Records of the behavior of social classes which do not usually appear in written records
Although The Old Parish Records In Scotland (OPRs) help us to trace our ancestors, it is the church court records that give us specific information about the daily lives of our ancestors and the lives of the individuals within their community. They document the behavior of social classes which do not usually appear in written records.
The records of the Kirk Sessions make up a significant part of Scotland's recorded history. They are used by a wide range of academic professional and amateur researchers, especially genealogists. The Kirk Sessions, which dealt with spiritual, moral, and social matters within the local parish, documented all parish disciplinary matters which often detailed accounts of the discipline the minister and kirk elders handed out to parishioners for their immoral behaviors. They would listen to cases within the church regarding such matters as pre-marriage fornication, blasphemy, irregular marriages, and working on the Sabbath.
The Kirk Session also administered poor relief, promoted education, regulated marriage, baptism, and burial, supervised building works, directed communion, and liaised with the higher courts.
The below excerpt was published by the General Assembly explaining church principles and procedures for distribution to the Kirk Session, Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly. It demonstrates the involvement they had in the daily lives of the parishioners and the processes that the Kirk Session would take regarding matters such as a women’s confession to the guilt of fornication.
“A woman confessing guilt with reference to the birth of her child is called upon to name the father. If she refuses to do so, she is dealt with as contumacious. If she declares that she does not know who the father is, procedure is delayed until advice be received from the Presbytery. If a man, accused by a woman, appear and deny the accusation, the woman is required to adduce evidence in support of her averment. If the woman has had more than one illegitimate child previously, and if the man has hitherto borne a fair character, she must furnish some prima facie good evidence before the Kirk Session can be justified in even citing the accused party. If the man named by a woman confessing guilt do not belong to the Free Church of Scotland, all reasonable endeavors should be made by the Kirk Session to induce him to declare, either in writing or verbally in presence of the Session, or some of its Members, that he is the father of the child. For the Kirk Session are not justified from scandal, until they have exhausted the means within their reach for ascertaining the paternity.”
Contents of the Kirk Session Records
Kirk Session minutes provide additional documentation and mention of ordinary people who may only be listed in a few records or beyond a few censuses and possibly a baptism, marriage or burial register. Kirk Session minutes might provide the essential information that a researcher might need to break down a brick wall by naming an illegitimate child’s father or by providing details of someone’s daily life if they were called as a witness in someone else’s misdemeanors. The Kirk Session was notoriously inquisitive about the sexual misbehaviors of its parishioners, particularly children born out of marriage.
The below examples from Kirk Session minutes gives a good idea of the kinds of offenses brought before the Kirk Session:
Inverness, Kirk Session Minute Book, National Library of Scotland
“20 off November 1688 – The said day it was delated yt yr was some people in Culloden who made it a practice to gather mussels on the Lord’s Days. The Church officers were ordained to chairge to the Session the Elders att Culloden that they give information of the persones who were guiltie of this fact, that they may be proceeded against as breakers of the Sabbath day. As also it was ordained that it should be intimated out of pulpit that if any should be found guiltie of such scandlouse and sinfull act, that they be proceeded against as breakers of the Lord’s day qrupon act."
Perth, Kirk Session Minute Book, National Library of Scotland
“January 2nd 1604 - The Visitors report that good order was keeped [kept] the last Sabbath, except that they found some young Boys playing at the Gowf [Golf] in the North Inch in Time of Preaching after noon; who were warend then by the Officiars [officers] to compeat [appear] before the Session this Day.
'Ibid [same] Cempears [appears] Robert Robertson, William Stenis, Andrew Donaldson, Alexander Niving, Adam Paul, Robert Meling, all warned to this Day, who were convicted of profaning the Lord's Sabbath by absenting themselves from hearing of the Word, & playing at the Gowf in Time of Preaching. And therefore the Session ordained first, Robert Robertson who was Ringleader to the rest to pay an Mark to the poor, and, secondly, or dains him & the rest to compear the next Sabbath into the Place of public Repentance, there to declare their Repentance in Presence of the whole Congregation.”
Illegitimate Births
The records of the interrogations of unmarried mothers and the accused father of the child are among the most interesting of the Kirk Session records. The usual procedure was for an elder to report that a woman in the parish was with a child. The woman would be called before the Kirk Session and asked to name the father of the child. In some cases, the man would deny fathering the child, in which case, matters would sometimes get rather complicated, much of which would be documented in the Kirk Session minutes. In most cases, the man would admit his guilt, and both individuals would make the required number of public appearances before the congregation.
