Footnotes
* I do want to thank Anne Crowther, Rosemary Elliot, Gayle Davis, and the Historical Journal’s anonymous referees due to their worthwhile statements and you can tips for the advance away from particular aspects of this particular article. The study are performed with the help of the Wellcome Faith, grant 069811/Z/02/Z/AW/HH, along with the co-procedure of your registrar general to have Scotland.
Before the middle-19th millennium, Scotland, instance England, had a system regarding parochial registration accomplished by officials from the built church. This new Chapel out of Scotland’s line of administrative structure made-up four quantities of ecclesiastical process of law: all round construction, the fresh synod, the fresh presbytery, and, at the parish top, the new kirk tutorial. Chaired by the parish minister, aforementioned consisted of enough male parents picked because of the the congregation and you may faced with guaranteeing ‘that word-of Jesus was purely preached, brand new sacraments correctly given, abuse imposed and you may ecclesiastical merchandise incorruptly distributed’. ten Certainly one of their other commitments, brand new kirk tutorial clerk is actually expected to get into baptisms, burials, and you may proclamations away from wedding banns on the parish register, nevertheless the high quality and you may volume of records varied greatly of parish to parish and so they weren’t always cautiously preserved. (more…)