Hon. Presidents: Bob Scott, Provost, Perth & Kinross Council: Sir William Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie

of Perth & Kinross Council Archive

Issue No.

20 NEWSLETTER

Perth & Kinross Council Archive, AK Bell Library, York Place, Perth PH2 8EP,Tel: 01738 477012 Email: archives@pkc.gov.uk

SIR STUART THREIPLANDFrom The Threiplands of Fingask byRobert Chambers (Edinburgh 1880)

The Threipland Papers600 years of historical records

A collection of national importance

PLUS

Perth in WWI : The Farquhar DiariesThe Perthshire Society of Natural ScienceArchive Sources on Women : Pont SurveysChairman’s Notes : News at the Archives

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Notes from the Chair

Due to the hard work done by the senior staff in the Local History Section and the Archive, theFamily History Day held on the 2nd of December 2006 was a resounding success. Lead Officersfrom the Education and Children’s services were in attendance, and worked with staff and volunteersfrom the Friends to ensure that the public were introduced to the many stalls on display, and to thevariety of activities around the building. This event gets bigger and better every year and sees to beinstalling itself as a major event in the calendar.

This leads me on to my enquiry to Patricia Ferguson MSP, Culture Minister in the Scottish Execu-tive, on aspects of the Draft Culture (Scotland) Bill, and how volunteers require appropriate support.This includes funding and guidance to enable them to be proficient in the work they do, and widenour perspective so that the knowledge we generate can be passed on to all age groups. We have beenasked to make a submission to the bill through Maria Walker, Lead Officer for Perth and KinrossCouncil, at the beginning of 2007

Jim Ferguson

News at the Archive

Accessions and listings: A lot of work recently has been concentrating on sorting out all those tinycollections – some of only one item - accessions that we’ve accumulated over the years but not giventhem their own spotlight, so to speak. Our MS14 is the artificial collection - or fonds as we profes-sionals call collections! - where we put in all these tiny collections and list them as sub-fonds. Mostof them have now been entered into our Archive management system – or ***??!!* , as we tend tocall it – so you can look forward to seeing a new, extended list of sub-fonds that make up MS14 onthe catalogue shelf in the searchroom.

A lot of these offer tantalising glimpses of our history, some quite recent such as MS14/173 'Schemeof Work', M.P. Dryden's note book of primary school lesson plans, probably done for teaching in anEnglish school in the late 1950s or early 1960s. It’s a lovely notebook and covers reading, writtenexpression work, number skills, language training, handwork, nature lessons, conversational skills,stories, recitations, drawing, singing, physical training, general training and scripture. We’ve alsoadded photocopies and a transcript of original documents held at the NAS; one is a Perthshire mili-tia list of 1817 (MS14/175) and the other lists the inhabitants of Strelitz who were volunteers be-tween 1763-1766 (MS17/176). Various thesis and manuscripts have been added including 'A verydangerous Place? Radicalism in Perth in the 1790s' a dissertation by Valerie Honeyman and anms draft of Anthony Cooke’s Stanley - from Arkwright Village to Commuter Suburb: 1784-2002.

Major accessions and accruals include the records of the recently closed school at St Fillans. Theseconsist of log books, which were a school diary kept by the head teacher and which have survivedsince the school’s inception under the school board in 1873 to closure in 2006, and admission regis-ters, dating from 1873-2003. Logierait school has also deposited its log books and admission regis-ters, and we’re expecting more. Perth Choral Society has also deposited its more modern records ashas Letham Community Council. Of older material, we now have the Moncrieffe Estate TimeBook, which is a ledger listing date, and time taken for work done by various craftsmen eg slatersand carpenters on the Moncrieffe estate,1852-1860. As usual, a full list of recent accessions can beviewed on the website at www.pkc.gov.uk/archives under ‘Archive news’

Source Lists: Most of you know that many of the Friends volunteers are involved in projects aimedat making the Archive's collections more accessible – mostly by creating electronic source lists.These are databases that list material from different collections into one theme or subject. The sourcelists can be consulted in the Archive search room, but we hope that by the time you read this, thePerth Burgh Burial Register database will be available online. Keep checking that website!

Jan Merchant

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The Threipland Papers

Many of you know that for the past two years the Archive has been arranging and listing theThreipland Papers, thanks to an award from the Heritage Lottery Fund for £50,000. The moneymeant we could employ an archivist fulltime to get the work done – we’d had the collection fornearly ten years but despite attempts to catalogue it, lack of staff time and other resources meantlittle got done. Not surprising when the collection came to us in over sixty large boxes and even-tually numbered over 31,000 items!

