Issue No.

30 April 2011

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT ISSUE Chairman’s Notes and Archive News...............................................2

Murders in 19th Century Perthshire.............Geoff Holder.........4

18th Century Crime and Punishment ........Jim Ferguson.........11

Review: Willie MacFarlane’s County Police history..................14

Putting Meat on the Bones........................Graham Watson.......17

The Old Kirk at Rait........................................Donald Abbott.......19

The Case of the Missing Stipend....Amelia Wansborough......20

(Picture: AK Bell Library Local Studies)

The Tolbooth: Perth’s Prison until the early 19th century

2

Chairman’s Notes

Dear Friends,

Belated greetings for 2011! I note with pleasure that the snowdrops and cro-

cuses are very visible – especially in the most welcome spring sunshine.

As you are aware from my Christmas letter, the Committee is concerned that

some members are feeling out of touch with events. I am most grateful to all of

you who took the time and trouble to respond to my letter. We are taking steps

to make use of your comments and to comply wherever possible with your

wishes. Please do not hesitate to contact myself, Jan, Steve or any Committee

member if you have any ideas for improve-

ments.

The Archivists are looking for Friends willing to

spend some time in the search room, looking

through a selected box of documents to see if it

might make an interesting article for the

Newsletter or elsewhere. There’s more infor-

mation about this opportunity on the back

page.

After nearly half a millennium, the Tailor

Incorporation of Perth is winding up its af-

fairs and depositing its remaining records in

the archive to add to those it already holds. It

has also left its remaining funds with the Friends to pay for restoration and

preservation.

Our annual outing in 2011 will take place in Dundee on Tuesday 21 June. In

the morning, we shall visit the University of Dundee to look at the Archive

and the Museum. The afternoon will feature a visit to the City of Dundee

Archive, in the company of the Friends of Dundee City Archive. Sadly, num-

bers are again strictly limited, to 15 people, and places will be distributed on the

usual first come, first served basis. To reserve your place or find out more about

the outing, please contact Jan Merchant at 01738 477012 or email

archives@pkc.gov.uk

Best wishes,

Margaret Borland-Stroyan

3

Archive News

It’s amazing how a throwaway remark can develop…..Just before Christmas I col-

lected some records from Perth Academy, and happened to mention to a col-

league that they included lots of unidentified class and team photographs from

across the decades. ‘Oh, she said – I went to the Academy, maybe I can come

along to the Archive and see who I know?’ And from that simple offer came the

idea for the very successful ‘Spot the Pupil’ event. Not only did over a hundred

people come along to put names to faces in the photographs, but we also had

more visitors over the coming weeks wanting to help – and even offering their

own copies for us to use. As a result, we now have names for lots of the pupils and

staff, which will help us produce some really

useful finding aids.

As ever though, there’s a catch – we need a

volunteer who’s willing to come in for a few

weeks to collate and organise all this new in-

formation. It would mean looking through

over 600 photos and the information gleaned

from the ‘Spot the Pupil’ day, spotting gaps

that could be filled and then listing them all.

Interested? Give me a call on 01738 477012.

I mentioned in the last issue that we now

have a Twitter account. It’s been great fun let-

ting people know what goes on ‘behind the

scenes’, but there’s also been a spin-off benefit – we got sent a WWI burial notice

from one of our followers. As usual, you can keep up to date with newly-listed col-

lections and new accessions, by checking out the Archive’s news page at

www.pkc.gov.uk/archives.

Finally, when you next visit the Archive, say hello to Anna who’ll be with us until

the summer. Among her numerous duties (no, we don’t ask her to make the tea!)

Anna’s been helping populate CALM, our electronic management system. This is

a priority project for us, as it’s a final step in getting our whole catalogue of collec-

tions made available on the website. Just think, by this time next year, you’ll be

able to search the Archive’s collections from the comfort of your home.

Jan Merchant

Perthshire Murders and Executions in the 19th Century

Geoff Holder The said Duncan Clark, Pannel, to be to be carried from the Bar back to the

Tolbooth of Perth, therein to be detained and to be fed upon bread and wa-

ter only, in terms of the Act of Parliament…entitled ‘An act for preventing

the horrid crime of Murder’….to be taken furth from the said Tolbooth to the

common place of execution…and then and there betwixt the hours of two

and four in the afternoon, to be hanged by the neck upon a Gibbet by the

hands of the Common Executioner until he be dead.

These are the words from the death warrant of Duncan Clark, dated 20 September 1826.

The Warrant is one of a number of such documents held in the Archives. For anyone used

to researching more mundane documents, it can be an unsettling experience to open a

folded sheet tied with ribbon and to find that the stark words within condemn a person to

a violent death.

