Gillespie, Alexander, Major

Epithet: Major; late Royal Marines

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000625.0x0000fb

Alexander Gillespie was the son of Alexander Gillespie, skipper in Elie, whose testament was recorded in St Andrews Commissary Court in 1652. Information on Gillespie and his descendants can be found in Walter Wood The East Neuk of Fife, its history and antiquities, Edinburgh, 1887, and A H Millar Fife, Pictorial and Historical, Cupar-Fife, 1895.

In South Street, Elie, stands the doorpiece from Gillespie House. This bears the initials A G and C S, with the date 1682. This must be Alexander Gillespie, author of this diary, and his wife Christian Small, whom he married in Elie in January 1663. Alexander inherited the estate of Newton Rires [now called Charlton] in 1677, probably through his wife. The house he built in or before 1682 must have been one of the largest and most impressive in South Street, which was originally the main street of Elie. James, Duke of York, is said to have stayed there in 1682, and perhaps on other occasions. The house was demolished in the 1860s in order to widen the street, and only the doorway was saved and re-used. The family left Newton Rires for Kirkton [Forgan], and then Mountquhanie, in the parish of Kilmany.

From the guide to the Journal of A Gillespie, skipper in Elie, for the years 1662 to 1685., 1662-1685, (University of St Andrews)