But now the collection is arranged and listed and we can find out about the family and their ac-tivities, the estates that comprised Threipland lands here in Perthshire and in Caithness, the ten-ants, servants and their work.

It’s possible that the Theiplands originated in Peebleshire, but after 1600 they appear in Perthwhere Patrick Threipland was a merchant, appearing frequently in the list of magistrates. He be-came Provost in 1665, and several times thereafter and as a determined loyalist to the Stuarts wasawarded a knighthood in 1674 and a baronetcy in 1687. He prospered so well that in 1672, hecould purchase the estate of Fingask in the Carse of Gowrie from the Bruce family – many ofthese documents have survived, although you need Latin to read many of them! Unfortunately,Patrick’s adherence to the Stuart cause led to his arrest and imprisonment in Stirling castle wherehe died in 1689

The family remained staunch Jacobites, with Patrick’s son and grandson both dying for the cause,and the family consequently lost their title and ownership of Fingask Castle. Only the courageand wiliness of Katherine Smythe, the second wife of Patrick’s grandson, saw off marauding sol-diers and kept the family actually living in at Fingask.

Katherine’s only surviving son, Stuart, was physician to Bonnie Prince Charlie. After the ’45 hefled abroad, but returned to Scotland after the amnesty of 1747

Fingask Castle, early 19th century

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and established himself in Edinburgh. By 1783, forfeited estates like Fingask were put up for auction,and Stuart took his opportunity to repurchase Fingask. It was his marriage to Janet Budge-Murraythat saw lands in Caithness come into the family.

The Threiplands had their title restored in 1826, but with the death of the childless fifth baronet,Patrick Murray Threipland, in 1882, the baronetcy ended. Patrick was succeeded by his cousin, Wil-liam Scott-Kerr of Chatto, who took the name of Murray Threipland, and whose descendents still liveat Fingask. The duration of the family at Fingask, despite interruptions, has therefore lasted over 400years – a feat that is reflected in the breadth of the collection.

Such a vast collection covers many different areas, both geographically and thematically, so to makesense of it, it was imperative to establish a basic arrangement – charts were made and continually al-tered as we worked through the collection. The largest section, Estate Management, deals with theland and its tenants and comprises posters advertising roups and leases, the leases themselves, lettersof application from prospective tenants, sketches and word-maps of the estates, wages books and in-formation about crops – what was grown and how.

Extract from Plan of Fingask belonging to Sir Stuart Threipland by James Stobie, 1784 (MS169/3/1/12(1))

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Leases contained the tenant’s and landlord’s restrictions, obligations and rules, particularly aboutcrop rotation which ensured that the land was not exhausted, especially where it sloped. Dungingwas also important, and leases covered what was to be dunged and how often. Penalties for deviat-ing could be harsh – one case saw a fine of £5 – and court cases did ensue.

Although the estate correspondence shows there were problem tenants, none were as bad as oneAlexander McDougall, who was originally a farm servant to Katherine Smythe. On her death in1762, he was left to supervise the home farm, but ended up pretending to occupy much of Fingasklands, based entirely on fictitious leases. He kept Stuart Threipland in the courts for years, usingevery quirk in the law available to him.

The leases, like many of the documents, are particularly useful to family, social-and economic his-torians, providing details of the tenant, the land they farmed, rent paid and length of the tenancy.There’re also some ‘character references’ like the one below for two brothers, which is unusual inthat their political views are commented on along with their general suitability as tenants

Other records portray broader estate activities, like posters advertising roups of wood and orchardfruits and notebooks listing sales and buyers. For horticulturalists, there are records relating to thegardens at Fingask, including a diary noting plantings and other garden work. Part of the collectionrelates to Middleton, near Edinburgh which belonged to the uncle of Patrick, the fifth baronet.These records include actual plant seeds as well as recipes, including one to make rat poison!

