Inverkeithing seems to have been created a Royal Burgh by King
Malcolm IV between 1153 and 1162 but to have been granted by King
William the Lion to his illegitimate son, Sir Ralph de Londoniis,
before 1195. By 1223, it was again held of the Crown.
The arms are taken from the obverse and reverse of the oldest known Burgh
seal of which impressions dated 1296 and 1357 are on record.
On the suggestion of the parish minister and local historian, the Rev. William
Stephen, the Town Council specially asked for both sides of the seal to be included
in the coat of arms. The left hand side shows a ship, thus recalling "the passage
and ship of Inverkeithing " granted by King David I to the monks of Dunfermline
in 1129.The sinister side shows St Peter patron saint of the Burgh holding his
keys and a model of the parish church, the Saint's halo could refer to the special
connection the town had, through its ferry, with the shrine of St Margaret at
Dunfermline.
