the National Library of Scotland allows historic maps to be viewed on top of a modern map or satellite view
  • Ordnance Survey 6-inch, 1st edition (1855) Fife shees 18, 25, 26 at the National Library of Scotland (for the best images), or at old-maps.co.uk or British History online.
  • Ordnance Survey 6-inch editions of 1896 and 1920 at old-maps.co.uk.
  • Small images of Ordnance Survey 25-inch editions of 1894 and 1914 at old-maps.co.uk.
  • A Vision of Britain has the Ordnance Survey 1-inch, 1st edition (1850s) and the Ordnance Survey 1-inch, Popular edition (1920s) - both showing parish boundaries; Land Utilisation mapping (1930s); and more.
  • Ordnance Survey 1-inch, 1st edition (1857) sheet 41; 2nd edition (1899) sheet 41; and 3rd edition (1906) sheet 41 at the National Library of Scotland.
  • Ordnance Survey 1-inch, Popular edition (1927-1928) sheets 64, 68 at the National Library of Scotland.
  • Ordnance Survey 1-inch, 7th series (1950s-1960s) sheet 56 at the National Library of Scotland.
• Paper maps:
  • The National Library of Scotland sells paper and digital copies of their maps (select "Enquiries & copies").
  • The Caledonian Maps Victorian Ordnance Survey Map Series sheet 41 (reprint of the 1899 1-inch map).
  • Old-maps.co.uk sell paper copies of all their on-line maps.
  • Ordnance Survey 1-inch, 7th series (1950s-1960s) sheet 56
  • The best collection of large scale local and estate maps and plans is held by the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh. The RCAHMS also has some plans. They are catalogued on the ScotlandsPlaces website. N.B. Only a few maps and plans are available as digital images.

Present-day maps:

• On-line maps:
  • National Library of Scotland map collection - main page
  • Streetmap
  • Ordnance Survey maps
• Paper maps:
  • Ordnance Survey Landranger (scale 1:50000 -  about 1 inch to 1 mile) sheet 59 - St Andrews
  • Ordnance Survey Explorer (larger scale 1:25000 -  about 2 and a half inches to 1 mile) sheets 370 - Glenrothes north, Falkland & Lomond Hills; 371 - St Andrews and East Fife

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference NO450035 (Lat/Lon: 56.221283, -2.889251), Newburn which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

Fife Deaths Abroad 1855-1900 - a compilation of overseas deaths recorded in Fife newspapers - has been produced by Andrew Campbell of Fife Family History Society. The Society have recently re-published it in their Publications Series, 28.

The relief of paupers after 1845 was carried out by the Parochial Board and later by the Parish Council. None of their records are known to exist.

There is a page with census statistics from 1755 to 1961 here.

See also A Vision of Britain and Histpop for population statistics.

Probate records are 'Confirmations' in Scotland.

Prior to 1824, wills, testaments & inventories of residents of Newburn may be found in either the St Andrews Commissariot (CC20) or the Edinburgh Commissariot (CC8) records. From 1824, commissary business has been conducted by the Sheriff Court of Fife at Cupar (SC20).

Indexes and finding aids are given on the main Fife page.

Local sources worth searching for deeds include St Andrews Commissary Court and Cupar Sheriff Court.

Parochial Boards and their successors, Parish Councils, administered many local functions including poor relief.

No records known.

School Board Records and / or school logbooks are held at the Fife Council Archive Centre. Newburn records:

At the Fife Council Archive Centre, Kirkcaldy:

• Newburn School
  Log books, 1873-1966; School Board Minutes 1873-1919.

Entries less than 50 years old may contain sensitive personal information and are not on open access. If you are a former pupil you are entitled to see your own entry. Please contact the Archivist for further details.

At the Special Collections Dept. of St Andrews University Library:

• ms 38464
  Drumeldrie School
  Papers, 18th-19th century.

Education statistics for Fife schools in 1891-2 list the following board schools in the parish:

"Statistical accounts" giving fascinating insights into the local topography and history, social and economic conditions, and even the daily lives of people, were written by the parish ministers in the 1790s and the 1840s. For more information see the main Fife pages

• The 'Old' Statistical Account is at The Statistical Accounts of Scotland and Google Books.
• The 'New' Statistical Account is also at The Statistical Accounts of Scotland and Google Books.

The hearth tax, clock & watch tax, male servants tax, female servants tax, and farm horse tax are all on ScotlandsPlaces.

See also the Early Taxation Records page.