A reference froma Minister for thebrothers Peterand Donald May,commenting ontheir politicalleanings, 1847(MS169/3/1/1 (736)

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Estate accounts are a huge section of the collection – there’re over 8000 entries of vouchers, in-voices and receipts for Fingask alone. Other accounts demonstrate the Threiplands’ responsibilities,listing payments to the local ministers, schoolmasters and poor rates, as well as the expenses of in-surance, improvements and repairs to farm buildings. There are of course, household and personalaccounts and cash books which provide insight into the family’s consumption – groceries and meatappear, as well as a receipt for 28 gallons of whiskey! We assume from the date this was for christ-mas and new year celebrations. The fifth baronet also had rather a sweet tooth, as evidenced by hisaccount with Mrs Harley, a confectioner in Perth.

Because individuals are named in most of these documents, they can be a goldmine for family his-torians, especially when they often follow people over a period of time. Employee records for cas-ual labour, outdoor and indoor servants include a series of 19th century wages books across whichpeople can be traced. Wages books and other material can be matched, as in the case of DavidMurray, gardener, whose wage receipts exist along with a character reference which notes that hewas ‘dismissed for bad conduct’. David Chalmers, valet and butler, is another character who we canfollow – his diary has been published by the family, and the collection demonstrates just how muchhe was thought of by the fifth baronet: he left instructions of what Chalmers ‘in whose honour andintegrity I place every confidence’ should do when he died.

This is just a taste of what can be found in the Threipland Papers. A summary of the collection canbe found on the website at www.pkc.gov/archives, and of course you can come into the Archivesearchroom and browse the catalogue –nearly 800 pages of it – and consult the documents them-selves. You can also go to the website to search the Threiplands People Database. It’s in its earlystages and is being updated thanks to Melene, a Friends volunteer; eventually it will contain thenames of everyone that appears in the collection and can be used to access the documents in whichthey appear.

A 19th century coachman’s employment terms forbad himkeeping chickens which might be fed on the horses’ grain!

MS169/3/1/4(12)

Social life revolved around balls and receptions;some 19th century tickets and formal invitationsMS169/.8/1/2/1

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One 18th century Threipland appears to have been a trusteein respect of a plantation in the W. Indies; slaves formedpart of the inventory. Notice ‘Peter the fool’ is worth lessthan old man Darius, who is worth less than the averageslave.

A 19th century farm lease

Announcing the birth of a child:‘She behavd most manfully…’

Woods and forests were an important ifintermittent source of income for Scottish estates

MS169/3/1/1(909)

MS169/8/2/1(1)MS169/3/1/9(12)

MS169/2/2/2(11)

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Perth and Kinross in World War I

Trawling through all the Archive’s collections, Graham has picked out all materials relating toWWI and entered it into a database. This and other electronic source lists are a quick and usefulway to find items to complete a topic, especially for pupils and teachers. Here's a taster of the war’simpact on Perth and Kinross…

World War I did not physically affect Perthshire, Kinross-shire or its citizens, although they suf-fered from the appalling casualty lists, particularly after the battles of Loos (1915) and the Somme(1916), which affected every town and hamlet in the land. Pullars, for example, sent 500 employeesto the war of whom sixty-one died.

The two counties, however, played their full part in supporting the troops in France, the citizens pro-viding help and assistance whenever and wherever they could. Numerous flag days and street col-lections were organised to provide comforts for the troops and wounded soldiers, and relief organi-sations as diverse as the Belgian Relief Fund, Montenegrin Relief Fund, The Red Cross, POWs andeven a Fund for the Relief of Russian Jews were active.

Concerts were given regularly in Perth City Hall, as well as in towns and villages throughout theregion with the aim of raising money. Organisations such as the Salvation Army, the Gaelic Societyand various political clubs opened their doors and welcomed soldiers from camps and barracks, of-fering smokes, reading matter, rest and relaxation. Many families invited convalescent soldiers,many originating from Australia and New Zealand, into their homes. Hospital beds were in shortsupply, and many homes and institutions were converted into temporary hospitals, among themPerth Poor House which housed between 75 and 100 wounded soldiers.

School children also played their part, working at getting in the harvest, collecting waste paper,metal, and, of all things, horse chestnuts (does anyone know why horse chestnuts?) Local women'sgroups such as branches of the Scottish Women's Rural Institute knitted socks, pullovers, balaclavasand gloves for the troops in France to help them survive the winters.

Many temporary camps - with huts or tents- were set up to train the huge influx of army volunteers,and accommodation had also to be arranged in local schools. This caused some friction and therewere rows between local authorities and the army over claims submitted for damage to classroomsand to roads used by the military for heavy transport. Some of the claims were trivial and reeked ofpetty bureaucracy; Auchterarder Council even charged the Army for watering their horses!

