We’ve briefly touched upon young communicants in a previous post. In most parishes, they’re listed either in Kirk Session minutes, or in Communion Rolls. Occasionally there are separate registers of Young Communicants, and these can sometimes be more informative. An example of such a register can be found in Ardler Quoad Sacra parish.

As there aren’t all that many entries in the register, we thought we’d simply transcribe it for you.

List of Young Communicants with notes of what is known of them in after life commencing from 1st Communion at Ardler Church 9th August 1885
1885 Communicated for 1st time 9th August

1. Isabella Leslie, village, serv[an]t. Left parish at Whitsunday 1886. Attended Bible Class. Recd disjunction certificate for Steeple Church Dundee 14th Ap 1887
2. Catharine Leslie. Sister of above, village. Both stepdaughters of William Stewart & left parish with him on his removal at Whitsunday 1885. Taught for some time in Sabbath School & attended Bible Class. Received disjunction certificate for Steeple Church, Dundee 14th Ap 1887.
3. Elisabeth Stewart. Servant at Arthurbank. Left Arthurbank at Whitsunday 1886 & went to be cook at a Hotel in Alyth. Communicated here in Augt 1886 & yearly afterwards to
4. Joanna Stratton daughter of Alexander Stratton, Railway House
5. Christina Miller, Daughter of Alexander Miller, roadman, village. Left the parish for service at Whitsunday 1886, but communicated in Augt 1886 & Augt 1887, & onwards to
6. Mary Houston. Servant, E Ardler. In the end of the year married Robert Steel, see below no. 8. Both guilty of antenuptial fornication. Were absolved from discipline by this Kirk Session & admitted to Communion in August 1886. Dead.
7. Alexander Turnbull, son of Stewart Turnbull, Mill of Cammo
8. Robert Steel, servt at E Ardler. Married Mary Houston, see No 6. Went with his wife at Martinmas 1885 to be serv[an]t at Keillor & resided at Keillor Cottages. Received with his wife disjunction certificate for Kettins 28th Octr 1886.
9. James Anderson, railway porter, village. Went end of 1885 to Almondbank Station, communicated here in Augt 1886. Recd disjunction certificate 11th Feb 1887.
10. James  Fenwick, serv[an]t at Mains of Arthurstone. Left the parish at Martinmas 1885. Enlisted beginning of 1887.
11. James Dargie, carpenter son of William Dargie at East Church Lands. Left parish about end of 1888. Guilty of fornication
12. John Mackintosh, ironmonger’s apprentice, son of W Mackintosh, village. Went to Dundee summer of 1887, but still a comm.[unican]t here. Recd disjunction cert to Dundee 14th Octr 1889.
13. Martin Mackintosh, carpenter. Son of W Mackintosh, village, twin with the above.
14. John Milne, apprentice millwright at Welltown Millyards. Left parish in end of 1885, but communicated here at Spriing Communion 1886. Recd disjunction certificate Dundee 30th Mar 1887
15. Isaac Chalmers. Same as above. Communicated here at Spring Communion. Recd disjunction certificate to Dundee 30th Mar 1887.
16. Thomas Halley, app[rentice] gardner, Arthurstone, son of John Halley, Railway House. Dided 4th April 1889, & is buried in Ardler Churchyard.
17. David Millar, serv[an]t at Arthurstone. Son of Alexander Millar, village. Received disjunction certificate on leaving for Mackay, Queensland. 10th Novr 1886.
18. Thomas Dalziell, serv[an]t at East Cammo, parish of Meigle. Communicated here at Spring & Autumn Communions 1886 & in Mar 1888

