Rev. Andrew Leitch M.A., Minister of Maryton

Andrew (Andraei Leochaei) was a brother of James Leitch in St Andrews Fife;

Vicar of Kilmoir 1577; had charge of Dunlappie 1580;

adm before 1585; had this and other parishes under his care but renoved to Maryton in 1589.

Master of Brechin Grammar School 1580; tr. & adm. bef. 1585, with Craig, Lunan & St Skae also in his charge; d. 1611 Montrose;

mar. (1) Isabella, dau. of Rob. Donaldson; issue: Mr John; Mr Andrew; David; Nicholas (mar. Paul Somer); Christian; mar. (2) 1605 Magdalen Adamson;

Testaments of Maryton people (including lands of Dysart) from the Register of Testaments of the Commissariot of Brechin, 1576-1823:

William Leitch, elder in Auld-Montrose, in Angus 28 Jul 1603 Mr Andrew Leitch minister at Marytoune, and Magdalen Adamson, his spouse 7 Jan 1613

Minister of Ellon, Aberdeen (1643).

Moderator of General assembly for Scotland

Leitch, Mr. Andrew, minister at Marytoune, and Magdalen 7July1621 Adamson, his spouse from SCOTTISH RECORD SOCIETY. 11 THE IRecoro of Brecbin. REGISTER OF 1 576-1 800. Commissanot EDINBURGH PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY BY JAMES SKINNER & COMPANY. 1902. :

TESTAMENTS.

However, Seccombe is the more inexcusable because the Scottish poet not only proclaims himself Scotus but specifically Celurcanus, i. e. from Montrose, and also tells us that his ecloga piscatoria ‘Dorylas’ (extant in print since 1620) is a lament for his father Andrew Leitch: Andraei Leochaei, verbi Dei quondam praeconis, patris sui, obitum deflet (Musae Priores, Idyllia sive Eclogae, sig. A3).

The original edition of Hew Scott’s Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae (1868 - 71) had contained a sizeable entry for Mr Andrew Leitch, minister of Maryton (Old Montrose). The revised edition of Fasti (1915 to present) provides further information, thought not all of it is accurate. NOTE 9 Considerably more and self-evidently reliable contemporary documentary evidence can be gleaned from material held by the National Records of Scotland (NRS), not least the nine pages of Andrew’s last will and testament (NRS, CC3/3/2/536-545) and other Brechin burgh court records. It is not yet known where Andrew Leitch took his M. A. His ecclesiastical career can be traced from July 1576 onwards, when he is found as rector of the vicarage of Kilmoir (within Brechin Cathedral). NOTE 10 By 1580 he was master of Brechin Grammar School, as well as minister of the nearby parishes of Fern and Dunlappie. He was appointed minister of Maryton in 1585 and remained there until his death in 1611, when the poet was in his second year of study at King’s College, Old Aberdeen.

The executors included the minister of St Cyrus and the bishops of both Brechin and Caithness, the latter having been consecrated by the former in 1611. The ‘geir’ in question was worth a lot of money. Andrew owned property both in Angus and in Fife, and his testament appointed two different administrators to look after the rents in the two counties, as well as mentioning a sister Elspet, resident in St Andrews, and a brother Alexander.

For another family connection in Fife, see epigram I.71. It has, however, proved impossible to prove Fasti V’s claim that Andrew was ‘brother of James L. in St. Andrews.’

If the poet was fifteen or so when he matriculated at Kings College, Old Aberdeen in 1610, his year of birth can be hazarded as c. 1595. Hitherto, John Leech’s mother has often been wrongly assumed to have been Isabella Donaldson, who was in fact his stepmother.

In epigram III.61 John Leech salutes Balnamoon, an estate on the North Esk, as his ancestral home. It is not without significance that his father’s one-time charge of Dunlappie lies close to Balnamoon, which for about three hundred years (down to c. 1640) belonged to a family called Collace.

The epigram’s phraseology makes it clear that the poet’s own mother was a Collace. Various Brechin Consistory Court documents in the National Records of Scotland prove this to have been the case. Under date of 24 August 1611, we find “electio curatorum John & Christiane Leiche children to umquhyll Mr Andrew Leiche minister of Marytoun & umquhyll [ . . . ] Collace his spous Alexander Leiche brother to umquhyll Mr Andro & Thomas Leiche in St Andrews nearest of kin on fathers side, Robert Collace of Balnamone & John Collace fear of Balnamone his son & David Collace of Birkhill nearest of kin on mothers side” (NRS CC3/1/4, Acts and Decreets, 9 Jan 1611 to 19 Jun 1613, p.210). Two earlier Brechin documents, registered on 29 March 1599 (NRS, CC3/9/1, n.p.), had named Rev. Andrew Leitch’s late spouse as “‘Christian Collace.”

Andrew’s testament, drawn up on 16 March 1611, appointed “Robert Collace apperand of Balnamone & John Collace his sone and David Collace of Birkhill & John Knox provest of Sanctandrois” as his executors; a note added to the testament in 1613 states that of these four men, only Robert Collace had agreed to be an executor. As Andrew Leitch’s testament shows Christian Leitch, named for her mother, was John’s full sister. His other sister, Nicolas (such could be a woman’s Christian name in 17th century Scots usage) was Isabella’s daughter, as were his brothers Andrew and David, who graduated from King’s College only in 1621 and 1624 respectively.

Writing from Paris on 19 April 1618 to Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, John Leech reveals a grandiose sense of his own destiny:

Another possible if not probable connection to the Leitch family as follows.

Alexander Leitch birth date unknown, death 11 March 1639 Montrose, Angus Scotland, Maryton Churchyard,
Maryton Angus Scotland.
Find a Grave Memorial ID 157648622
Created by Pixturmn
Contributor 47729036

II.29 John Graham [1573 - 1626], fourth Earl of Montrose. He was royal commissioner at the General Assembly which James VI convened at Aberdeen in August 1616 to push through the “articles of conformity” with the English church which had been brought north by John Young, dean of Winchester, addressee of III.76. The earl is mentioned in Leech’s father’s testament, since Andrew Leitch had bought “the lands of Scotstoun and Markarie” from him, and also had a debt “to Mr Andro Strauchan minister at Dwne (i. e. Dun) ane thousand markis qlk be contract past betuix the Erle of Montros and me I am oblist to pay to him for my Lords releiff” (NRS, CC3/3/2/542).