As the war progressed, manpower became short and there was a constant demand from the army formore and more men. By 1916, conscription was introduced with the Military Service Act. Bureauc-racy really came to the fore and much paperwork and hot air was expanded forming local tribunalsto hear exemption pleas, deferment claims and conscientious objection. With food control orders,coal rationing, lighting control orders, early shop closing and war savings, all kinds of committeesburgeoned alongside local recruiting tribunals.

Interestingly, Perth Gas Works conducted experiments to use a reduction of gas pressure as an airraid warning. These appear to have been unsuccessful because the pressure differed quite markedlybetween the higher areas of the city, such as Cherrybank, and the centre; it would take 15 minutes totake any affect. It was probably just as well that the plan was abandoned as the practice appears tohave been fraught with danger!

Fuel was in such short supply that the use of gas was investigated as an alternative fuel for buses,and trials appear to have been successful, but I can find no record of how widely it was used.

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Early in 1918, ‘Julian’ the tank visited Dundee, Perth, Blairgowrie and other towns to raise funds forthe war effort, or as Perth Town Council minuted, to collect money for 'an implement of war’ On itsvisit to Perth, ‘Julian’ paraded up Tay Street and was sited on the North Inch, creating much publicinterest.

Although Perth was not a large manufacturing centre, it was a railway hub of major importance, andtrains full of soldiers on leave, wounded soldiers, and soldiers bound for the Front passed regularlythrough. Most trains stopped at Perth where the ‘Perth Patriotic Barrow’ provided sustenance in theform of tea and ‘wads’ [thick sandwiches or stodgy buns] for the troops. The Barrow, which was actu-ally a stall, was manned in shifts by local volunteers who did a wonderful job and were greatly appre-ciated.

After the war in 1919, the War Trophies Commission was established to distribute largesse in the formof captured armaments to towns and cities throughout the UK. Perth at first received a 'German ma-chine gun (broken) and ammunition box', which so disgusted the Lord Provost that he instructed thetown clerk to write back and ask the Committee for 'a gun that would be more in keeping with the cir-cumstances of the city'. Eventually they obtained two heavy guns through the auspices of the Duke ofAtholl, Lord Lieutenant of the county, which were placed at the entrance to Buckie Braes, while a bat-tery of Turkish field guns were offered by the 2nd Black Watch who had captured them. A tank wasalso received from the Scottish War Savings Committee. It was stored at Craigiehaugh, and after muchargument was eventually sited on Craigie Knowes. Blairgowrie got another German machine gun andcaptured German rifles.

In the early 1930s, the Perth tank was broken up and sold for scrap metal. The guns were also removedfor scrap during WWII, along with two Crimean War cannons which had stood on the South Inch bythe old Academy buildings. Older people may remember these 'trophies'. Sadly, I believe that theirmetal, along with that from railings, was found to be unsuitable for making munitions.

Finally, it is interesting to note that in 1918 a certain Lt. Beaton sent a gift of Roman remains to PerthCouncil which had been found during trench-digging north-east of Amiens. In the midst of carnage,there were still moments to consider the finer things of life.

Graham Watson

Surviving Black Watch troops leaving the front line after the initial Somme offensive in July 1916

(Photo courtesy of Local History Section, A>K>Bell Library).

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The Farquhar Diaries

For many months now I have been preparing for publication the diaries of the Very Rev. GeorgeTaylor Shillito Farquhar, which belong to the Diocese of the Scottish Episcopal Church and arekept in the Archive at the AK Bell Library. In this work I have been helped enormously by RaeMetcalf, whose fingers work twice or three times as fast as mine at the keyboard, and have en-abled us to be within sight of the finishing line this year. These diaries are in sixteen hand-writtenvolumes of over half a million words and run from 1881 until shortly before Farquhar’s death in1927. For almost the whole of his working life Farquhar was a presbyter at St. Ninian’s Cathe-dral serving for most of that time as Supernumerary of the Diocese and from 1910 as Dean. I firstbecame interested in these diaries when researching for my book, The Building and Develop-ment of St. Ninian’s Cathedral, 1847-1914, which was published in 2002, and following thatpublication I was keen for the diaries to find the wider readership they merited.