Young Communicants in 1886
Spring Communion 1886

1. Susan Arthurs, serv[an]t. Mains of Arthurstone. Had an illegitimate child in end of 1884. Was absolved in course of spring of 1886 & had her child baptized 30th June same year. Again guilty of fornication, but left the parish at Martinmas 1889.
2. Margaret Halley. Daughter of John Halley, Railway House
3. Jane Brown, serv[an]t, Ardler. Left East Ardler about 6 weeks before November term 1887 & is now married to Barnet. Died at C[oupar] Angus about 27th January 1889
4. George McLeish. Servant E Ardler. Left for Brisbane, Australia, 26 Nov 1887. Now at Botanic Gardens, Toowoomba, Queensland
5. Charles Soutar, Junr. Railway Clerk, son of Charles Soutar, village. Transferred to Abercairnie Station, middle of March 1886. Communicated here August 1886, Mar 1887, both times 1889 & 1890
6. David Bisset, farmer, Mains of Arthurstone. Admitted as a Comm[unican]t first time Spring Communion
7. Alexander McLaren, ship captain, admitted as above

Autumn Communion

1. Robert Stewart, Groom, Arthurstone. Left Arthurstone Whitsunday 1887. Recd disjunction certificate to Broughty Ferry.
2. James Paterson, Carpenter, son of David Paterson, Arthurbank Cottage. Left for [space]. Certificated to Forfar Novr 1887

Young Communicants in 1887
Spring Communion

1. George Donaldson, serv[an]t at E Ardler. Left E Ardler Martinmas 1887. Communicated here Mar 1889, Aug 1890.
2. David & Mrs Lawrie, Railway House
3. Peter Robb (married). Cattleman at Bankhead. Left with Certif for Nevay, Martinmas 1887

Autumn Communion

1. Elsie Jane Milne, Manse

Young Communicants in 1888
Spring Communion

1. Isabella Ross, village
2. Jane Lawson, Welltown Cottage
3. William Main, Mill of Cammo. Left parish soon after communion. Residence unknown. Certificated to Dundee, 26th Decr 1888
4. William Gall, Mains of Arthurstone. Left parish at Whitsunday 1888. Left at Whitsunday 1888. But communicated August same year.
5. David Fairweather, servant W Ardler. Left & went to Newtyle parish, Martinmas 1888, but communicated here March 1889 & 1890.

Autumn Communion

1. Elisabeth Stewart, Balbroggie Cottages.. Left parish, but continued in communion.

1889
Spring Communion

1. Elizabeth Dargie, village
2. Jane Dargie, village
3. Isabella Wilson, Longleys Smithy
4. Jessie McFeat, Serv[an]t, Welltown. Left parish at Martinmas 1889
5. Mary M Ewan, Cammo Muir. Left along with family in spring of 1890 for Dundee & certificated there.
6. Andrew Dargie, village
7. John Young, Arthurstone Gardens. Certificated to England, where engaged as gardener, March 1890.
8. Duncan Stewart, groom, Arthurstone. Certificated to Broughty Ferry, 25th May 1889. Coachman to Major Ferguson, Buchties there
9. James Ford, serv[an]t, W Ardler. Under discipline in 1890.
10. Alfred Turnbull, Mill of Cammo
11. James Wilson, deaf & dumb. Longleys Smithy. Left for Dundee but still in membership

Young Communicants 1889

1. Helen Mackintosh, village
2. Mary Ross, village
3. Mitchell, Downham
4. James Dargie, Wellinton Row
5. Charles Mackintosh, village
6. Thomas Soutar, Arthurbank Cottage
7. Charles Lindsay, Arthurstone House

1890
Spring Communion

1. James McRae Junr, village croft
2. Edward Cummings, Mains of Arthurstone

Autumn Communion

1. Jessie Lindsay, Cronan
2. George Jackson, Stripeside
3. William Milne, West Ardler
4. Robert Whyte, Keillor
5. James Easton, Keillor

[NRS Reference ​CH2/884/6 p. 13-29]

Communion is a sacrament recognised by most Christian denominations in remembrance of the Last Supper. In Scotland it was generally held twice a year. Parishioners were expected to attend, and repeated failure to do so could result in parishioners being removed from parish membership.

