According to Wikipedia's account of the Broun baronets, Hugo de Gifford of Yester, famed for necromantic powers, was supposed to have given the pear the virtue of conferring unfailing prosperity. George Broun of Colstoun married Marion Hay, who died in 1564, and the pear came with her as dowry. Lord Yester is said to have told his son-in-law the family would flourish as long as it was preserved.
Lord Fountainhall visited in September 1670 and noted that the family kept the pear. A later descendant's account, from Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, says one of the ladies of the family took a longing for the forbidden fruit while pregnant and gave it a deadly bite. Financial crises followed and the pear hardened. Wikipedia says it has been preserved in a silver box as a sacred palladium.
The legend is a family tradition told by the family. The dates of the misfortune given in some popular retellings are not in the source consulted, so this entry does not give one. Colstoun is a private house and estate near Haddington.
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