Farquhar was born on the 25th February 1857, just north of Forfar at Pitscandly, a fine A-listedtwo-storey classic mansion house dating from the late 17th century. His mother was Mary AnnFarquhar and the family trace their descent from Robert Farquhar, a burgess and merchant in Ab-erdeen who was knighted in 1660. The Pitscandly estate came into the family in the early 18th

century and was entailed, so that when Mary Ann married William Taylor in 1852 he had tochange his name to Farquhar. At the time of their marriage William Taylor was the incumbent ofthe Episcopal Church in Forfar. There were five sons of the marriage and George was the third.The oldest, William, took over the farm of Clochtow, two sons went to farm in Canada and thefourth son, James, also took Holy Orders in the Church. All five sons of the family were educatedat Trinity College, Glenalmond, founded under the wardenship of Charles Wordsworth who was tosucceed Patrick Torry as Bishop of the Diocese in 1852.

The diary begins in January 1881 on Farquhar’s return to study at Keble College, Oxford where hewas to graduate the following year. He had matriculated at Keble in 1875 but left in 1877 follow-ing a breakdown in health. On his return he was allowed to live in lodgings and ‘had a very pleas-ant term … unlike his former experience’. Keble’s first intake of students was in 1870; its build-ings were designed by William Butterfield, the architect of St. Ninian’s in Perth. The founders’intention from the beginning was for ‘a small college, especially for educating candidates forHoly Orders in a stricter, simpler way than usual’ and with ‘tutors ready to devote themselves tothe work without any prospect beyond maintenance in a plain way’.

The 19th century was a period of great religious excitement. In England the Oxford movement andCambridge Camden Society sought to revive forms of worship lost at the Reformation. The so-called Gothic Revival demanded churches with a nave, a chancel and a presbytery and clear divi-sion between each area, as in medieval churches. Its influence was even felt in the Church of Scot-land, which formed a ‘Committee on Aids to Devotion’ in 1859; in 1862 the Moderator, Dr Bis-set, commended the movement for the reform of worship, and his remarks created ‘a great sensa-tion’. In Aberdeen a young clergyman, Marshall Lang, preached a sermon on the subject, but wassternly dealt with by the Presbytery who called upon him to give up dangerous innovations such asstanding at singing.In England, penalties went beyond mere reprimands. On page 1 of the diary we learn that ‘therehave been several prosecutions of the so-called Ritualists in England, with whom I sympathise.Mr Dale and Mr Enraght have been thrown into prison, Mr Green sentenced also to prison, MrDe La Bere deprived, and the prosecution of Mr Mackonochie has broken down on technicalgrounds’.

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What had happened to cause Mr Enraght, Mr De La Bere and others to languish in an Englishprison? The wearing of vestments certainly, but not only that. Sometimes they had put lights(candles) on the altar or even a cross! Disputes of this kind in England could finish up in thecourts and even a prison cell, but in Scotland the Episcopal Church had been disestablishedsince 1689 and so no laws were being broken.

And so, because Licensed Church of England clergy could move to the Scottish Church with-out re-ordination, many Anglo-Catholics sought posts in Scotland. One of these, theRev.Edward Knottesford Fortescue, became the first Provost of St. Ninian’s Cathedral (hisfamily controlled church appointments at Wilmcote in Warwickshire, which had become firstpost-reformation church in England to adopt the use of vestments). He was appointed duringthe episcopate of Patrick Torry who was of the old high church school of non-juring ScottishEpiscopalians, and who, following the decision to build a cathedral in Perth, wrote saying thatthe church was ‘the only representative in Scotland of that branch of the one Holy CatholicChurch which was planted there, if not by St. Paul, at least by St. Ninian, St Columba, andothers of the apostolic fellowship’.

When Torry died in 1852 he was replaced by Charles Wordsworth whose religion was basedon English 17th century Protestantism, and he wanted nothing to do with the forms of worshipthen used at St. Ninian’s. This led to a thirty years’ war between the bishop and his cathedral.It was this fractious situation in which Farquhar found himself in 1883 when he took a placethere, and where he was to remain for forty-three years.

As supernumerary of the diocese, Farquhar was constantly away at different churches ‘takingthe duty’, and many of his visits were chronicled in his diary. At Crieff the small daughter ofthe incumbent there said her prayers : ‘Forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that tres-pass against us; And lead us not into the Station’. The incumbent at Pittenweem ‘did very lit-tle but breed poultry’.