The death warrant of Duncan Clark (P&KC Archive)

4

Two extracts from Duncan Clark’s death warrant, ordering him to be fed on bread and water, hanged and anatomised

(P&KC Archive)

5

The warrant announcing Clark’s death further specified that his body was to be handed to

the anatomists at Edinburgh University and used for the purposes of dissection and edu-

cation. As it turned out, Duncan Clark’s fate was to be very different, if just as grim. Three

petitions for clemency were soon in circulation. One was from Clark himself; the second

from a large number of respectable and professional people in and around Perth; and the

third was signed by every member of the jury. All three were based on the circumstantial

and uncertain evidence in the case, while the petition from the jury expressly maintained

that the eight who had voted for a guilty verdict had admitted the evidence was difficult

and contradictory.

In the case of Duncan Clark these words were more than a little ironic, as he was a Writer,

that is, the early nineteenth century equivalent of a solicitor. He had been found guilty of

the murder of his infant illegitimate child, who had been handed to him hours after the

birth by the baby’s mother. It’s fair to speculate that the relationship between the urban

professional Clark, and Christian Cameron, an illiterate Gaelic-speaking itinerant worker,

was not a permanent one. Clark may or may not have killed the child – the forensic medi-

cal testimony at his trial was confusing – but he may well have been culpable of neglect,

and was definitely guilty of attempting to conceal the death, as the infant’s body was

found in his apartment on Perth’s High Street, locked in his armoire.

On 18 October 1826 the Perth authorities received a letter from Whitehall stating that

Prime Minister Robert Peel had advised George IV to commute the sentence of Duncan

Clark to transportation for life (this document is also in the Archive). The same post in-

cluded a similar reprieve for Robert Lacky or Locky, who had been condemned to death at

the same court session, his crime being housebreaking in Fife. Locky had received the

sentence of death with equanimity, and listened to the declaration that saved him from

the gallows with equal calmness. Throughout his time in court and in custody, Locky

rarely rose above an expression of boredom or indifference.

High St, Perth, in the mid 19th century. Duncan Clark lived near here (AK Bell Local Studies)

6

Clark was sentenced to spend the rest of his natural life at the penal colony of Van Die-

men’s Land (Tasmania). As was commonplace, he was taken to the south of England be-

fore his departure and kept on one of the Hulks on the River Thames. The Hulks were

large ships converted to floating prisons, where prisoners were kept in appalling condi-

tions, rife with disease and neglect.

In March 1827 it was reported that Duncan Clark, former Writer in Perth, had died on

board one of the Hulks.

The Courts

Clark’s was one of the relatively few Perthshire murder cases of the nineteenth century. As

it was not practical for all serious cases to be brought to Edinburgh, High Court judges

travelled on a Circuit twice a year, bringing the authority of the High Court to nine Scot-

tish cities including Perth, where cases from Fife, Dundee and Forfarshire were also tried.

One High Court judge, Lord Cockburn, left an entertaining and revealing memoir of his

time on Circuit in his book Circuit Journeys (David Douglas; Edinburgh, 1889). Here, for

example, is his entry for Perth on 30 April 1842:

We had 84 cases, the greatest number, I am told, that has ever been at any

one Circuit town in Scotland…Nor was there any case worth recording, ex-

cept one too horrid, however, to be mentioned. The dark roll was filled with

the ordinary, and scarcely varied repetition of robberies, assaults, sheep

and cattle stealing, fraud, conspiracy, forgery, fire-raising, night poaching,

bigamy, and above all of theft, which now forms fully a half of all the crimi-

nal business of Scotland. There is certainly a fashion in crimes. There was

far less transportation than usual, long imprisonments in the recently-

opened penitentiary at Perth being the substitute.

The reason Lord Cockburn and his fellow Circuit Court judges were occupied with so

many thieves, poachers and bigamists was that the High Court had the responsibility of

dealing not only with serious crimes but also serious punishments. Up until 1855 Scotland

had 25 crimes that could attract the death sentence. The principal alternative to execution

was transportation, where the felon was sent into exile in a penal colony on one of the

British overseas territories. Quite simply, Britain did not have enough prisons, and so the

criminal population was exported. From the early seventeenth century the New World

had been the transportation location of choice, but the American Revolution of 1776 put

paid to that. A few alternatives such as the Falkland Islands were scouted, but it soon be-

came clear that Australia offered the best choice. The first convicts were transported to

the Antipodes in 1787, and transportation remained a significant system of punishment

until the 1850s, finally being abolished in 1868. Any individual sentenced to seven or

7

A typical warrant of transportation, with gaps left in the pro forma document for the individual criminal. Here, Alexander Steel is transported for life for ‘strouthrief’ (robbery

with violence) and robbery. He was originally condemned to hang. (AK Bell Library Local Studies)

8

more years’ imprisonment could be transported. Tariffs were usually seven years, four-

teen years, or for life. For example, Donald McPherson, convicted in Perth of assault and

Attempted rape in 1831, was served with a warrant authorizing him to be “transported be-

yond Seas, for and during the days of his natural life.”

