Peterhead:

In 1593 James VI erected Keith Inche into a Burgh Barony, the population at this time was less than 100. At the base of the roof of the Old Salmon House there is a corner stone with the initials G.K. (George Keith Earl Marischal) indicating that this house was built 2 years before Peterhead was erected into a Burgh. George Keith became the first Feudal Marischal of Peterhead with power of Pot and Gallows.

Men convicted of, sometimes petty crimes, at the Barony Court on Meethill were hanged on a nearby hillock, women and boys were drowned in a pit filled with water. (Keiths were appointed Earl Marischal's of Scotland by Malcolm 2nd for valour at the battle of Panbride.

A pamphlet written in 1636 extolled the virtues of the Wine Well, the water would 'flee the perturbations of the mind.'

In 1795 a Dr Main was in possession of a chunk of amber the size of a horse, which was found in the Kirkburn.

1560 Peterhead belonged to the Abbey of Deer. Ruins of a Medieval abbey were to be found on the Windmill Brae. Grange as in Petergrange was a place where rents and tithes of religious houses were paid in.

During the Jacobite Rebellion Spanish Armada cannons were mounted on the Tollbooth green. In the museum there was a copy of a letter from the Old Chevalier dated 22/12/1715, thanking his friends in Peterhead for their assistance.

Rev. James Keith 1696 - 1753 was born in Peterhead but because of his Jacobite sympathies he emigrated to Virginia and married Mary Isham Randolph who was a direct descendant of Pocahontas. Other famous names associated with this family were Robert E Lee and Thomas Jefferson.