In December 1900 he had to go to Taymouth. ‘A collapse has occurred at Taymouth. Arbuth-not has had violent outbreaks. The Breadalbanes accuse him of drink. He claims that it isepilepsy. In any case he has lost the Chaplaincy. I took the duty there yesterday and stayedwith Lord & Lady B. at the Castle. How extremely agreeable people like that can make them-selves! Lord B. told me a story characteristic of one side of our Bishop’s character. He, (theBp) had disposed of some Church money in a way which Sir R. Menzies thought might bechallenged in a court of law. He is a notoriously litigious old man and, meeting the Bp, toldhim very unceremoniously that he would have him up before the Court of Session for mis-appropriation of trust funds. This caused the Bp great anxiety.

‘After all, Sir Robert came to the conclusion that the Bp had the stronger case and made uphis mind not to proceed. Without expressing any regret for the worry he had caused, he sentthe Bp a haunch of venison. It was now the Bp’s turn, and he sent the venison back. I don’tbelieve he cared a bit for himself personally but he was not going to have the Episcopal Officeflouted in his person by a domineering big-wig. I saw Sir Robert at Aberfeldy Station to-day.He is 84 and can scarcely walk for rheumatism and old age. But he will not give in. Out hecomes in all weathers in his kilt and persists in imagining he is a young, vigorous man. Therehe was hirpling fiercely along and puffing and blowing out of his toothless old mouth!’

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In Farquhar’s diary there is none of Pepys’s bawdiness, but it is comparable in the way that inone single entry you can find domestic details such as his wife’s tooth-ache, followed by an ac-count of the visit of the incumbent of Craigellachie to Balmoral. It also contains important his-torical information which has appeared no where else, so far as I am aware. In particular, he re-cords a conversation on a local train journey with the architect William Butterfield which givesdetailed information about his designs in brick at Keble

All the religious debates, conflicts and reconciliations were chronicled in these diaries but he alsorecorded with a very human touch, the people and events, sometimes funny, sometimes quite sad,which touched his life

Margaret Lye

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Sources on Women in the Archive

When I volunteered to help in the archive little did I realise what a fascinating adventure the ar-chivists had in store for me. The task was to create a database to use as a finding aid; the databaseis to contain records of all the sources in the archive that relate to women.

This meant creating several tables in the database, but more importantly it meant checkingthrough all the collections in the archive. First of all, I’ve simply recorded which collections con-tain information about women. But now I’m going through all these collections and entering thedetails of the records and writing a description of them. Each entry is then categorized into one ofthe subject areas which have been agreed upon with Archive staff e.g. Education, Health Welfareand Philanthropy, Marriage, Occupation and so on. Some records fall into more than one cate-gory and this is recorded as well.

To date I have completed a search and recorded information from all the smaller burghs in Perthand Kinross and am now going through the Perth Burgh collections and entering all these in thedatabase. This is a long-term project but the things that you discover in the most unlikely placesare amazing: recently I was going through the register of bond holders and records for Perth andfound that these bonds were used in marriage contracts and ante nuptial agreements.

More recently I was reading the old electoral registers for Perth Burgh and discovered a RoseBlair voting in 1866. This was rather a mystery as women did not have the vote at that time - sowe had to do some research, looking at the street directories and valuation rolls and finally in theScotland’s People website where we discovered that Rose Blair was after all a man - Perthwoman had not managed to beat the system at all! Sadly some of Perth’s electoral registers aremissing, including those when women were given the vote in municipal elections, so we couldnot find out who were the first women to vote for the Town Council. Maybe the records will befound one day-who knows?

In the course of all this I’ve been managing to augment my own research into Bankfoot andAuchtergaven. For instance, in the records of the Perth Parish Council who administered the PoorLaw, I found some records of children who were ‘boarded out’ in Bankfoot. My own research ofthe 1901 census showed those same children listed as living in ‘Bankfoot Orphanage’!

I am therefore acquiring a lot of knowledge about the County and the town of Perth, enhancingmy own research as I go and above all having a great deal of fun-which is how learning shouldbe.

Hilary Wright

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The latest in our series of Spotlights on Historical groups in the county—

Perthshire Society of Natural Science:Archaeological and Historical Section

The PSNS was formed n 1867, principally as a result in the ever increasing interest in scienceand nature during the Victorian era. Over the years, sub-sections of special interest have devel-oped: botanical, geological, photographic, ornithological and archaeological and historical.These are still very much alive and functioning, apart from the geological section which foldedsome years ago.

