Andrew Buist (1727-1815)

Andrew Buist, a tenant farmer from Fife, typified the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit in Scottish farming in the mid-18th-century. He was a tenant farmer of Woodhead, Cowden, Grange of Lindores and Craigmill all in the parish of Abdie. He like many other tenant farmers in lowland Scotland would make contributions to the improvements in agriculture. He would marry Isabel Thomson and they would have nine children who were all born in Abdie Parish. After the death of his wife, Isabel, Andrew relocated to Markinch where he met and later married Christian Martin also of Markinch Parish. By 1777, Buist was working as a cotter and he purchased a residence at the east end of the Markinch Parish Church. Andrew Buist would live through the height of the Scottish Enlightenment when new science was being brought to bear on Scottish agriculture and would play a part in those exciting changes. This then is the narrative of the life and times of Andrew Buist.