In preparation for the sacrament, the Kirk Session would distribute communion tokens to would-be communicants. Without these tokens, parishioners were unable to take part in communion. Sometimes records were kept of the distribution of these tokens, but more commonly records were kept of attendance at communion itself. These records are generally referred to as Communion Rolls.

Within the Church of Scotland, when people moved and sought to join the parish in their new place of residence, they generally had to produce a certificate (sometimes referred to as a testificate) from their home parish, confirming that they were communicants. To qualify for such certification, they had to have attended communion at least once in the previous three years.

At their simplest, communion rolls are just lists of parishioners who attended communion. The earliest surviving rolls are merely lists of names. The oldest we have found is from St Madoes in Perthshire and covers the period 1596 to 1611. We have not found many surviving Church of Scotland communion rolls before the nineteenth century (5 in the 17th century, 7 more before 1750 and only 25 before 1800).

​They really start to become more common – and more useful – around the middle of the nineteenth century. We have identified around 3000 nineteenth-century communion rolls from the Church of Scotland. By the mid-1800s they were sufficiently widespread that two separate church stationers were producing printed forms to simplify the job of clerks in recording communicants.

Printed Communion Roll [Kinclaven Parish, Church of Scotland, Communion Roll 1880-1894, held privately]

By this time, communion rolls were also becoming more detailed. In addition to recording names, they regularly include occupations and addresses, and crucially information on admission to communion and disjunction.

There were several ways for an individual to be admitted to communion. They could be admitted as Young Communicants (sometimes referred to as Catechumens). This involved someone, usually the Minister or sometimes an Elder, testing their knowledge of scripture and religious doctrine, often after a series of lessons. The term Young Communicant may in some cases be somewhat misleading – in most cases, Young Communicants would be around 18 to 21, but we have found a few instances of individuals significantly older being admitted for the first time. Indeed some clerks recorded this form of admission as “First Time” or “By Examination”.

The other main form of admission is by certificate. On moving to a new parish, church members would present certificates from their previous parish indicating that they were in communion with the church and not subject to scandal for misbehaviour. Some communion rolls only record the fact that an individual was certified, but others record the date and – more usefully – the parish that issued the certificate. This can help identify where an individual came from.

Disjunction information can also be very useful. Sometimes clerks would simply record that an individual “Left” or was “Certified”. In some cases, the fact that an individual died was also recorded – in many cases the date or year of death is given. Disjunction information becomes much more useful when the clerk records the place the parishioner moved to. Usually it’s just a parish, but sometimes a full address is given, and other times the clerk will record that the individual emigrated. This can be very useful as sometimes it can be the only confirmation of the identity of a Scottish emigrant to for instance the United States.

The completeness of information varies from parish to parish – and over time within the same parish. Even so, communion rolls can prove very useful in tracking individuals.

An example is James Wilson, a farm servant. He was recorded with his wife Catherine Methven at Lochton in Abernyte, Perthshire. The communion roll notes that he had been admitted by certificate from Kilspindie in 1881. They were then certificated to Kinnaird in 1882, where they were found living at Kinnaird in the communion roll. They were then again certificated to Longforgan in 1883. The Longforgan communion roll describes James as a ploughman at The Mains and shows that the family were certificated onwards to Perth in 1885.

If you look at census records for this couple, they were at Nether Durdie in Kilspindie in 1881 with 9 children. The second youngest, Jemima, aged 2, was born at Longforgan and the youngest, David, just a month old, was born at Kilspindie. By 1891, James was a farmer at Old Gallows Road in Perth (where he’d moved in 1885). Any attempt to track this couple relying solely on census and birth records would have missed their short stay in Kinnaird. Without the communion roll, this sojourn would have likely been unidentifiable.

We are working on a project to extract and publish information from Communion Rolls. We have so far transcribed around 50 rolls from Perthshire. You can see an example of the sort of information contained in the communion roll for Kinclaven 1880-1894. (Note that this particular communion roll is held privately, and is not recorded in any archive catalogue.) You can also browse the communion rolls that we have transcribed so far here.