General Notes

Name Suffix:<NSFX> Sir
Sir Robert Melville, who had been secretary to Mary, succee
ded his
father-in-law Sir William Kirkcaldy in ownership of the cas
tle Rossend
Castle, Burntisland, Fife. Around 1586 when the first Provo
st of the town
was elected, Melville took advantage of his position and fo
rced the newly
formed Town Council tobow to his wishes. Proof of this lie
s in a bond,
signed by the Provost, bailies and council to Sir Robert Ma
lvill of
Murdocarny, by which in gratitude for his having secured ra
tification of
their charter, they engage to aid him, his eldest son and t
heir heirs, in
all just and lawful actions to admit them as burgesses with
out any
payment, to relieve them of all impositions levied byor upo
n the burgh
and to allow them the first 'coff' of all merchandise broug
ht into the
port. Sir Robert's son was provost for a number of years bu
t eventually
the town survived for a number of years without a provost a
s they could
no longer stand such a set of vultures as head of the Tow
n Council. Sir
Robert Melville Younger became a member of the Privy Counci
l in London
duringthe reign of James VI and I, and when James made hi
s only visit
back to his native Scotland in 1617 he visited the castle a
s a guest of
the Melvilles.
Sir James Wemyss of Bogie was the owner of Burntisland Cast
le in the mid
1650's. He was anxious to obtain a title and purchased tha
t of Lord
Burntisland, as Sir Robert Melville Younger had died withou
t issue in
1635. In 1672 he married Margaret, daughter of the Earl o
f Wemyss, when
she was only 13 years of age. On the death of the Earl of W
emyss in 1679
Lord Burntisland's wife becamethe Countess of Wemyss. Her s
econd son
David succeeded to the title as thirdEarl of Wemyss
On the death of Kirkcaldy of Grange, the castle reverted t
o the Melvils,
Sir Robert, the second son of the Baronet before-mentioned
, entering into
possession. In 1587, a general annexation of Church propert
y was madeby
Act of Parliament to the Crown, and James VI gifted the Abb
ey of
Dunfermline to his Queen, Anne of Denmark, as a marriage do
wry two years
later (1589) which deed was ratified, and this ecclesiastic
al domain
erected into a temporal lordship, 7th March, 1593. The lord
ship, we are
told, included all the lands which belonged to the monaster
y, except the
Barony of Burntisland, in which Sir Robert Melvil and tha
t of Newburn, in
which Sir Andrew Wood of Largohad been infeft, and also th
e Barony of
Musselburgh, which had been erected in a separate tempora
l lordship, and
conferred on Lord Chancellor Thirlessane. It was the Sir Ro
bert here
referred to who in 1587 was entrusted with the important mi
ssion of
proceeding to England to endeavour to prevent the executio
n of Queen
Mary, a duty he discharged with so much boldness before th
e Council that
Elizabeth menaced his life, and would fain have imprisone
d him.
He afterwards became first Lord Melville (ancestors of th
e Earls of Leven
and Melville), and died in 1621 at the advanced age of 94
. He was
succeeded by his only son, Robert, second Lord Melville, wh
o, on being
constituted and Extraordinary Lord of Session in 1601, assu
med the title
Lord Burntisland. From the old Burgh records it appears tha
t this
nobleman was for many years Provost of the Burgh. While h
e held the
office he attempted to extend the boundaries of the castl
e by enclosing a
portion of ground belonging to the public. The community re
sisted, and
applied to Sir George Home, afterwards Earl of Dunbar, tosu
persede him
in the Provostship, and to protect them by his influence a
t Court. This
he promised to do, and was elected Provost accordingly. I
n retaliation,
Sir Robert Melville and his lady, Lady Ross, endeavoured t
o get the town
disfranchised, a movement which the Earl of Dunbar tried hi
s best to
defeat. The inhabitants, however, appear to have wearied o
f t