Footnotes

* I want to thank Anne Crowther, Rosemary Elliot, Gayle Davis, and the Historical Journal's anonymous referees for their worthwhile statements and suggestions for the advance out-of certain aspects of this informative article. The analysis is undertaken to the service of Wellcome Believe, offer 069811/Z/02/Z/AW/HH, along with the co-process of the registrar general to have Scotland.

Up until the middle-19th millennium, Scotland, eg England, got a network off parochial membership done-by officers from the newest centered chapel. The fresh new Chapel out of Scotland's line of management build composed four amounts of ecclesiastical courts: all round construction, the latest synod, the brand new presbytery, and you may, within parish peak, the new kirk class. Chaired of the parish minister, the second consisted of plenty of male elders selected because of the this new congregation and you can faced with making certain ‘that word of God is actually purely preached, the fresh sacraments rightly given, discipline implemented and you may ecclesiastical goods incorruptly distributed'. 10 Among his other requirements, new kirk lesson clerk are expected to go into baptisms, burials, and you will proclamations away from matrimony banns throughout the parish check in, nevertheless quality and you may regularity of the information ranged greatly out-of parish to help you parish as well as just weren't usually very carefully preserved. Merely 99 of your 850 Scottish parishes that came back information about baptisms, marriages and you can burials toward 1801 census possessed typical records – the remainder both remaining zero register at all, or generated merely sporadic entries.