|
On 31 May 1834, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, meeting in Edinburgh, enacted the Overtures and Interim Acts on the Calling of Ministers. This was the latest instalment in a long-running dispute within the Church about who should appoint the minister when a parish fell vacant. The right of patronage – the right of patrons, usually nobles or major landowners, to appoint ministers – had been controversial since the Reformation. An Act of the Scottish Parliament in 1690 vested patronage in the heritors and elders of each parish. They were given the right to propose a candidate, with the whole congregation then given the right to accept or reject the proposal.
In 1711, the British Parliament passed the Church Patronage (Scotland) Act, which restored the rights of the original patrons. The Church was strongly opposed to this, and made an annual protest to Parliament every year until 1784. Two factions emerged, the Moderates, who reluctantly accepted the Patronage Act, and the Evangelicals, who opposed it in principle. In 1730, the General Assembly passed an Act removing the right of objectors to have their objections officially recorded. The Evangelicals viewed this as an attempt to silence them. Two years later, the General Assembly granted the right of patronage to heritors and elders where a patron failed to nominate a candidate within six months. Some in the Church – notably Ebenezer Erskine – wanted this right to be transferred to the Heads of Families within a congregation. But the fact that objections could no longer even be recorded led to a schism in the Church, known as the Original Secession. A hundred years later, in 1834, the General Assembly passed the Overtures and Interim Acts on the Calling of Ministers, more commonly known as the Veto Act. The Veto Act was a victory for the Evangelical party, preventing a patron from presenting a minister if a majority of the heads of households objected to the candidate. This led to a series of court actions by patrons, and eventually led to the Veto Act being declared ultra vires in the House of Lords. For many this was the final straw, and the main consequence of the annulment of the Veto Act was the Great Disruption of 1843, with about 40% of ministers walking out of the Church of Scotland, founding the Free Church of Scotland and leaving the Church of Scotland as a minority church. Aside from the consequences for genealogy research of the Disruption itself – less than half of Scots were now members of the Church of Scotland, so researchers often have to look elsewhere than the Old Parish Registers to find their ancestors – the Veto Act is also relevant for family historians. The Act required all parishes to draw up rolls of "male heads of families, being members of the congregation, and in full communion with the Church" within two months, and to insert these rolls into the Kirk Session records. While not all of these rolls of heads of families survive, hundreds of them do, and they provide a very useful record of inhabitants all over Scotland in the years before the first nominal census of 1841. We have transcribed them (more than 150,000 names), and made them available on our website free of charge. The table below gives a complete list of them, with links to the individual parishes.
5 Comments
Upcoming family history talks and events in Scotland, 8 - 14 February 2016
Note that there may be a small charge for some of these events, and some may be for members only. We will be publishing lists of upcoming talks and events regularly - if you are organising a talk or event relating to Scottish genealogy or history, please let us know and we will be happy to add your events to our list. Monday, February 8 2016, 7 pm The History of the Victoria Cross Alex Hall, Glengarnock Venue: Newton Lounge Cumbrae Historical Society Monday, February 8 2016, 7 pm for 7.30 pm BBC Scotland: Early Years and the Edinburgh Connection Mike Shaw Venue: Drummond Community High School, Bellevue Place, Edinburgh Monday, February 8 2016, 7.30 pm Midlothian Castles Then and Now and Peebles Town History Andrew Stewart Venue: Dalkeith Baptist Church, North Wynd, Dalkeith Monday, February 8 2016, 7.30 pm Open Evening
