Elie, High Street, Parish Church, Churchyard Gateway, Wall And Session House

Sepulchral Monuments, Elie Churchyard.

Beside the entrance to the churchyard is the monument of Alexander Gillespie, who died in 1635. In the pediment is a coat of arms. The crest is an anchor, and the motto inscribed on the label is, TV CERTA SALVTIS ANCHORA. The shield bears a chevron wavy between three roses slipped, for Gillespie of Newtoun (cf. NT49NE 59). The motto is that of the Gillespies of Mountquhanie (NO32SW 19), whose arms were an anchor proper. South of the church lies a table-stone, bearing the date 13 November 1641 and three shields, only one of which is decipherable. It shows a chevron between two mascles in chief and a crescent in base (? for Mitchell). A particularly fine slab, commemorating Thomas Turnbull of "Bogmil," is built into the east wall of the church. A Renaissance vine-scroll borders a central panel with scrolled sides, containing in the upper part a cherub's head and in the lower a shield parted per pale: dexter, a bull's head erased, for Turnbull; sinister, a chevron with a crescent in base, apparently for Arnot. Flanking the shield are the initials T.T. and I.A. The slab of Elizabeth Turnbull, died 1650, which is built into the east wall of the eastern vestibule, has a fluted border enclosing a representation of a skeleton, surmounted by an hour-glass and winged at the head, emerging from a coffin, on which is a shield charged with a bull's head erased.

On the south side of the churchyard gate is the recumbent slab of Jacob Rogers, who "FINIIT"1650. A lozenge-shaped shield on the upper surface, flanked by the initials I.I., bears: A chief and a lion rampant, probably for Inglis.

RCAHMS 1933, visited 21 July 1927.

Recording of gravestones in the churchyard at Elie Parish Church, Fife, by Mrs Betty Willsher in 1985.