Collessie CLS P NO286133 1 362 60m

    de terra mea de Colesyn 1207 x 1217 Simpson 1965, App. A no. 12 (pp. 227–8) [o.c.; ‘perhaps 1207 x 1217’;[101] Roger of St Andrew(s) (de Sancto Andrea) grants, for salvation of his soul and of his predecessors and successors and for salvation of the soul of his lord <and uncle> Saher de Quincy earl of Winchester and of Robert his (Saher’s) son, to the hospital of Brackley, [102] Northamptonshire, England, 40 s. annual rent ‘from my land of Collessie’]
    in villa de Colesyn 1207 x 1217 Simpson 1965, App. A no. 13 (pp. 229–30) [o.c.; ‘perhaps 1207 x 1217’; mentioned in notes to Lind. Cart. no. 131, p. 277, where dated 1210 x 1218. Saher of St Andrew(s) (Seherus de Sancto Andrea) confirms the grant of his brother Roger to Brackley hospital (see preceding) of 40 s. annual rent ‘in the vill of Collessie’]
?   Colethin 1240 x 1250 Swinton 1905, 173 [see CLS Intro., Collessie, Colzie]
    iu ta ecclesiam de Cullessy c.1240 x 1256 Lind. Cart. no. 91 [rubric: ‘Anent the house or manse (De manso) beside the church of Collessie’]
    ecclesia<a> Sancti Andree de Colessy c.1240 x 1256 Lind. Cart. no. 91 [see CLS Intro. for details of dating, as well as for text and discussion of this charter]
    in Culaþin 1242 Simpson 1965 no. 3 [o.c.; re Brackley Hospital; Simpson considers this a mistranscription of Culassin]
    terr<a> de Collelessy c.1250 Lind. Cart. no. 140 [rubric: ‘Cockburn anent the division of the land of Collessie and Cardynside’ (Cokeburn super diuisione terre de Collelessy et Cardynside)]
    villa mea de Cullessin c.1250 Lind. Cart. no. 140 [belonging to John of Cockburn (de Kocbrun); see CLS Intro., Medieval Landscapes, for more details]
    villam de Culessin c.1250 Lind. Cart. no. 140 [see preceding; also Coulessin]
    terram meam de Coulessin c.1250 Lind. Cart. no. 140 [see preceding]
    ecclesia de Culessy c.1250 St A. Lib. 34
    ecclesia de Culessy c.1250 Dunf. Reg. no. 313
    Johann<es> capellan<us> de Cullessy 1253 Lind. Cart. no. 64 pp. 71–2 [w. with Adam of Makerstoun, probably rector of Collessie (Watt, Graduates, 371a)]
    ecclesi<a> de Cullessy 1262 Lind. Cart. no. 131 [rubric]
    ecclesiam de Culessin 1262 Lind. Cart. no. 131 [Roger de Quincy grants ‘the church of Collessie’ to Lindores Abbey; see CLS Intro.]
    ecclesi<a> de Culessyn 1262 Lind. Cart. no. 131
    ecclesia de Cullessin 1262 Lind. Cart. no. 132 [royal confirmation of no. 131]
    resignacio ecclesie de Cowlessy 1262 Lind. Cart. no. 143 [rubric; Adam of Makerstoun resigns as rector of Collessie][103]
    ecclesiam meam de Cullessyn 1262 Lind. Cart. no. 143 [see preceding]
    ecclesi<a> de Cowlessi 1262 Lind. Cart. no. 142 [rubric]
    ecclesiam de Cullessyn 1262 Lind. Cart. no. 142
    (church of) Cowlessy 1277 Lind. Cart. no. 145 [rubric]
    Cullessyn 1277 Lind. Cart. no. 145 [twice]
    (lands of) Westir Cullessy c.1410 St A. Lib. 406 [rubric]
    Vestir Cullessy 1424 x 1430 St A. Lib. 406 [Archibald, (second) duke of Touraine and earl of Douglas etc., grants to St Andrews Priory those two merks (Scots) annually which his predecessors used to receive ‘from the cain of our lands of Wester Collessie ... for the maintenance of a light before the image in the cathedral church of St Andrew at the high altar where that image is placed which is commonly called the Douglas Lady’; charter given at St Andrews)][104]
    silvas ac nemora de Cullessy 1450 RMS ii no. 385 [to Bp James of St Andrews, ‘the woods and groves of Collessie’]
    cum canis de Westir-Culissy 1471 RMS ii no. 1039 [‘with the cains of’]
    Estir-Culessy 1478 RMS ii no. 1355
    Kirktoune de Collesse 1479 RMS ii no. 1414 [see *Millhill CLS, discussion]
    (east wood of) Culessy 1507 RMS ii no. 3088
    Estir Cullessy 1507 RMS ii no. 3088 [see CLS Intro.]
    Ester Cullessy 1509 RMS ii no. 3300 [Wm Cumming of Inverallochy ABD, Marchmont Herald, sells to Andrew Kincraigie SLO half of lands of]
    Wedderisbe alias vocat. Wester Cullessy 1509 RMS ii no. 3363
    terras de Estir Cullessy 1513 RMS ii no. 3864 [Cumming of Inverallochy]
    Estir Cullessy 1539 RMS iii no. 2005 [then called the Halhill CLS, q.v.]
    toftam de Cowessie 1600 RMS vi no. 1032 [probably a scribal or editorial misreading of ll as w; in barony of Grange of Lindores]
    Culessy K<irk> 1642 Gordon MS Fife
    Kirktoune of Collasey 1653 RMS x no. 183
    Collossey K<irk> 1654 Blaeu (Pont) East Fife
    Collessie Mains 1775 Ainslie/Fife [now Newton of Collessie]
    Collessie Mains 1827 Ainslie/East Fife [now Newton of Collessie]