Venue: Luncarty Church Centre West Stormont Historical Society Non-members: adults £3, concessions £2. (Open discussion meetings at Luncarty are free) Monday, February 8 2016, 7.30 pm National Trust of Scotland Archives Ian Riches, NTS Archivist Venue: Gibson Craig Memorial Hall, Lanark Road West, Currie Currie & District Local History Society As we wander and delight in the gardens, the properties and the landscape who knows what else is held? Ian Richies, NTS Archivist, leads us on a visual trip into the vast archives of the NTS. Monday, February 8 2016, 7.30 pm TBA George Haggarty Venue: Partick Burgh Hall, room 1, 3-9a Burgh Hall Street, Glasgow, G11 5LN Monday, February 8 2016, 7.30 pm - 9.30 pm Uncovering a Medieval Transport Hub: Cambuskenneth and its lost causeway and harbour Dr Murray Cook Venue: Alloa Town Hall (Tommy Downs Room) Clackmannanshire Field Studies Society Speaker is Archaeologist, Stirling & Clackmannanshire Councils Tuesday, February 9 2016, 2.00 pm St. Athernase Church & Scottish Churches Trust Roma Roy Venue: Kirkcaldy Old Kirk, Kirk Wynd Tuesday, February 9 2016, 2.00 pm Genealogy of Fishermen Iain Murray Venue: Fife Fisheries Museum, Anstruther Speaker from Fife Fisheries Museum Tuesday, February 9 2016, 6 pm Focus on Built Heritage for Communities: Scotland’s canal buildings, Scotland's Sporting Buildings Nick Haynes Venue: Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill, University of Dundee, DD1 4EN Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland Tuesday, February 9 2016, 6.00 pm - 7.00 pm The origin of the Picts? Excavations at Dunnicaer sea stack Dr Gordon Noble Venue: Regent Building Lecture Theatre, Regent Walk, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Dr Gordon Noble, University of Aberdeen, will present this lecture at the Regent Building Lecture Theatre, University of Aberdeen, hosted by the Aberdeen and North East Section of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Tuesday, February 9 2016, 7.30 pm One Small Step for Amphibians, but a Giant Leap for Life on Earth Dr Nick Fraser Venue: Auditorium, Eastgate Theatre and Arts Centre, Peebles The evolution of vertebrates from water to land some 350 million years ago is a major step in the history of life on earth. Until recently, there was a worldwide gap in the fossil record but discoveries in the Borders have filled this gap. Dr. Fraser, Keeper of Natural Sciences at the National Museum of Scotland, will explain the significance of these finds and how they provide a fascinating insight into the development of land-living vertebrates. Tuesday, February 9 2016, 7.30 pm The Sixth Earl of Mar Murray Dickie, local historian Venue: Dining Hall, Dollar Academy Tuesday, February 9 2016, 7.30 pm Birdie Bowers of Scott's Antarctic Expedition Drew McKenzie Venue: Largs Library Community Room Largs and North Ayrshire Family History Society Tuesday, February 9 2016, 7.30 pm - 9.30 pm Dugald Semple (1884-1964): The Hermit of Linwood Moss and the Idea of Life Reform in the Early 20th Century Steven Sutcliffe Venue: Masonic Halls, Collier Street, Johnstone Wednesday, February 10 2016 Travellers in East Lothian Jess Smith , author and traditional storyteller Venue: Coastal Communities Museum, School Road, North Berwick, East Lothian EH39 4JU Wednesday, February 10 2016, 2.00 pm - 4.00 pm Sir Edward Elgar’s Life and Work Paul Bassett Venue: Kincardine Community Centre - Hepburn Room Kincardine-on-Forth Local History Group Wednesday, February 10 2016, 2.15 pm Dundee Afternoon Lecture: ‘Independent and Individualist’ – Art in Dundee 1867-1924
Venue: D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre, Tower Building, University of Dundee Wednesday, February 10 2016, 7.30 pm Little Ross Lighthouse: How it came to be built David Collin Venue: Parish Church Hall, St Mary Street, Kirkcudbright, DG6 4DN Kirkcudbright History Society Wednesday, February 10 2016, 7.30 pm Someone to Watch Over Me: Kirk and Community Margaret Fox Venue: Volunteer Hall, Galashiels Wednesday, February 10 2016, 7.30 pm Kolkota, Scots Cemetery Ian Stein Venue: Smith Museum and Art Gallery, Dumbarton Road, Stirling Central Scotland Family History Society Wednesday, February 10 2016, 7.30 pm Arthurian links with Dumbarton, the Rock and the local area Hugh McArthur Venue: Concord Community Centre (next to the Denny Theatre), Dumbarton, G82 1LJ There is tantalising evidence of King Arthur across Scotland, even at Dumbarton Rock. Hugh has studied the subject for many years and has published his findings. Thursday, February 11 2016 Members' Night
