Broadsea is a community situated in

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

in the north east of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It is a long-standing fishing community at the north edge of

Fraserburgh Fraserburgh (; sco, The Broch or ; gd, A' Bhruaich) is a town in Aberdeenshire (unitary), Aberdeenshire, Scotland with a population recorded in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census at 13,100. It lies at the far northeast corner of Aber ...

Christian Watt Christian Watt (24 February 1833 – 20 June 1923) was a fisherwoman and memoirist. Early life Christian Watt was born in 1833 in Broadsea, in the fishertown of Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire. She was the seventh of eight children of her parent ...

, author of ''The Christian Watt Papers'', was born and raised in Broadsea. Her

memoirs A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...

give an insight into the lives in the community during the latter part of the 19th century.

History

Much of the history of the small village of Broadsea in written widely about in Christian Watts' memoirs. Perhaps the most famous group the Broadsea village were the Noble families. They were of great influence in the village in the 17th century. As such, to buy favour with the family, Alexander Fraser, 11th Lord Saltoun, created a title for the head of the Nobles – the 'Constable of Broadsea'. The constableship passed from the Nobles to the Lascelles family in a series of marriages until the 1740s, when the title was revoked by the Hanoverian state. William Lascelles, the last constable, had been against both the Act of Union and Hanoverian succession. The title continued for at least two more generations as a hereditary pretendership. It has been claimed that later Noble families descend from both the 11th and 12th Lord Saltouns of Abernethy.

Constables of Broadsea

*3rd constable – Alexander Noble, Traveller of Zetland *4th constable – Grissel Noble, daughter of Alexander *5th constable – David Lascelles, son of Grissel and Walter Lascelles *6th constable – Anne Lascelles, sister of David *7th constable – Margaret Ann Noble, daughter of Anne and Patrick Noble *8th constable – William Lascelles (c.1737–1785), son of Margaret and James Lascelles *9th constable – Helen Lascelles (c.1758–1841), Pretender *10th constable – Helen Noble, Pretender, and the mother of Christian Watt.

Architecture

The community's 17th-century school was demolished before 1990.

References

Villages in Aberdeenshire Fraserburgh {{Aberdeenshire-geo-stub