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Lord Leslie

lordship in the baronage of Scotland

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ131686971 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lord Leslie (Fife) is a title of nobility in the Baronage of Scotland, connected to the county of Fife. It was crown chartered in 1932 and the current holder, as of 2025, is Giacomo Merello, Lord of Leslie.

Seat is Leslie House in Leslie, Fife, Scotland.

History of the Lordship of Leslie (Fife)

The history of the Barony and Lordship of Leslie, in the County of Fife (Scotland, UK) starts from the acquisition of a territory originally called “Fythkill” in Fife by Sir George Leslie, grandson of Sir Andrew Leslie and Mary Abernethy, in likely the mid 14th century. The actual earliest mention of the Barony is found in a charter by Robert II of 1382. King Robert III in 1398 granted a further charter to Sir George Leslie and Elizabeth his spouse (the King's niece) of the Barony of Fythkill on the provision that for all time to come his heirs should render to the King or his successors, in the name of fee, ‘a pair of white gloves at the Market Cross of Cupar every Whitsunday’; shortly after, the Barony of Fythkill was renamed as “Leslie”, as in 1455 a charter related to Sir George's son Norman, who succeeded him, refers to ‘the Barony of Leslie in the County of Fife’. In 1458 the town of Leslie Green was erected into a free burgh of the Barony. Norman was succeeded by his grandson George Leslie in 1489. In 1510 he had a Crown charter of the barony of Fythkill ‘now called Leslie’. He died around 1512 and was briefly succeeded by his brother William who was killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

Editorial summary

“Lord Leslie” enters the record as lordship in the baronage of Scotland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lord, Leslie and lordship can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1932, 2025, 1382, 1398—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1382. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Lord, Leslie and lordship.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Lord Leslie” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Lord, Leslie and lordship provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131686971. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 2025, 1382 and 1398.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lord Leslie”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lord Leslie primary sources, Lord Leslie archive and Lord research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lord Leslie”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lord Leslie” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.