Call to restore unique piece of Fife history

Robert Proctor visited the grave of Laurence Hay, Andrew Pitullo and David Hackston, at Cupar’s Old Parish Church, but discovered that the gravestone was cracked and broken.

Laurence and Andrew were hanged in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh in 1681, before their heads were severed and sent back to Cupar to be displayed as a warning to others. The two heads were later buried with the hand of David, who had been executed the year before. His hand had been cut off as he held it up to swear his support for the Covenantors.

An inscription on the stone states that it was re-erected in 1792.

Robert was researching the history of the Covenanters when he learned about the three men.

“I had been doing research for my own interest,” he said.

“I went round Greyfriars graveyard in Edinburgh and there is a section with the Convenanters. There is also a memorial in the city. I picked up a book about the Edinburgh Covenanters and my interest snowballed from there.

“I didn’t know much before I started reading about it. I don’t think a lot of people in Cupar will know it’s there.”

Robert had visited the Cupar gravestone last summer, when it was in one piece, and decided to take his wife to see it recently.

However, it was on this visit that he discovered it had been cracked and pushed over.

The Covenanters were a group of Scots who opposed the interference of the Stuart kings in the affairs of the Presbyterian church.

In the following years, the Covenanters would fight against and alongside the Stuart monarchs, while the English Civil War raged.

Things went from bad to worse after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and for the next quarter of a century, the Covenanters would suffer persecution.

Laurence, a weaver from Kilconquhar, and Andrew, a land labourer from Largo, had joined a society for prayer and conference in Fife. They signed a paper disowning the king and all his ministers, which, upon discovery, led to their executions.

Liz Murphy, bereavement services manager for Fife Council, said: “We are trying to make arrangements for this memorial to be repaired as soon as we can. It may require some specialist assistance, but we are aware of it and trying to resolve the matter as quickly as we can.”