Lord of LeslieGiacomo Merello, Lord of Leslie

The Barony and Lordship of Leslie (1382)

The Barony and Lordship of Leslie in Fife derives from the medieval lands once styled “Fythkill” or “Fettykil,” acquired by Sir George Leslie—grandson of Sir Andrew Leslie and Mary Abernethy— in the 14th century. The earliest surviving official legal reference to the Barony of Fythkill appears in a 1382 Charter of King Robert II. In 1398, King Robert III issued a further charter to Sir George and his wife Elizabeth (the King’s niece), confirming the barony on condition that his heirs render, in feu, “a pair of white gloves” each Whitsunday at the Mercat Cross of Cupar.

The Lordship of Leslie (Fythkill) is entirely distinct from the peerage dignity “Lord Leslie of Leven,” erected in 1445 and still used as the peerage Leslies’ courtesy title for the heir apparent. By 1455 a charter in favour of Sir George refers to “the Barony of Leslie in the County of Fife,” reflecting the formal renaming of Fythkill; and in 1458 the settlement of Leslie Green (now Leslie) was erected into a free burgh of barony with special privileges. A subsequent Crown Charter to George Leslie, 2nd Earl of Rothes, confirmed the barony “now called Leslie.” He died circa 1512 and was briefly succeeded by his brother William, killed at Flodden in 1513.

After the Restoration, the 7th Earl of Rothes incorporated the original Leslie Castle (in Fife, not Aberdeenshire, held by a different Leslie family branch) into a grand new mansion—Leslie House—designed by Sir William Bruce. William Adam was engaged in 1731 to lay out the gardens. Writing in 1720, Daniel Defoe praised Leslie House as the pride of Fife. A devastating fire in December 1763 destroyed the building; it was rebuilt between 1765 and 1767 as a three-storey classical house and later altered.

The Evelyn-Leslie family held the lands and titles until 1919, when Captain William Crundall acquired them. He later sold Leslie House to Sir Robert Spencer-Nairn—who gifted it to the Church of Scotland in 1952—while retaining the feudal dignities, which are now vested in the Merello family.¹ After several changes of ownership and further fires damaging the building, Leslie House’s renovation was completed in 2025 and today serves as the residence of the current Baron of Leslie, thus reuniting the barony with its ancient caput.