Sites Of Execution

Because the High Court sat at Perth the city had the right to perform executions. In com-

mon with most Scottish cities, the original gallows had been well outside the city limits,

on the Burghmuir, but this was increasingly unsatisfactory on grounds of public disorder,

time and expense. The simplest alternative was to build the gallows immediately outside

the prisoner’s place of incarceration. So after 1774 the new execution site was outside the

Old Tolbooth at the eastern end of the High Street. The usual scaffold erected here had a

platform with a trapdoor; the condemned criminal stood on this with a noose around the

neck. When the executioner pulled a lever the trapdoor opened and the prisoner dropped

down. If the executioner had done his job properly the drop would cause the noose to

break the neck, leading to almost instantaneous death. If there had been a miscalculation

the prisoner would slowly strangle to death on the end of the rope. George Penny’s book

Traditions of Perth recorded a variation of the standard theme: on one occasion there was

no drop, but a heavy weight attached to a jointed beam holding the noose. When the

weight fell, the beam abruptly rose, jerking the prisoner upwards off the scaffold. It was

not a satisfactory operation.

9

The Tolbooth at the bottom of the High Street. Perth’s prison until the early 19th century (AK Bell Library, Local Studies)

10

A document in the Archives demonstrates how bureaucratic a hanging could be – letters

and other documents had to be sent out to dozens of individuals and official bodies, the

cost of writing and posting each item being carefully noted down by the Town Clerks. In

all, the administration costs for the execution of Joseph Bell in 1865 cost the taxpayer £18

17s 3d. This was just the budget for the paperwork – the fees for the scaffold, executioner,

police, soldiers, officials and so on would have been much higher.

Perth’s execution sites changed as its prisons changed. From 1817 or thereabouts the new

location was outside the south wall of the recently-constructed Speygate Jail, overlooking

Greyfriars Cemetery.

After 1868 executions were no longer held in public, and moved inside the walls of the

fortress-like Perth General Prison. On 4 October 1870 George Chalmers was the first per-

son in Scotland to be hanged under the new regime, and also the last person executed in

Perth in the nineteenth century. Only three more executions took place at the prison, in

1908, 1909, and 1948. Capital punishment was effectively abolished in 1965, leaving a

new hanging block erected in the early 1960s with no function, and it was eventually de-

molished. No-one is now sentenced to be “hanged by the neck upon a Gibbet by the

hands of the Common Executioner until he be dead.”

Geoff Holder is the author of Perthshire Murders, which, along with several

other of his more paranormal-themed books such as The Guide to Mysteri-

ous Perthshire, can be found for sale at the Local Studies section of the AK

Library. See www.geoffholder.com.

Continuing our occasional series ‘What’s in a Box?’ Jim Ferguson delves into the Council’s records in box B59/26/11/3/ . These hold documents that record punishments handed down by courts in Perth in the 18th century and later. To get an idea of life within a community in the 18th century it is not only necessary to

understand the behaviour of the people, but their misbehaviour. The manner in which

criminals were treated by society gave an indication of its strong conservatism, its respect

for the Kirk, and its differential esteem for the rank of the offender.

What happened to those poor unfortunates who were incarcerated in the tollbooth in

Perth awaiting sentencing on crimes ranging from murder to minor theft are described in

Box B59/26/11/3 in Perth and Kinross Council Archives.

Punishments abounded. For minor crimes offenders were banished from the town after

being whipped through the streets, or placed in jougs, or iron collars, attached to the walls

of the Kirk, or alternatively put in the pillory with their ears nailed to its wooden frame. It

all served as entertainment for the town’s citizens. On the other hand, imprisonment was

not a popular sentence with the magistrates, as it cost the town money for the prisoners’

upkeep, but when it was felt to be unavoidable it was used only for very short periods.

The common thief of that time seemed to steal anything which was not nailed down, and

the contents of the box describe the sentences imposed on those who stole horses, sheep,

cloth, beeswax, or were involved in housebreaking, shoplifting, forgery and keeping a dis-

orderly house.

Punishments were equally varied, often severe and sometimes barbaric. For instance, for

serious crimes, perpetual servitude was a sentencing option. An iron collar was fixed

around the offender’s neck with his name, age and his new owner inscribed on it, and

then sent to work in a mine (the value of his labour being a gift to the mine owner). Oth-

erwise, the punishment for murder or theft of objects of high value was hanging, and the

Common Hangman was kept busy transporting the unfortunates from the Tollbooth in

Perth to one of the sites of public execution such as Gallows Road, at the top of Burgh-

muir Road. The sight of a felon swinging on the gibbet must have sent a salutary message

to those passing by on the main road into Perth.

The Common Hangman’s principal role was to be the jailor in charge of the Tolbooth at

the bottom of the High Street. He was a man of some prestige in the town; he had a dis-

tinctive uniform, and was allotted his own (isolated) seat when he attended the Kirk .

Crime and Punishment in 18th century Perth

11

One of his perquisites, prior to the Anatomy Act of 1833, was to be paid for delivering excep-

tional bodies of hanged criminals to the School of Anatomy in Edinburgh.

