Category Archives: Religion

Little known church gems

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The still growing popularity of research into family history for those people not only resident in Scotland but also for those scattered across the globe with ancestral links to Scots has undoubtedly been encouraged by the availability of online resources such as Scotland’s People.  Among other resources, this popular website holds birth, death & marriage records for the Church of Scotland and more recently for the Scottish Catholic Church.  As with all record types however, there are always gaps and one of these is the records of Episcopal Churches.

Edinburgh City Archives holds at least some of the capital’s Episcopal Church records such as St Paul’s & St George’s (including St Andrew’s & St Barnabas), Old St Paul’s and St Peter’s.  All of these collections include some of the surviving baptismal, marriage and burial registers for the churches.

The St Peter’s Church collection, for example, contains registers of baptisms from

An "Aspiring" Bishop

1807-1935, marriage registers, 1807-1959 and burial registers, 1807-1917.  So, if your ancestors belonged to this church then, potentially all of these series of records will hold information on them unavailable elsewhere until 1855 when statutory civil registration was introduced into Scotland.

This collection also incorporates other series of records which could be of interest not only to family historians but also to those interested in the history of this church.  There are series of registers of pews, confirmations and services and  a good series vestry minutes as well.

But perhaps one of the most intriguing and visually striking volumes contained within this St Peter’s Church collection is an album containing depictions and newspaper cuttings of various clergy and other individuals within the Scottish Episcopal Church in the early 20th century.  The wonderful water colour painting illustrated here appears to be a likeness of Bishop Walpole who was reportedly overjoyed when St Mary’s Cathedral, opened for worship in 1879, gained its west towers in 1915 and 1917.  (The little picture in the top left of this painting looks to be a representation of these) The Bishop acknowledged that he could have built twelve mission churches with the money spent on the building of these towers but believed that the completed cathedral would have a greater impact on the missionary work of the Episcopal Church.

A Bishop on Iona

One more very colourful example taken from this slim volume of illustrations is shown left.  This beautifully detailed water colour carries a caption at the foot indicating that it was painted in either 1912 or 1913 by “J.J.”  It notes “Result of studying the Visitor’s book at Bishop’s House, Iona” and further, “Archbishop of York & Guardsman”. Since there is little more by way of explanation the underlying meaning, if any exists, will have to remain a mystery for the present.

This perhaps only serves to remind us that the rich resources of Scotland’s  archival holdings contain not only records of great usefulness to us in our historical researches but also records that can surprise and delight us; to all those who take the first step into your local archives – good hunting!

The Reverend Dr. James Maitland

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The Reverend Dr. James Maitland was an influential figure in the early years of Livingston New Town. In January 1966, he was inducted as the Church of Scotland minister for the Livingston Ecumenical Experiment, in a joint ceremony with the Rev. Brian Hardy of the Episcopal Church. This bold venture was an expression of unity between the churches, and helped to foster a sense of community among the first residents of the New Town in the 1960s and 1970s. The churches shared their pastoral duties, buildings and resources, and even held joint services for their growing congregation. The Episcopal Church, the Church of Scotland and the Congregational Church were the founding churches of the Experiment, with the Methodists joining in 1968. 

The Archive Service holds a collection of the Rev. Dr. James Maitland’s private records, which includes collected papers, diaries, newspaper cuttings, reports and minutes. They provide an insight into the pivotal role that the Rev. Maitland played in church and community life. He was an active figure in the development of community forums, which gave voice to the concerns of local residents and helped people to share their experiences of adapting to their new environment.

The Rev. Maitland also chaired the Leaking Flats Committee, and helped establish such projects as “Growing up in Livingston” which aimed to create a sense of community and inclusion amongst the town’s young people. His concern for education and environment is evident within the archive collection, which includes extensive notes on the subject. With the involvement of the town’s younger residents, James Maitland and others came up with innovative approaches to the social problems affecting those growing up in the New Town. Particular measures included the setting up of Neighbourhood Houses, which could act as focal points for community work.

One of the crowning achievements of the Ecumenical Experiment was the building of the Lanthorn, in Dedridge, which was officially opened in 1977. This represented a further step towards unity, because the design of the building allowed Roman Catholic services to take part in the same premises as those of the other denominations.