? G cùl or ? G cùil + ? G eas or ? G lios + – in

‘Place at the back (cùl) of an eas or lios’?; ‘place in the corner of or with an eas or lios’? The first element is probably G cùl ‘back’, or cùil ‘corner, recess, neuk’, with the earliest forms already showing confusion between u and o in the unstressed syllable. The final element is the ubiquitous locational suffix –in.

    The second element could well be G eas ‘water-fall’. While there is no water-fall as such in the vicinity, it would apply to the small but vigorous Collessie Burn, which runs through the present-day village of Collessie (formerly Kirkton). This burn is known further upstream as the Den Burn, as it runs through Collessie Den, and the Black Burn, as it flows out of Black Loch in the Ochils (for more details, see Black Burn, Section 1, above; and for eas as a burn-name, see Element Glossary PNF 5, s.v.). Alternatively the second element may be G lios ‘enclosure, hall’; if so then the feature referred to could be the lios of Lathrisk, lios riasglios in the bog’, for which see Lathrisk KTT (PNF 2).

    There is another complicating factor regarding this name, since it should probably be considered along with Colzie (earlier Culesin), which seems to be the same name, attached to a swathe of territory which once included all the Colzies as well as the parish of Collessie (see CLS Intro., Collessie, Colzie and Colethin; and Colzie, Section 1, above, for more details). At an early date the different parts of this territory, along with their names, went their different ways, with the parish-name stressed on the second syllable, and so retaining its original three syllables, while the name of the lands within the parish of Abernethy were stressed on the first syllable, leading to the reduction and eventual loss of the medial syllable. If we are dealing with one underlying name, the question arises as to which modern development represents the original stress-pattern. There is no sure way of knowing, but in the above analysis the assumption is that Collessie rather than Colzie better represents the original stress.

    See also Halhill (alias Easter Collessie), Kirkton of Collessie #, Newton (called for a time Collessie Mains) and Weddersbie (alias Wester Collessie), below.

/kɔˈlɛsɪ/ or /kəˈlɛsɪ/.

This place-name appeared in printed volume 4