September-October 2021

History Scotland

The world's premier Scottish history magazine

History Scotland1 min read
From The Editor
The much-anticipated digital kirk session records release from National Records of Scotland has been welcomed by researchers around the country, particularly with so many libraries and archives still closed or working on reduced hours due to the ongo
History Scotland2 min read
Meet The Contributors
Dr David Alston Born and brought up in the highlands of Scotland, Dr David Alston is a freelance historian who has spent 20 years researching the role of highland Scots in the slave-worked plantations of the Caribbean, especially Guyana. On page 24 h
History Scotland2 min read
History Scotland
PATRONS David Breeze Christopher Smout Historiographer Royal Elizabeth Ewan University of Guelph Mr Derek Alexander Archaeologist, National Trust for Scotland Dr John Atkinson Managing Director GUARD Archaeology Ltd Medieval and post-medieval settlem
History Scotland1 min read
New Death Bc Project Looks At Modern Prehistoric Burial Trend
Archaeologist Dr Kenny Brophy and researcher Andrew Watson have received a British Academy Leverhulme small grant to undertake research into the new trend, which has seen modern versions of prehistoric burial mounds called barrows being built to cont
History Scotland1 min read
Chronicle Of Fortingall Secured For The Nation
The manuscript was compiled by scribes between 1544 and 1579 at Fortingall in highland Perthshire. It contains contemporary annals, poetry and other short texts in Latin, Scots and Gaelic. The scribes belonged to the MacGregor family who also compile
History Scotland1 min read
Dunkirk Little Ship Finds A Permanent Home
The proposed £3m Spirit of Skylark Centre will be a permanent base for Skylark IX, which is listed on the National Historic Ships Register and believed to be one of only two ‘Dunkirk little ships’ from the World War II Operation Dynamo surviving in S
History Scotland15 min read
Walsingham And The Witch England’s Failed Attempt To Pacify King James VI
In September 1583, Queen Elizabeth I sent Sir Francis Walsingham, her principal secretary of state and spymaster, to Scotland with an entourage of 80 intelligence agents, men-at-arms and servants. Although the queen was notorious for her vacillation,
History Scotland9 min read
SHOT, SHELL AND SPRUE: The Material Remains Of The Battle Of Glenshiel
The battle of Glenshiel was the only pitched battle fought during the 1719 Jacobite uprising. It was fought between the Jacobites under the earl of Tullibardine against a force of British government troops under the command of General Joseph Wightman
History Scotland7 min read
Inspiring Walter Scott
This August marks 250 years since the birth of the great Scottish novelist and antiquarian, Sir Walter Scott. As part of a Scotland-wide celebration of his life and works, Walter Scott 250, National Museums Scotland’s tribute is a display called Insp
History Scotland7 min read
Tor House Through Time
In response to an archaeological planning condition, a new residential development by AMA (Tor) Ltd to the west of the Edinburgh has allowed buildings archaeologists at AOC Archaeology to record and explore Tor House, a mid-19th century Grade B Liste
History Scotland12 min read
‘Doll’ Thomas And Her Daughters
In 1810 a remarkable black woman swept through Glasgow, to the consternation of some in the city. The Glasgow West India merchant Charles Steuart Parker wrote to his wife exclaiming, ‘Who do you think is [here] but Gilbert Robertson’s Mother-in-Law D
History Scotland6 min read
Allahakbarries C.C. J.M. Barrie's Extraordinary Celebrity Cricket Team
If I were to ask you how Winnie The Pooh, Peter Pan, Mowgli, Sherlock Holmes and The Invisible Man share a camaraderie: one beyond the obvious; beyond bookshelves, what would you think of? Disney? Bestselling? Animation? Can a clique of elite literat
History Scotland5 min read
REMOTE AND RURAL MEMORIES Highland Medicine In The Mid 19th Century
Life in the highlands and islands in the 1800s was far from easy. The highlands potato famine, which first struck in 1846 and continued over subsequent decades, brought extreme poverty and starvation. The highland clearances, which had begun in earne
History Scotland4 min read
What Will You Discover In The Kirk Session Records?
