National Records Scotland
Following the online release of around one million records to the ScotlandsPeople website, Veronica Schreuder invites us to take a look at how these records can help to piece together how ordinary Scots lived, worked and worshipped over the centuries
Kirk Session Records release
In the spring of 2021, the National Records of Scotland (NRS) released over 6,000 volumes of kirk session and other church court records (around 1 million pages) on their online research service ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) in partnership with the Church of Scotland.The new records are free to browse and offer a vivid snapshot into the everyday lives of ordinary Scots. The church court also adjudicated on cases involving the paternity of children and was responsible for administering poor relief, providing basic education and punishing anti-social behaviour. There are also accounts of exceptional events such as crop failures, witchcraft trials and outbreaks of epidemics.
Background to the records
Following the Scottish reformation in 1560, the Church of Scotland became a Presbyterian denomination with elders elected to look after the affairs of the parish. In rural areas, the elders were landowners or wealthy farmers; in burghs they usually came from the merchant classes. The kirk session records were born from meetings held by the elders and the minister of the local parish who met at least weekly to rule on various issues.The session clerk was employed to record the details of the kirk session’s decisions, and the survival of the minute books give us an unparalleled insight into the lives of ordinary people and how they lived, worked and worshipped.
Discipline
It was the duty of the kirk session to investigate any bad behaviour in the parish, such as drunkenness, breaking the Sabbath and pre-marital sex. An investigation into the offence would take place followed by an appropriate punishment. In December 1724, for example, a discipline case was brought before Lanark kirk session ‘that James Weir… and Helen Hastie… both single persons, were found together under Cloud of Night, in an outer Coalhouse… it is suspected they have been guiltie of unsuitable Behaviour with each other’ (NRS, CH2/1529/1/3, pages 1-5).
William Rob was also ‘suspected to be concerned in that Wickedness.’ James and Helen claimed before the kirk session that they were wrestling for an apple in the coalhouse and William stated that he was waiting outside for James.
They were solemnly rebuked and dismissed ‘with a grave Admonition’ and ‘their Absolution from this Scandal’ was delayed ‘til they see, whether anything be discovered in providence or not.’
Illness
Evidence of outbreaks of illness such as the bubonic plague and cholera, along with details of the way people tried to combat their transferable effects, are also recorded.
For example, in the early 1830s, the parish of Mains and Strathmartine created a board of health, made up of members of the kirk session and heritors, in response to an outbreak of cholera .The disease had worked its way through Ceylon, Canton and Russia before reaching Sunderland in October 1831 and travelling north to Haddington and on to all large cities across the country.
The minutes discuss the problem in great detail and include instructions for tackling the disease. Houses were directed to be whitewashed (due to antibacterial properties in the limestone), ‘receiving houses’ for the infected were to be established, ‘a covered spring cart with mattress and blankets… for keeping up the temperature of the body… for conveying patients from a distance [to the receiving house], and a supply of ‘medicines, cordials, articles of nutriment and other remedial means should be kept at different stations’ (NRS, CH2/256/4, page 13).
In total, 512 people were ‘seized’ by the illness, which reached its heights between July and October 1832. A smaller outbreak followed the next year.
Memorable occasions
The ripple effects of wars and social issues both close to home and abroad were felt through different parishes and recognised in the session clerks’ notes.
Linlithgow presbytery in 1792, for example, agreed to form a committee to discuss ‘the slave trade carried on by the British between Africa and the West Indies’ (NRS, CH2/242/15, page 225).They unanimously agreed to petition the House of Commons for its abolition. It would be another 41 years before this came to pass in much of the British empire in 1833.
70 years later, in the winter of 1862, the presbytery of Dunfermline realised the distress being suffered by cotton workers in Lancashire due to a shortage of material caused by the American Civil War. It was agreed that financial subscriptions were to be established to aid their relief. (NRS, CH2/105/17, page 566).
A momentous occasion for the nation occurred on 22 January 1901 when Queen Victoria died after a 64-year reign.The country was plunged into mourning; this event is recognised in the Fossoway minutes which state that a memorial service was held on 27 January and the pulpit was draped in black for six weeks (NRS, CH2/163/11, page 37). A sketch of the young queen (seen above) also appears in the kirk session records for Peebles parish (1816-19) (NRS, CH2/420/21, page 1).
Death
Kirk session records also highlight the fear of body snatching and the desecration of graves. Newburn parish ‘mort safe society’, for example, notes the unsettling acts of ‘the violation of graves by what are commonly called Resurrectionists’ (NRS, CH2/278/21, page 4). Members of the society paid a subscription to purchase and maintain a mort safe (around £4 for an adult size) and the mechanism for moving it, including a charge of six shillings and sixpence at the time of internment (April 1824). Each member would also spend an allotted period of time watching over the graves to try to stop the ‘horrid practice’.
Unlike other genealogical records on ScotlandsPeople, the kirk sessions are not indexed. Instead, you can browse the different volumes using the Virtual Volumes search (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/virtualvolumes) by reference number, the name of the kirk session or other court, or by place name, and view the images for free. If you would like to save an image, the cost is two credits (the equivalent of 50p.)
To discover more about these records and search the volumes, please visit www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
Veronica Schreuder is an archivist at National Records of Scotland.