Elie & Earlsferry History Society Thursday, February 11 2016, 4.00pm-6.00pm The Journey to the District Asylum: Royal Asylums, Private Madhouses, and Stirling District Asylum Dr Iain Hutchison, University of Glasgow Venue: A96, Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling The surviving records of Stirling District Asylum, opened in 1869, and known locally as Bellsdyke, were recently deposited with the University of Stirling's archive collection where they have been cleaned, repaired and catalogued in readiness for their use as a valuable research resource. Institutional confinement of people with mental troubles prior to the opening of Bellsdyke and other district asylums was made by "the Royals" - a network of seven asylums that catered for both pauper and private (i.e. fee-paying) patients - in accommodation that befitted their social stations and economic circumstances. The modest fees for lowly paupers were nonetheless too high and "extravagant" in the eyes of some parochial boards administering the Poor Law and this enabled privately-run "madhouses" to offer an alternative. This structure of dual provision began to change following probing investigations in 1855 and the implementation of the Lunacy (Scotland) Act in 1857. The Act resulted in the gradually construction of district asylums, such as Bellsdyke, for pauper lunatics - a development that was to see the Royals direct attention solely towards private patients, and the closure of private madhouses. This paper will trace the roles of the Royals, private madhouses, and district asylums in nineteenth-century Scotland. It will endeavour to gauge inmate experience, with particular reference to Stirling's Bellsdyke Asylum. Iain Hutchison is Research Associate in Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow. He is on the Board of the worldwide Disability History Association and, more locally, he is a member of the board of trustees of Disability History Scotland. He is reviews editor for H-Disability. He has recently been working on the history of Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children, funded by Wellcome and other bodies; and on the Leverhulme-funded "Matrons to Microbes" project where he has been investigating the history of infection control at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Glasgow Royal Infirmary. However, he is primarily an historian of disability and most recently was the research historian for the HLF-funded "Seeing Our History" project for RNIB Scotland. This event is free and is open to staff, students and members of the public. Thursday, February 11 2016, 7.30 pm Raised from the Ashes - the Levenhall Story Nick Aitken, ranger, East Lothian Council Venue: St Peter's Church Hall, High Street, Musselburgh Musselburgh Conservation Society Thursday, February 11 2016, 7.30 pm Forth Estuary Forum Christopher Cutts Venue: Queens Hall, Charlestown, KY11 3EG The North Queensferry Heritage Trust is a long established group that has been dedicated to preserving and promoting the history and beauty of North Queensferry and the immediate surroundings. It aims to encourage, preserve, develop and improve features of historic, architectural or environmental value. Their role in the future development of the town’s tourist industry is vital. The Trust was originally constituted on 4th May 1988 as a charity, registered in Scotland and is a member of Scottish Civic Trust, Scottish wildlife Trust and the Forth Estuary Forum. James Lawson is Chairman of the trust and will be telling you all about the recent attractions and activities that the Trust have actively been involved with. Thursday, February 11 2016, 7.30 pm Your Local Archive
Venue: MacRobert Hall, The Square, Tarland The Archive Team will be launching the Cromar History Group archive web-site which will give public access to all the material categorised to date. Full of fascinating items – pictures, postcards and artefacts – come and see what we hold and how you can access details and photos of the material in the archive. Thursday, February 11 2016, 7.30 pm Waterloo Uncovered: The archaeology of Europe’s most famous battle Tony Pollard (University of Glasgow) Venue: The Shawl Gallery, Paisley Museum, High Street, Paisley Renfrewshire Local History Forum Speaker is Director, Centre of Battlefield Archaeology, University of Glasgow Thursday, February 11 2016, 7.30 pm - 9.00 pm History of Lanark Visitors Centre Ainsley Gough Venue: Johnnie Walker Bond, Strand Street Kilmarnock East Ayrshire Family History Society |
Old ScottishGenealogy and Family History - A mix of our news, curious and intriguing discoveries. Research hints and resources to grow your family tree in Scotland from our team. 
Archives
November 2022
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
|
Data Protection Register Registration Number: ZA018996 |