Laurence Hay & Andrew Pitullo

Hay and Pitullo were members of a local society for prayer and conference. They were taken to Edinburgh and hanged at the Grassmarket on 11 July 1681. Their heads were severed from their bodies and sent to Cupar for display, where they were later buried with a hand of David Hackston of Rathillet, who had been hanged. He was executed in Edinburgh on 30 July 1680 and his hands cut from his body (because he held it up to swear his support for the Covenants).

Hay & Pitullo's Gravestone

Old Churchyard

Cupar

Fife

NGR - NO 373145

The headtsone is located on the south side of the old church tower in the old churchyard.

The inscription reads:

Here lie interred the Heads of LAUR HAY
and ANDREW PITULLOCH who
suffered martyrdom at EDINr. July 16th 1681
for adhering to the word of GOD & Scotland
covenanted work and Reformation and also
one of the hands of DAVID HACKSTON
of Rathillot who was most cruelly murdered
at EDINr. July 30th 1680
for the same cause.

The opposite side reads:

1680
Our persecutors filled with rage
Their brutish fury to aswage
Took heads and hands of martyrs off
That they might be the peoples scoff
They Hackstons body cutt asunder
And set it up a worlds wonder
In several places to proclaim
These monsters gloryd in their shame
RE-ERECTED
July 13th 1792