The trail of documents in the box reveal gradual changes over time. Early in the 19th century

an alternative to hanging for serious crimes became available, and soon became the preferred

outcome. The length of a sentence of transportation was from seven years to life; anyone who

returned before the sentence ran out could be hanged.

The archive details the writ issued for each person transported, with a description of their

crime. It gives their married status, trade or profession, the sentence, and how they had be-

haved in prison. The official orders describing the procedures to be followed in getting the con-

vict to the ship, and the clothing they were to be provided with, are surprisingly comprehensive,

as the order dispatching one Ann Sutherland illustrates. Interestingly, it shows that children of

up to ten years of age could be transported with their mothers.

For petty theft the culprits were flogged through the streets before being incarcerated . Although

prisons were a disgrace to civilisation, prisoners were few and the terms of imprisonment were

short. The most savage and cruel fate was borne by bankrupts and debtors who were treated

more severely than the penal code specified for ordinary prisoners. Dishonest debtors were

placed in the stocks, fed on bread and water for a month, and then scourged. As a further mark

of disgrace, they were then forced to wear a half yellow, half brown uniform until their debts

were finally paid in full. As creditors were obliged to pay 3d a day for the maintenance of their

jailed debtors, the former had a strong incentive to insist that jailers made life in prison was

made as comfortless as possible. ‘Squalor Carceris’, a life of degradation and dirt, was more a

matter of policy than simple neglect. And imprisonment for debt was far from unusual; when

John Howard visited Scotland's prisons in 1784 he found that they held more debtors than

criminals.

In the Tolbooth in Perth money set aside to feed the criminals and debtors was often spent on

alcohol. Felons with sympathetic friends often bribed the jailor to supply ale and whisky for a

celebration. When funds were low, a basket could be dropped from the Tolbooth window with a

notice attached inscribed ‘pity the poor prisoners' in which compassionate members of the pub-

lic might place coins, drink, or food. Councillors were wont to frown on such jollities in jail,

which were evidently not confined to Perth. In Ayr the Council tried to enforce a rule that

‘prisoners be discharged from holding any feast, treat, or banquet within the prison, and that

no person above the number of one shall be allowed to dine or sup with any prisoner’.

Towards the end of the 18th century a more liberal and humane attitude prevailed, outlawing

the more barbaric punishments—cutting and carving of ears, the public flogging of women,

shaving heads and banishment from towns, as well as fines for Sabbath breaking or cursing.

These all vanished from the civic code as allowable punishments. Progress indeed!

Jim Ferguson

12

Two excerpts from the order dispatching Ann Sutherland to the Antipodes

13

14

Willie MacFarlane, a Perthshire policeman for thirty years, has written an in-

sider’s picture of the Force he knew well, and clearly had a great affection for. As the

Honorary Curator of the Tayside Police Museum he was ideally placed to carry out the

extensive research it demanded. His narrative carries conviction, and is full of arrest-

ing detail and telling anecdote.

The reviewer’s first big surprise is to show that the Constabulary was established in 1839

for one purpose only; to defend the properties of the large landowners of Perthshire from

the bands of vagrants (or ‘rogues and vagabonds’) at that time roaming the countryside.

An 1833 Police Act gave county ‘Commissioners of Supply’ (made up almost entirely of

landowners) the right to set up their own police forces to combat this perceived threat.

The Commissioners set up a Police Committee, again composed of landowners, which

hurriedly established a rudimentary force of twenty-two constables. Their function as a

defence force against intruders was demonstrated by fact that they were located near the

county boundaries on all the main roads, and on the outskirts of larger burghs to keep un-

ruly townsfolk invading the nearby estates. Mr. MacFarlane gives us an excellent account

of the gradual evolution from the original cohort of untrained, unskilled and often befud-

dled watchmen into a professional force. He gives most of the credit for this to a succes-

sion of Chief Constables, whose strong personalities shine out from his narrative.

The first Chief Constable, appointed three years after its inception, was a military officer

with no police experience, but a gentleman whom the landowners could trust would share

their interests. As the first in the post, Captain Grove had extraordinary challenges to

overcome. The quality of his men was abysmal; he described them as ‘extremely aged, in-

firm or illiterate and in many cases all three’. There was no structure of ranks to provide

discipline and supervision, and the area to be covered was dauntingly vast to police with a

mere handful of constables. It is to his credit that the structure that he designed, and the

ethos that pervaded it, proved to be long-lasting. After replacing practically the whole of

the original squad with his own appointees, and establishing firm standards of conduct,

he appointed sergeants to enforce discipline by frequent unannounced inspections, di-

vided the county into six divisions of manageable size, and argued (at the time fruitlessly)

for inspectors to be appointed to manage outlying divisions.

But Captain Grove’s basic priorities are revealed in his instructions to sergeants on their

dealings with proprietors; they were told that it was important to maintain close contact

the Gentlemen of each parish, always to salute them, ‘and generally to ensure that the

landed gentry were well satisfied with the service provided.’

