23rd Feb 1715. A “high ryot” started at Pittenweem after William Bell Jr., bailie, called Robert Cook, advocate, “mad and light in the head” and said that his “pericranium was wrang”.
An oddly specific burn if ever there was one.
Cook, D. (ed.) Annals of Pittenweem: being notes and extracts from the ancient records of that burgh, 1526-1793. Lewis Russell, Anstruther. pp.132-133
In October 1888, A Pittenweem boy aged 13 wrote menacing letters pretending to be Jack the Ripper (or his brother, “Rab the Beginner”) to local people saying they’d be murdered. Some took the threats seriously. The papers published the letters. He was fined £5.
Fife News, 22nd December 1888, pg. 6.
Fife Herald, 19th December 1888, pg. 4.
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 15th December 1888, pg. 3.
In 1704, one of the “Pittenweem Witches” Beatrix Layng met the devil on Ceres Moor. She knew because he appeared as a black dog. This is Ceres Moor today, and my pup, Scout. She is rarely a devil. Layng denied being a witch, but adamant she had been chatting with Satan himself. Layng was released from prison after paying £8 and eventually pardoned by Queen Anne in 1708.