In Church registers and Kirk Session minutes before 1855, baptism entries often describe an illegitimate child by the use of words like natural, baseborn, and reputed, with the father or mother described as an adulterer, fornicator or fornicatrix. This Inverness Kirk Session minute provides an example:
“December 8th, 1730 - Donald McKenzie, Squair Wright, and Margaret Fraser, Being Delated to This Session as Cohabitating together under a pretence of being Married, and They being Summond Were Called and Compeared, And they being Interrogat by the Moderator of the Truth of their allegation, both of them denyd their being Married. Upon Which the Session ordered them to give their Names to the Clerk in Order to be Proclaimed & Married Legally, and Both were Seriously Exhorted to Repentance, and Sharply Rebuked for their former Behaviour.”
Public Punishments
The Kirk Session would listen to the cases or violations within the parish and against the church disciplines. The disciplines of the Church of Scotland declared that public sin had to be punished publicly. For lesser offenses and remorseful sinners, a reprimand by the Kirk Session sufficed. The punishment was often accompanied by a fine and was almost always designated to be used for the poor people within the parish. The fine, also called the ‘pund’, depended on the seriousness of the crime committed and whether the elders thought that the person would repeat the behavior.
There was a range of punishments from fines, to regular or public penance. For example, prenuptial fornication had a standard penalty of 40s from at least 1577. The fine would double each time the offense was repeated. Fighting in public could also result in a fine. However, if two neighbors were at odds with each other, they could reconcile privately at a closed Session meeting. The closed Session could only happen if the quarreling had not been done in public.
Stool of Repentance
For more severe crimes, or crimes, where the sinner was not remorseful for his/her deed, public humiliation, as well as a fine, was imparted. This was frequently done by a determined numbered of Sundays on the ‘Seat’ or ‘Stool of Repentance’, sometimes also referred to as the Cock-Stool. The Stool of Repentance was an “elevated seat in the Scottish Church, on which persons were formerly compelled to sit as a punishment for having committed certain of the deadly sins.” The sinner was often required to stand and confess his sins in front of the parish members. For individuals that committed more shocking crimes, they may have also been required to wear a ‘sackcloth’ while sitting on the stool, which was also used to repent.
In the below example of Kirk Session minutes, Janet Tulloch was ordered to wear a sackcloth in the cock-stool and also serve jail time for her crime:
“21 May 1694 - Janet Tulloch, who acknowledged her being with one Duncan McKenzie, a drummer in the Citadel, upon Sabbath day, was eight days under his plaide, and that she was with the said Duncan the most part of the Sabbath, and that she was not in church all that day. The Session being sufficiently informer of her scandalous deportment formerly, and now of her breach of Sabbath, ordered that she be brought immediately to the Cock-stool, and there to stand for one half-hour, and thereafter to be imprisoned till she fine bale to compear next Lord’s day in the Sackcloth before the pulpit all the time of Devyn service, and there be rebuked for breach of Sabbath.”
“Sackcloth / Gown, Repentance, Edinburgh, Scotland,” no. H.MR 11, 26 Treasures in the National Museum of Scotland Exhibition, National Museum of Scotland.
Locating Kirk Session Records
The National Records of Scotland (NRS) looks after the records of Scotland’s Presbyterian church court records. This is done in partnership with several local authorities and university archives in Scotland. The records consist of the minutes and accounts of Kirk Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. From the sixteenth century onwards, these documents amount to more than 25,000 volumes and about 5 million pages of information. Though many records are available on ScotlandsPeople website, many unindexed Kirk Session minutes and account books are NOT YET available to view online even though they have largely been digitized. There is no timescale yet placed on its completion, though, it was already projected to be finished at this point.
When these records are released online, the first batch will likely comprise of minute books and accounts from the CH2 (Church of Scotland Kirk Session Records), i.e., records created by parishes that were always part of the Church of Scotland. When these records are available online, new guides on using them will be published concurrently on the ScotlandsPeople website, and a new area of the site explicitly designed to facilitate navigation of these digitized records will appear.
Local Access
There are, however, several local archives that have access to these unindexed records. They include:
Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives, Aberdeen
Ayrshire Archives, Kilmarnock
Glasgow City Archives, Glasgow
Highland Council Archives, Inverness, Fort William, Wick
Orkney Library and Archive, Kirkwall
Scottish Borders Archive and Local History Centre, Hawick
Shetland Islands Council Archives, Lerwick
Stirling Council Archives, Stirling
The relevant local archive usually holds Kirk Session records for its area. If you are local, individuals can contact the relevant archive for details of opening times and access. If you are not, each of these locations offers pay-per-hour genealogical services.
Located in Miami, Elizabeth Murray Vargas is a professional genealogist. She specializes U.S South-Atlantic and Mid-Atlantic states, Scotland, Ireland, Spain and the Spanish Caribbean. Her passion is immigrant research and tracing families back to their country of origin. Aside from taking private clients, Elizabeth is a ProGenealogist for Ancestry.com and does contract work for Trace.com. Visit her website at www.legacy-quest.com.