The archaeological section was founded in the session 1948-49 and Dr Margaret Stewart, whowas the driving force be hind its formation, encouraged members to carry out many local exca-vations and surveys over nearly forty years under her guidance. She was instrumental in holdingseminars and instruction courses on many aspects of prehistoric and Roman archaeology, andher contribution to the archaeological understanding of Perthshire was immense.

From about the late 1980s, excavations by amateurs were discouraged, although they oftenworked as labourers, which is frequently the case today. Many PSNS members have had the op-portunity to assist excavations carried out by the Scottish Urban Archaelogical Trust (SUAT),and have also taken part in field walking and surveying.

Apart from archaeology, the Society takes an interest in all aspects of Scottish history up to thepresent day. The archaeological and historical section has some 60 members and holds monthlytalks during the winter months on such diverse topics as the Life of William Wallace and AirPhotography as an Archaeological Tool. Outdoor excursions are held in the summer to castles,and to sites of historical or archaeological interest.

Close liaison is maintained with other interested bodies and historical societies throughoutPerthshire and in places such as Dunkeld, Dunning, Stirling, Cumbernauld and Alloa. The sec-tion is also in touch with the activities of the Council of Scottish Archaeology (CSA) in Edin-burgh, Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust and SUAT, and joins with them to take part in ScottishArchaeology Month, Perth Archaeology Month, Young Archaeologists Group etc Recently, wehave been reviving and expanding our commitment to the Adopt a Monument Scheme, initiatedby the CSA, whereby local societies promote public access to a local monument or site byhelping to maintain it and by publishing information about it. In our case it is a ‘Stone CircleTrail’ round accessible stone circles in the Perth district.

The popularity of archaeology and the interest in a study of past heritage has been growing fastover the last twenty years and shows no sign of levelling off – rather, interest continues to grow,and particularly pleasing, is growing among youngsters

Graham Watson

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Timothy Pont : Scotland’s First Mapmaker

After our last AGM, Chris Fleet, Deputy Curator of Maps at the National Library, outlined the evolu-tion of the mapping of Scotland during the two centuries from Pont to Scobie. Quite naturally his focuswas upon the elusive but seminal figure of Pont himself, and what follows is a bald summary of his abun-dantly illustrated talk on the pioneering surveyor.

Even by the late 16th Century, he said, Scotland had no maps based on a direct survey. Early maps such asGeorge Lily’s of the 1540s were based largely on historical narratives; they tended to emphasise features suchas ecclesiastical centres and mythology as well as mountains and rivers.

There were several reasons why better maps were needed at that time. For James V, seeking greater controlover clans and nobles, maps were needed for state integration, prestige and defence. There were economicincentives - merchants and burgesses were keen to discover new sources of wealth in a largely uncharted land.And following the Scottish Reformation, a newly emerging educated class of ministers, lawyers, teachers andlairds were coming to appreciate the value of detailed, historically grounded descriptions of their country inwords and pictures.

It was in response to these pressures that Timothy Pont set out to record the Scottish landscape in detail, andwith some justification he is regarded as Scotland’s first surveyor or map-maker.

We know little more than the bare bones of his life. He was the son of Robert Pont, a leading political andchurch figure of his day. He was probably born about 1565 or 1566, and graduated from St. Andrews in 1583.A grant of lands in Strathmartin in 1574 gave him an independent income, and he was established as ministerfor Dunnet in Caithness in 1601 (perhaps as a sinecure). We do not know when he died, but a new ministerwas appointed to Dunnet parish in 1614.

By that time, he had managed to chart in great detail a large part of Scotland, including much of Perthshire,setting out to record features of interest to the Establishment of his day in over seventy manuscript maps witha wealth of accompanying notes.

The subsequent history of the results of so much industry was extraordinary. During his lifetime only one ofhis maps (of the Lothians) had been engraved. After his death, his wife and children seemingly neglected theircartographic gold mine, and by the 1630s the maps were being described as ‘worn and moth-eaten, alreadyfalling to pieces, fading away, and were becoming illegible even to careful eyes’

Map1:

Loch Tay is shown asa fishery for‘Salmonds,Trouts and Eeles’

Ben Lawers isshown in profile;presumably as adirection-findinglandmark

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Luckily, about this time the maps and notes came into the hands of Dutch publishers, the rival firms ofHondius and Blaeu. Although of the more easily deciphered maps were engraved straight away, the atlascontaining them was not to be published until the 1650s - fully 70 years after Pont’s surveys!