Book Review: The History of the Perthshire and

Kinross-Shire Constabularies

Even as late as 1884, the above letter to the Chief Constable indicates that the County Po-

lice are still regarded primarily as the defenders of the estates of landowners.

So an interesting question is, when was the point at which the Constabulary became a ser-

vice for the whole community, or did the focus of attention change imperceptibly over the

years? Certainly, Mr. MacFarlane shows clearly that by the 1930s, there is a quite differ-

ent spirit abroad. It was now possible for Charles McGregor, a mere police sergeant, to

stand up to constant attempts by the Earl of Breadalbane to have him removed, and with

the support of his Chief Constable, win the contest. That outcome would have been un-

thinkable in the mid-19th century; so when did the change take place?

Another topic running through Mr. MacFarlane’s account is the occasional abuse of

power by constables. From an outpouring of complaints it is clear that in the early years,

and even later in the century, ill-trained or ill-intentioned constables greatly abused their

powers, often arresting innocent people on trumped-up vagrancy charges. Vagrancy was

such an amorphous crime that it was very easy to lay a charge on flimsy evidence. The

Kirk Sessions were constant critics of the police. It was alleged that ‘the respectable poor

could hardly stray beyond the bounds of their own Burgh, without being falsely arrested

for vagrancy’. In one famous case, an elderly woman was jailed for the ‘crime’ of asking

for bread for her lame daughter (in these cases, the magistrates invariably sided with the

police, not the kirk).

It seems that unjust arrest was a lingering problem, as Mr. MacFarlane’s research showed

that even later in the century, far more people were being arrested than were subse-

quently brought to court, let alone convicted of any crime.

John Dodd Esq. Perth Chief Constable 7th November of Perthshire 1884 Dear Sir, Referring to the appointment of Constables at the request of Noblemen in this County, specially to take cognisance of and watch over their Lordship’s Estates in this County, we beg now in terms of the Police Scotland Act 20 & 21 Vict. Cap. 72 to make formal application on behalf of Montagu MacDonald Yr. of St. Martens for the appointment at his cost of the Constable required. Yours Faithfully

15

From the earliest days until our own more sober times, drink is a constantly recurring

motif in this account. Perhaps, as Mr. MacFarlane hints, it was because there were then a

great number of illicit stills in the countryside, and it would have been worth a flask or

two to a poteen-maker to have ‘police protection’ for his operation. Whatever the cause,

policemen’s drunkenness could sometimes be spectacular; the Chief Constable’s

‘punishment book’ in the 1850s and 1860s records such instances as:

‘Constable drunk and causing a riot at Errol’,

‘Drunk and making a spectacle of himself at Forgandenny railway station’ and

‘Drunk and disorderly at Thornhill, kicking doors and windows.’

But the county constable who liked a drink had a constant preoccupation; according to his

onerous conditions of service he was officially on duty at all hours, seven days a week!

Even evenings at home in lodgings or a police house, he was considered to be on duty, and

drinking on duty was a sackable offence. In the punishment book, drunkenness was a re-

curring theme, involving senior ranks as well as constables. It seems that repeat offences

were common, even after several warnings. It was not until 1912 that the Police (Weekly

Rest Day) (Scotland) Bill gave a drinking copper at least one day in which he could imbibe

blamelessly. And in earlier days it did not help at all that, in the absence of local police

stations, a room in the local pub or coaching inn would be used as a holding pen for a

prisoner – together with his (probably) thirsty guardian.

Among the many topics Mr MacFarlane explores are the absence of any kind of pension

scheme for older men until the 1890s, forcing them to carry on working despite advancing

age and infirmity; the appalling living conditions for constables and their families in ear-

lier times, only grudgingly improved; the huge 20th century increase in the policing role ,

and the impact of developments in transport and communications technology.

He is acutely aware of the influence of the personality of Chief Constables, for good or ill,

on the well-being of the service and its members, and can be trenchant in his judgements;

“...just a deeply unhappy man” is his dismissive judgement on one senior figure.

In short, a readable, well-researched history, abundantly illustrated, with some remark-

able insights into the almost feudal origins of County policing.

A Fine Body of Men; Pitlochry Division in 1910

16 The History of the Perthshire and Kinross-shire Constabularies is published by Perth and Kinross Libraries

17

It can be very dull at times cataloguing family papers, but a little digging can produce a

wealth of background information which brings it all to life.

The family papers of the Watson* and Rannie families, 1845 – 1923 (MS 218) are a very good

instance of this. They consist of no less than 153 mostly well-filled diaries of members of the

family, which at first sight might seem to be of little interest to people today. There’s also the

problem of making sense of who these people were and their relationships to each other; while

the diaries themselves can give us clues, often cataloguers have to do a bit of research elsewhere

to find the answers.