The Centre was built by Lothian Region Council, West Lothian District Council and Livingston Development Corporation along with the churches of the Ecumenical Experiment. In his pamphlet, Living Stones, James Maitland wrote of the spirit of cooperation that created the Lanthorn, which he described as ‘a place where people could meet easily and naturally and begin to find what life in community can really mean.’

The papers also record James Maitland’s ideas on the importance of compassion and care for those marginalised by society, and the role of church unity in the creation of community. Many of these ideas were expressed in his book “New Beginnings: Breaking Through to Unity”, published in 1998, and the Archive contains some of its early drafts. The Rev. Dr. James Maitland left a significant legacy to the Livingston community, which can be explored in his own words through this absorbing collection.

 

 

 

From Musselburgh to the Vatican

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Conserved Papal Bull 1529

We get all sorts of interesting records in local authority archives. Unfortunately not all (possibly most?!) of it is in such good condition and requires professional conservation. This was the case with Musselburgh Burgh records found at Musselburgh Town House. A large volume of records with the earliest dating back to 1545 had been stored in bin bags in the cellars. Once they found their way to the archives the staff undertook some basic conservation such as cleaning and repackaging the material. Despite the majority of the records being in surprisingly good condition, it was clear that some of the volumes required professional conservation. We contacted the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) who selected and took away some of the volumes to their conservation unit in Edinburgh.

Among those items to be conserved was a particularly interesting document which had been used as a cover to an unrelated volume. The document was in bad shape and was hanging from the volume by a thread but from what we could make out the writing looked monastic and we were hoping it would become the earliest item from the retrieved documents. When it was deciphered by the NAS it did indeed become the earliest document (though not by as much as we were hoping!). It is a papal bull from 1529 granting William Stewart (later Bishop of Aberdeen) the office of Provost of Lincluden Collegiate Church.

The following slides show the progress of the items from bin bags to professionally conserved documents including a fully digitised volume showing an account of ground annuals paid in Musselburgh from the mid 18th century.

It’s been fascinating to watch the process over time and the work of the NAS conservation unit is greatly appreciated. Without their painstaking work and expertise we would not have been able to understand so much of these documents nor to make them available to the public.

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The Rev. John Brown – Preacher, Author and self educated man

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The Reverend John Brown

John Brown Manuscripts, East Lothian Archives EL192 

 A famous and influential figure in the history of Haddington, the Reverend John Brown was born in Carpow in Abernethy. Orphaned at the age of 11, he educated himself while working as a shepherd. Not only did he pick up reading and writing but he also went on to learn Greek, Latin and Hebrew.  He worked as a schoolmaster and was a soldier in the defence against the Jacobites before becoming a preacher. He was the first student of divinity for the burgher branch of the secessionist church he was ordained and preached at Haddington where he lived until his death. 

Click here if you want to learn more about the United Secessionist church and the rather complicated history of the burghers and anti-   burghers 

A prolific author as well as being an inspirational preacher he wrote several texts on religion which were widely popular and it was said that there was hardly a house that did not have a copy of his most famous work – the Self Interpreting Bible. Robert Burns himself makes mention of Brown’s literary talent in his poem ‘An Epistle to James Tennant’ when he says 

‘My shins, my lane, I sit here roastin’
Perusing Bunyan, Brown and Boston, 

As well as Burns, Brown is also said to have met and influenced two further famous Scots – the poet Robert Fergusson who he met in Haddington cemetery and the philosopher David Hume who said Brown preached ‘ as though Christ were at his elbow’ 

Like a lot of our records, the manuscripts have found their way to the archives by accident. Deposited with a local solicitor some time ago they were only found last year when the firm closed down.  East Lothian Archives were given a large black metal box stamped with ‘Manuscripts of the Reverend John Brown’ on the lid which contained the original handwritten drafts of several of Browns works –including the ‘The Dictionary of the Holy Bible’, ‘Scripture Key Part 2 A View of the Prophecies therein contained concerning Adam and Noah and their families’ and ‘Tracts for Self Improvement’ 

Below are some images of the material firstly as it was donated in its rather fancy box and then some individual pages from John Browns Dictionary of the Bible. 

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