The originals of these maps were either discarded or perhaps lost later in a fire at Blaeu‘s printing house.Ironically, therefore, it was those maps deemed problematic, or difficult to decipher, which survived intheir original manuscript form, because they had been returned to Scotland, where Robert Gordon ofStraloch, and later his son James, were engaged in elucidating or correcting them. We are fortunate thatfifteen of Pont’s original maps survive covering Perthshire, and many of his topographical notes relating tothe county were transcribed by Robert Gordon.

Both these maps and the notes are mines of geographical and historical information about the Scotland ofthose times. Without the means of accurate measurement, his sketch maps are best regarded as a qualitativerepresentation of what was where in relative terms, naming or illustrating an immense breadth of features.

(Maps reproduced courtesy of National Library of Scotland)

In a period without made roads, he shows an understandable interest in means of travel, such as bridges,fords and ferries. He indicates economic resources, such as the pearling and salmon-fishing of Loch Tay(map 1). His illustrations of towns and important buildings are often historically interesting; for instancethis sketch of Scone Abbey clearly shows an intact building, which contradicts the belief that it had beenseriously damaged by an angry mob following Knox’s sermon in St. John’s in 1559 (map2).

The notes are very detailed, and are crucial topographic sources for those parts of Perthshire for which nosketch maps survive. Both notes and maps are enlivened by descriptive detail; for instance

‘At the head of Glen Evish is the great moss of Mony-nedy, or moss of armour, so cald because sumtimethe Earl of Mar, his men flying from Maconeil did throw away their armour in this moss’ and

‘it is evident how great deserts are heir betwix Badenoch and Loch Abyr, onlie propre for deer, nether isther yit a seat in other ten miles on this syd Bellach Triadan’

These were troubled times, with covenanting wars, plague and civil war; Robert Gordon was often unableto travel or get much assistance in verifying Pont’s surveys, and many errors inevitably crept into maps andnotes he prepared for the Dutch firm. Despite its simplifications and inaccuracies, however, his small-scalemap of central Scotland - substantially based on Pont’s surveys - was much copied by later map-makers,and as a result it could be said that Pont was still influencing the cartography of Scotland until well into theeighteenth century.

Mr Fleet concluded by a giving a standing invitation to explore the National Library’s Map Sectionwebsite (www.nls.uk/maps/) It’s a world class collection, and the excellent design of the websitemakes it a pleasure to browse or download. Also, in December 2006, the National Library of Scot-land has co-published a facsimile volume of the Blaeu Atlas of Scotland, with the entire texts trans-lated into English for the first time, and full colour reproductions of all forty-nine maps.

Map2:

Pont’s Sketch map ofPerth and Scone Abbeyin the late 1500s.The Abbey, presumablydrawn from directobservation, seems to bequite undamaged.

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This old postcard is titled The Kirk of the Muir, Kinclaven; Oldest UP Church in Scotland;Built 1744; repaired 1830. This card must predate 1900, as in that year the United PresbyterianChurch and the Free Church joined to form the United Free Church of Scotland. This kirk startedits life as an ‘Original Secession Church’ opened in 1744 by Revd Ebenezer Erskine, a prominentleader of the early 18th century Secession from the Church of Scotland. . In 1972, it was describedas ‘one of the earliest Secession churches still in use’.

Its minister in 1902 was the Revd. John Brown, a direct descendant of John Brown of Priesthill, aonetime farm near Muirkirk in Ayrshire. Brown was a devout Covenanter, and illegal serviceswere held often at Priesthill. In May 1685, John Graham of Claverhouse arrived there with soldiersand asked John Brown to take the oath of allegiance. This he refused to do, and so Claverhouseshot this 58 year old man dead before his own house and in front of his wife and family. He is bur-ied close to where he fell, but no buildings now exist at Priesthill.

It is said that the famous missionary, Mary Slessor of Calabar (“The White Queen”) on holidaylocally in Stanley, visited this church in September 1907 and was impressed. But it is reported byNick Haynes in Perth & Kinross, an illustrated architectural guide, published in 2000, that‘virtually nothing now remains of this Church’.

Can anyone tell me please just where the site of this church stands or stood?

Donald M. AbbottInvergowrie

A Church is missing! Can Anybody Help?

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