The main clues that the diaries gave us were names of people – people whose visits were noted,

or who were visited, whose opinions and activities were jotted down. Then there were clues

about the whereabouts of not just the diary writer, but also of those mentioned. So we knew that

Christian Williamson from Leuchars had written one diary in 1847, and others were kept by dif-

ferent Rannie family members who lived around Glencarse. As it was a family at the heart of this

collection, it made sense to find out more using the basic tools of family history research. So us-

ing Christian in Leuchars in the 1851 census as a starting point, we were able to find out who she

was, where she lived and who she was related to. Adding in other names, dates and locations to

searches of the different censuses online helped build a picture, one filled in by checking the

online births, deaths and marriage records. In the case of the minister, the Fasti Ecclesiae Scoti-

canae was useful, giving as it does an outline of careers and family. It was by no means a com-

plete family tree, but it was enough to allow us to make more sense of the diaries themselves.

So we found that the Rannie family were originally gentleman farmers of 600 acres at Newton,

Glencarse. The diaries commence with John Walker Rannie, farmer, who inherited the farm

from his father, and who married Mary Watson, daughter of the Rev. David Watson of Leuchars,

Fife. John Rannie had a sister Jemima, and Mary Watson a sister Susan, neither of whom mar-

ried. They both kept very well-filled diaries religiously from the late 1860s to their deaths in the

early 1900s, and it is these that are of most interest, along with that of John Walker Rannie’s

son David, their nephew.

David Rannie did very well for himself, becoming a barrister and purchasing Conheath mansion

house near Dumfries in 1876 at the age of 23. It seems that he inherited the farm and sold it to

buy Conheath. Jemima and Susan joined him there from Newton. In 1893 David married a

lady in the Isle of Wight, but continued to commute between Conheath and London until around

1906, when it was apparently sold and he bought a house in Winchester, while Jemima and

Susan moved into Dumfries town. Strangely, I have seen no reference to David Rannie’s wife.

*No relation to the Author

Putting Meat on the Bones

John Rannie’s early diaries from 1845 up to his death in 1865 describe farming in the

19th century, and include details of crop prices and yields, experiments with crop varieties,

and accounts relating to day-to-day expenditure and work on the farm over the year.

Detailed personal expenditure is also listed. Together, his diaries provide a remarkable

insight into Victorian farming life and methods in a period of profound and rapid change.

The diaries of Susan and Jemima, covering some thirty years, are extremely well-filled and

provide a wealth of information on the social life of two reasonably well-off Victorian ladies

of leisure who never married. Jemima lived at Glencarse and Susan joined her after the

death of her father in 1871. The diaries of both women contain accounts of day-to-day life,

from the weather to travelling and social engagements such as afternoon teas, lunches and

visits to friends.

The censuses show that in Newton and at Conheath there were never less than four or five

servants, and even when Jemima and Susan lived at 45 Castle St., Dumfries in their declining

years, they still kept two servants. Both women ‘did’ the fashionable Continental Tour

through France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland – with David Rannie in 1867 and again in

1876 and 1877. These provide an absorbing insight into how one ‘toured’, with descriptions

of places visited. As the women aged, by the turn of the century the diaries became sparser

and the handwriting shaky (Susan’s hand was difficult to make out even in her younger days,

but improves later on). Both diaries were kept up right until their deaths.

Later diaries of David Rannie describe his legal work in London and Oxford, club life and so-

cial life in Dumfries and London, the sights of London and travel between Oxford, London

and Winchester – along with the daily weather reports of course. Susan and Jemima both

visited London from time to time and describe the life they lived there and the friends they

visited. David Rannie’s diaries continued right up to his death in Winchester in October

1923. Hidden in this mass of material are many little gems which could easily be missed.

Besides the diaries there are other items of much interest, such as David Rannie’s sparsely

filled exercise book from 1868 to 1871, with Greek translations and other matters, a notebook

on the early life of Queen Victoria and her transcribed letters up to the death of Prince Albert,

a notebook of sermons, religious texts and prayers, 1876-1902 belonging to Susan Watson,

and some incomplete family history charts. There is also a very small notebook which gives

details of an eight-day train journey in Britain, giving precise times of arrival and departure

from all intermediate stations!

So it is not just a question of listing 153 diaries which at first sight look virtually identical in

content. A little browsing, and using the internet to discover family history through births,

deaths and marriages and the use of census surveys, reveals the daily life and travels of a

well-to-do Victorian family, probably typical of many, but not always available in such detail.

Indeed, it pays to look for the meat as well as the bones!

Graham Watson

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The Old Kirk at Rait

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This unused postcard from c.1900 is of the old kirk at Rait. There has been a church here

since the 13th century as a chapel of Scone Abbey. By 21st April 1491, it was described as

the parish church. During the times of the ongoing disputes between Perth and Dundee as

to which was senior in the Convention of Royal Burghs and arising from discussions held

at three meetings of the Convention held in Glasgow in February 1579, they thought a way

of settlement had been reached. ‘The Kirk of Raitt’ was designated as a meeting place for

representatives of the litigants ‘on the Wednesday immediately preceding Palme Sonday

next’. Three Commissioners were chosen from each side, with a somewhat complicated

method set in place for appointing an ourisman or chairman. They duly met on the ap-

pointed day but singularly and not surprisingly, failed to agree.

