[1605/6/59]¹

²Act regarding the erection of the kirk of Portincraig

Our sovereign lord and estates of this present parliament, understanding the parish of Leuchars within the sheriffdom of Fife to be of so great and large bounds and so populous in the self so that the parish kirk thereof is not capable of the parishioners and indwellers within the said parish, but great numbers of them, through want of place and occasion of hearing the word these many years bygone, either abide at their own dwelling houses on the Sabbath day, or resort to other parishes, and also understanding a kirk lately to be built within the town of the East Ferry of Portincraig, which is the northernmost part of the said parish, most distant from the said kirk of Leuchars and very commodious to be made a parish kirk for the inhabitants of that north part of the said parish, therefore our said sovereign lord, with special advice and consent of the estates foresaid, erects, creates, makes and appoints the foresaid kirk lately built in the East Ferry of Portincraig to be a parish kirk in all time coming, and to be called the parish kirk of Portincraig, and dismembers and severs the same parish kirk and parishioners thereof in all time hereafter from the foresaid parish kirk of Leuchars and parish thereof, whereof it was part and pendicle of before, and gives and grants to the said parish kirk of Portincraig and parishioners thereof all privileges, freedoms, rights, liberties and immunities belonging to any parish kirk within this realm.