The first written record of Scotch whisky

In 1494, the Exchequer Rolls of King James IV of Scotland logged a modest payment of grain that would become the founding document of an industry. The entry reads: “To Friar John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae, eight bolls of malt.” It is the earliest known written reference to distilling in Scotland.

Friar John Cor was a Tironensian monk at Lindores Abbey in Fife, near the royal palace of Falkland. Aqua vitae—Latin for “water of life”—was the medieval term for distilled spirits; in Gaelic it became uisge beatha, later contracting into the word whisky itself.

The quantity was no trifle. Eight bolls of malt was enough barley to yield several hundred bottles by modern estimates, suggesting that distilling at the abbey was already an established, sizeable operation rather than a curious experiment.