It is interesting that the kirk of Rait was chosen for the venue, presumably as being half

way between both towns. Perth and Dundee had other issues such as which town held the

admiralty of the River Tay but that was not settled until 26th November 1602 with Dundee

having jurisdiction from Invergowrie and Balmerino to the mouth of the river and Perth

having jurisdiction from Invergowrie and Balmerino to Perth.

During the Cromwellian period, General Monck’s troopers camped at the Swirlhead in the

Sidlaws above Rait, and were intent upon carrying out demolition works at that bastion

for Royalty, the castle of Fingask. However, they left the castle well alone and are said to

have satisfied themselves with setting fire to this old church in Rait and on the Fingask

estate, dedicated originally to St Peter. In any event the parish of Rait amalgamated with

Kilspindie in the 1600s. The kirkyard was the burial place for many generations, but few

gravestones are seen today. Its adjacent glebe still forms part of the lands held by Kilspin-

die and Rait parish church.

Donald M. Abbott, FSA Scot., Invergowrie

In December 1831 James Brodie, City Chamberlain for Perth, received a letter from

Thomas Nelson the Minister at Auchtergaven in a tone that indicated some distress.

Nelson refers to the date of the call being delivered into his hand, 13th September

1830, and says ‘although my settlement was from circumstances well known to

you, unduly delayed I am still liable to supply the parish with Sermons’ He requests

payment of his salary ‘as I am now in want of money' (P&KCArchive PE58 Bundle

71). Why was Nelson writing to Brodie and why had he not received his salary? Also

why was the confirmation of his appointment unduly delayed?

Nelson was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in April 1810 and presented to

the parish of Little Dunkeld in 1824 (what he was doing in the interim I am unable

to ascertain). However, as he had no knowledge of Gaelic the church courts refused

to sanction his settlement. The following year he was presented to the parish of

Muckhart but again his appointment was not Confirmed, and he then seems to have

enlisted the help of the Perthshire MP Adam Hay to help him obtain a parish. Hay

intervened with the 4th Duke of Atholl who was the Parish's' Heritor in Chief, and

who duly recommended Nelson for the parish to the King as was then a standard

practice. Nelson was duly presented with the living by William IV in September

1830. The archive at Blair Castle contains a letter from Hay to the Duke which

states; ‘you have made a poor man a very grateful one, in the offer of the place of

the assistant at Autchtergaven which Mr Nelson most gladly accepts ’ (Atholl Es-

tates Archive NRA(S) 234Box6992 & 3 Letter no 399).

So where does the problem lie? Back to James Brodies' correspondence and a letter

to James Brodie from William Chalmers addressed Dear Nephew and dated 26th

May 1831. The letter discusses the Auchtergaven Cause, saying that this has been in-

troduced into the business of the General Assembly, however I have no doubt it will

be instantly decided in favour of Mr Nelson as it ought to be. In another letter,

Chalmers goes on to discuss the matter of the crop of the Glebe of Auchtergaven and

whether they are due to himself or to Mr Nelson and saying that as Nelson cannot

take any concern about the Glebe until his ordination it would be proper to get the

Glebes ploughed and sown in proper time (Perth and Kinross Archive PE58 bundle

78) .This indicates Nelson had still not been confirmed in the living at Auchtergaven

some seven or eight months after being appointed by the crown.

The Case of the Missing Stipend

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William Chalmers was the minister at Auchtergaven until 1808 when he retired due

to ill health but continued to receive his full stipend of £150 per annum plus an al-

lowance of £25 per annum for forgoing the use of the glebe and manse. He appears

to have paid the assistant some £40 plus £5 for Communion elements a year, thus

retaining £105, a considerable sum at that time. A series of assistants was ap-

pointed thereafter, the longest serving of these, John Burns, dying in 1830. To find

out what happened thereafter it was necessary to visit the National Archives and

access the records of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. These re-

cords (NAS 02024 CH1/2/154/1/00002) tell of a tale of dissent in the parish over

the appointment of Mr Nelson.

Following the death of Reverend Burns , Chalmers wrote to the Presbyery of

Dunkeld stating that as he is ‘weakly in health’ he authorises the Presbytery to

make application to the Duke of Atholl, that he ‘may communicate with the

Crown’ and recommend a fit person to be assistant and successor at Auchtergaven.

He also states he is willing to assign to the successor the manse of Auchtergaven

( newly built in 1829) plus the garden and glebe and also agrees to pay him from his

stipend £40 plus £5 for communion elements, ‘which sum I was in the use of pay-

ing to my former assistants’. As we have read above, Thomas Nelson was duly ap-

pointed by the Crown in September 1830.

Auchtergaven Parish, W. of the Tay some 7 miles N. of Perth (from Stovie’s map, P&KC Archive).

