K is for Kirk Session Records : A-Z April Challenge 2020.

Do you have Scottish ancestry? Then  KIRK SESSION RECORDS  are worth exploring for the fascinating sidelights they can throw on your ancestors' lives and the possibility of finding an ancestor's name.  

What are they? 
The Kirk Session records  provide family and local historians with a unique commentary on society at  the time, with the emphasis on charity to those in need, but censure to those involved in "moral turpitude".

The Kirk Session,  made up of the Minister and the Elders of the parish,  was the local administrative arm of the Church of Scotland,  set up after the Reformation  of 1560 and the break with the Catholic Church of Rome.  Its duties were to maintain good order amongst its congregation, and supervise the religious condition of the parish.  

What will you find in the records?

The Minute Books recorded:

• Detailed accounts of income (including legacies) and expenditure.
• Appointments of church officials. 
• Reports on the parish relating to poor relief, and the parish school.
• Cases of indiscipline , e.g. drunkenness, violence, fornication.  
• Proclamations of banns, communion rolls, seat rent books and the hire of the  hearse and mortcloths used  to cover a  coffin prior to burial.
  
  

Below  are some random entries from Earlston Kirk Session Records 1820-1901:

• 1st January 1843 - the Kirk Session agreed that:
  "The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper be dispensed on the second Sunday in February  and that the Thursday preceding shall be observed a day of humiliation but likewise as a day of thanksgiving  for the late abundant harvest".
  
  
• 17th January 1843 - "Paid  £3.13s.6d to  William Scott, saddler, for harness, and £1.4s.7d for laying the gas pipe from the street to the church."

• 1st May 1864 - reflecting concern  for the poor, the young and the aged,   2/- was paid to a destitute family, 6/6 to a family for school fees, and 5/0 to Widow Watson.
  
  
• Bags of coal were regularly distributed to the poor, many of whom were listed as widows - below a list of recipients in 1901.   The local press reported on this gift  to around 50 poor of the parish who each received about 10-15cwt of fuel, supplied by William Gray, coal agent at Earlston Station. It was noted that this Kirk bounty would be very welcome in the severe winter
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• November 1862 - the church's concern  beyond the village itself is seen in the decision that   "A collection be made in the church on Sunday, the 23rd instant  in aid of the distressed cotton weavers in Lancashire."   This was the time of the American Civil War when ports in the southern states were blockaded, and  raw cotton supplies were not reaching Lancashire, with  workers at the mills unemployed and facing hardship.
  
  
• Moral issues  featured regularly.   Entries abound with the church's concern for what was termed "ante-nuptial fornication". The notable feature of these record is the fact it is the woman who bore  the brunt of being "rebuked".
  
  As late as 14th October 1901,  a woman was brought before the Kirk Session  to be questioned on her "sin of fornication and having a child out of wedlock......... Having confessed  in sorrow for her sins and resolution to walk through grace in newness of life, the Moderator after solemn admonition did in the name of the Kirk Session absolve her from the scandal of her sin  and restore her to the privileges of the church."  This meant her child could be baptised.  No mention of the father, of course!
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How can I access the records?
Scottish Kirk Session Records  are held in Edinburgh at the National Records of Scotland  and are not currently online, though at one stage there were plans to add them to the Scotlands People website.     They can be consulted in a digitised format at eight key archive centres across Scotland.   The entries above   were found at the Heritage Hub in Hawick, home of the Scottish Borders archive collection 

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