Where was Westwater in Fifeshire

[Margow]

Charles McDougall and Jean Mealmaker married in the Murroes,Forfarshire and Dundee in1783.Charles was recorded in the Murroes record as being from Westwater,Fifeshire.

What is your source for 'Westwater, Fifeshire' ?   The Dundee record (OPR marriages 282/130) describes Charles Macdougal [sic] as being 'in this parish' i.e. Dundee.  The Murroes record (OPR marriages 313/20) gives no place of origin at all. 

Margow

[Lee MacDougall]

Hi James,

Did you get any further on this?

Tracing back my ancestors I too get to a full-stop at Charles McDougall of Westwater, born 1760..

Would love to go back further but it sounds as though no history of Westwater exists, which would make tracing old Great (x7) Granddad Charles a little difficult unfortunately.

Best wishes

Lee

[Forfarian]

I guess the Kingdom of Fife in 1783 may have extended a little further than the more recent administrative boundaries of the 19th century?

The county boundaries were established well before 1783.

Johan Blaeu's map, published in 1652, shows the shire of Angus 'Angusia Provincia Scotiæ Sive The Shire of Angus', and the West Water is specifically named on it. https://maps.nls.uk/view/108520491

There was some tinkering with the county boundaries in the late 19th century, but this was to remove some of the anomalies where there were small enclaves and exclaves of one county inside another.

Not until 1975 were the boundaries swept away wholesale and then replced by new administrative unist.

[WMO]

The Waterside was the area along the south bank of the River Tay between Newport and Woodhaven where the ferrymen lived and operated. References found include: the Waterside, East Waterside, West Waterside, East Water, West Water, betwixt the Waters and Mid Waterside.
East Water was Newport, and West Water was Woodhaven, all in Forgan parish.