21

22

However, it appears from the records of the Presbytery that at a meeting on the 18th

November that year, the majority of the members agreed to consider the appoint-

ment but rejected a motion to read a petition from some of the inhabitants of

Auchtergaven ( more on this later). A member of the Presbytery, a Reverend Mr

Butter, dissented, and complained to the Presbytery of Perth and Stirling . Another

motion that it is incompetent and inexpedient for the Presbyery to sustain the call of

Thomas Nelson was not seconded and the Presbytery voted to sustain Nelson's call.

The rejected motion appears to have been on the grounds that Chalmers was now fit

and should resume his duties, a view that was also contained in the petition of the

parishioners.

The petitioners appealed to the synod at Stirling, but in the meantime, on the 25th

January 1831, the Presbytery at Dunkeld examined Mr Nelson on his knowledge of

theology and various other aspects of his training and education and was satisfied

with the result.

The presbytery also appointed a committee to examine the complaints of the peti-

tioners and their findings were submitted to the synod at Stirling. The committee

upheld the decision of the Presbytery to sustain the call of Mr Nelson.

The reasons for the appeal by the Reverend Mr Butter of Lethendy are rather com-

plex:

He feels that an appointment of an assistant and successor is not necessary—

presumably he agrees with the Auchtergaven parishioners about William Chalmers.

He also states that even if an assistant and successor were necessary, the appoint-

ment of Thomas Nelson is inexpedient as being opposed to the edification of the

parish, which should be the only concern in making an appointment. He goes on to

state that the call to Nelson is defective and illegal.

This may be early signs of opposition to the patronage involved in appointments and

which resulted in the Great Disruption more than a decade later, but the language is

difficult to interpret.

The basic complaints made by several elders and some 257 parishioners were that

the people of the parish had had the burden of the maintenance and support of an

assistant and successor and that they believe that the Reverend William Chalmers is

fit to and should resume his duties in the parish, and had written to him inviting

him to do so: and that as Mr Chalmers was capable of resuming his duties, the ap-

pointment of Mr Nelson was not necessary.

It appears that the General Assembly dismissed all the appeals and Reverend

Nelson was confirmed in his appointment to Auchtergaven in May 1831. The re-

ports also seem to indicate that William Chalmers is in very poor health ,and at

the time was between seventy and eighty years old.

Despite this confirmation Nelson was still unpaid in December of 1831 and

forced to appeal to Chalmers nephew James Brodie. What else was going on?

During all this appeal process, the 4th Duke of Atholl died, leaving his estate I

trusteeship as his heir was not competent, possibly due to learning difficulties or

mental ill health (no one seems to know). Whatever the cause, the result would

have been that the activities of the estate would be in suspension for a time.

Two further clues are to be found in Brodie's papers: a letter from T. Graham,

factor to the Duke of Atholl on 16th April 1831, expressing surprise that the sti-

pend for Auchtergaven had not been paid, as Mr Condie had been instructed to

do this some time ago. He says ‘I have written to Mr Condie this day and hope

that the payment will be made on Monday’. Condie wrote to Brodie two days

later, saying that he had had instructions to pay the stipend provided Chalmers

was duly authorised to receive it.

No further correspondence on the matter can be found until a letter dated 15th

November 1831 to Brodie from Thomas Graham saying ‘Sir, if you will send up a

discharge for the Auchtergaven Money Stipend due to Mr Chalmers to the

Auchtergaven Inn on the 21st or 23rd crrt., it will be paid.’

As we have heard, whether that payment was made or not, Thomas Nelson still

had to appeal for his money as late as 29thof December that year. So all that can

be surmised from this is that Brodie and Chalmers had nevertheless withheld this

man's salary.

William Chalmers died in 1832 and Thomas Nelson automatically inherited the

full ministry (and presumably the full salary). He remained the minister in

Auchtergaven until his death in 1852. He was the author of the very detailed sec-

ond statistical account in 1838, which shows a more detailed view of the parish

social and economic structure than that written by William Chalmers in 1793.

Amelia Wansborough

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TEN TAYSIDERS

Tayside’s Forgotten Figures, selected by the Abertay Historical Society, with an introduction by Billy Kay.

Encounter great figures from politics, business, medicine, science and many other fields—the Montrose-based slave-trader who later

became an abolitionist; the lady philanthropist who founded Dundee’s University; the Atholl Crimean War hero—each one

has a remarkable tale to tell.

Abertay Historical Society invites you to these book launches:

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Discover hidden treasures in the Archive.

Friends who might enjoy spending a day or two in the search room, taking charge of a selected box of documents to identify

any interesting running themes and highlight papers of particular interest. The outcome could be an article in the Newsletter in the ‘What’s in a Box? series—or if you prefer, compiling notes for one.

Interested? Phone 01738 477012,, email archive@pkc.gov.uk,

or come to the Archive in person.

Volunteers Wanted!

Friday 15 April, 5.30pm A K Bell Library, Perth.

Speakers include Steve Connelly

Saturday 14 May, 2pm Atholl Country Life Museum, Blair Atholl Speakers include John Kerr