In the spring of 2021, the National Records of Scotland (NRS) released over 6,000 volumes of kirk session and other church court records (around 1 million pages) on their online research service ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) in partner
History Scotland5 min read
LADY OF Swords
SPOTLIGHT: JACOBITES FRESH PERSPECTIVES ON THE JACOBITE ERA BY EMERGING VOICES IN SCHOLARSHIP There was a fair bit of commotion upon the mercat cross of Coupar Angus one mid-October day in 1745. Bailie Charles Hay, a locally known clerk and town magi
History Scotland13 min read
The Return Of The King (1341-1346)
David II’s return to Scotland after seven years of exile in France should have been a crowning moment for the Bruce Scots. And in the short term it likely was. The availability of a young active monarch to take the field against an ageing Edward Ball
History Scotland7 min read
The Foundation Of The Edinburgh School Of Arts
In the 18th century, Scotland was one of the most well-educated societies in Europe, with schools established in most lowland parishes and a thriving university system. It was, however, socially stratified, with only the most basic education availabl
History Scotland11 min read
A Tale Of Two Statues
There are two statues in Ayr’s Burns Statue Square, which must each in its own way have held great significance for one of the most unusual commanders of a Scottish regiment in wartime. The less familiar of the two is the colonial wars memorial of th
History Scotland1 min read
In The Next Issue Of History SCOTLAND
We take a look at a major new research project aiming to expand our knowledge of Scotland under William II and Queen Anne. The story of an often-forgotten highland rising against the covenanters in 1649. We attempt to unravel the mystery of an unusua
History Scotland1 min readInternet & Web
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History Scotland3 min read
Cheap Print For The Reading Public
reviews@historyscotland.com The Press and the People: Cheap Print & Society in Scotland, 1500-1785 Adam Fox Oxford University Press, 2020 480 pages Hardback, £75.00 ISBN: 9780198791294 This excellent book rests upon a wealth of comprehensive research
History Scotland3 min read
Scots in the Spanish Civil War
Scots and the Spanish Civil War: Solidarity, Activism and Humanitarianism Fraser Raeburn Edinburgh University Press, 2020 232 pages Hardback, £80.00 ISBN: 9781474459471 Even though it is almost 85 years since the end of the Spanish Civil War, and ove
History Scotland3 min read
Britain, Europe And The ʻScottish Question’
Natural and Necessary Unions: Britain, Europe, and the Scottish Question D.H. Robinson Oxford University Press, 2020 384 pages Hardback, £25.00 ISBN: 9780198859710 Dan Robinson is a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and acquired both his first degr
History Scotland4 min read
Diary Dates
A special display at Holyrood House explores the late Prince Philip’s early life and naval career, his role as consort, and his support for the sovereign at home and overseas. The display also focuses on the prince’s patronages and associations, incl
History Scotland3 min read
…THE FAMINE OF THE 1690s
The 1690s have conventionally been seen as a peculiarly unhappy time for Scotland. The horrors of the first Jacobite rising (1689-91) and the massacre of Glencoe (1692) are part of this narrative, as is the catastrophe of the Darien disaster (1699-17
History Scotland2 min readPoverty & Homelessness
How To Trace Ancestors Who Fell On Hard Times
Just as 1855 is important to statutory registration, 1845 is one of the most crucial years regarding the treatment of the poor in Scotland, since this was the year that An Act for the Amendment and better Administration of the Laws relating to the Re
History Scotland2 min read
Culture, Crime And Celebrations
Elsewhere in this issue (page 34), we have been able to read a fascinating special report on kirk session records. This presents a wonderful opportunity to highlight the rich publishing history of these records by the Society, and in particular the m
History Scotland3 min read
Final Word
What would you say were the broad differences between the experiences of women migrants and their male counterparts? The initial struggles for first generation migrants were survival and learning to cope in an unfamiliar country. They went through co

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