CHOIR OF WOOD

1523, April 27, Stirling. The Council members agreed that David Crag [Craig], Treasurer, and Robert Arnot, master of works for the kirk, should deliver to Marthing[Martin], servant to Ewin Allasoun[Ewen Allison] the sum of XL [forty] pounds in part payment for timber for the choir of the burgh kirk.

[Extracts from the Records of the Royal Burgh of Stirling, 1519-1666, page 18]

BAKERS GET APPROVAL

1525, November 5, Stirling. These are the names of the cake-bakers who are to be approved for baking cakes, who agree that the cakes will be of sufficient quality and weight, and when the price of a peck of meal is sixpence, that the penny cake will be one pound in weight, and appropriately thereafter: Agnes Thomson, Agnes Beltmakar (or one of her daughters), Marian Wood, Christian Aikman, Margaret Kirk, Jenne Symon, Margaret Drummond, and Johen Hutching's wife.
[Extracts from the Records of The Royal Burgh of Stirling, 1519-1666, page 25]

LAST RESORT FOR THEM

1528, November 13, Stirling. The burgh council decide to banish for ever from the boundaries of the town Peter Dickson and Willie Taylor, alias Klafling,; and it is decreed that if either of them are caught within the burgh boundaries in future, they can be captured and hanged without any further legal measures.

[Extracts from the Records of the Royal Burgh of Stirling, 1519-1666, page 34]

DEBT CHALLENGE

28th January 1537, Dumfries Sheriff Court. The samyn day it is assignit to andro portar to acquit hym lachfully  at ye next court yet he acht nocht to umquhile nichell thomsoun ye tyme of his decess xxii Lib. or ony pt. yairof amd failzeand yrof to answer gilbert greir and ye said nichell wiff.

[Translation: The same day, Andrew Porter is ordered to make a legal appearance at the next court and prove that he did not owe the late Nichol Thomson at the time he died 22 pounds, or any part thereof; failing that, he is to pay out to Gilbert Greer and the said Nichol's wife.]

BLACKADDER IN TROUBLE

1545, February 16, Stirling. The burgh court has convicted Janet Blackadder of troubling Janet Bell, calling her a notable thief and whore, and saying that she stole three plates which fell from between her lining and skirt, and that her husband took up one of them. As punishment she is to stand in irons for a period set by the provost and baillies; and she shall go back to the place where she said her evil words, set down on her knees, and ask the said Janet's forgiveness. If she commits a similar offence later, she is to be banished from the town.

WOMEN MINE NO MORE

1842, Royal Commission on Children's Employment in Mines and Manufacturies, First Report (Mines and Collieries).

William Hunter, mining oversman, Arniston Colliery :-

"I have been 20 years in the works of Robert Dundas, Esq., and had much experience in the manner of drawing coal, as well as the habits and practices of the collier people. Until the last eight months women and lassies were brought below these works, when Mr Alexander Maxton, our manager, issued an order to exclude them from going below, having some months prior given intimitation of the same.

In addition to the exclusion of females, no boys will hereafter be permitted to be wrought under 12 years of age, and not then, unless they are qualfied in the reading and writing: they require to be examined prior to going below. Boys of 14 years of age perform their duties with greater care and quickness.

The improved mode of railing roads and ventilating economises time, and men now find they have no one to depend on but themselves: go more regularly to work, and take nearly as much money with one or two boys as when the whole family were below. In fact, women always did the lifting or heavy part of the work, and neither they nor the children were treated like human beings, nor are they where they are employed.

Females submit to work in places when no man or even lad could be got to labour in: they work in bad roads, up to their knees in water, in a posture nearly double: they are below till the last hour of pregnancy: they have swelled haunches and ankles, and are prematurely brought to the grave, or, what is worse, lingering existence.

Many of the daughters of the miners are now at respectable service. I have two who are in families in Leith, and who are much delighted with the change."

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT

[Contributed by Frank Elliot]

Thursday 27th December, 1860; On Tuesday, Mr Elliot, long known and much respected as one of the drivers of the Ayr and Glasgow Coach, and recently the tenant of the Portland Arms, Troon, was in Ayr and went to the railway station to go home. He missed the p.m. train, and waited for the late train. When it arrived at Prestwick, for reasons which are not known he left his seat and was walking along the line, when he was overtaken by the coal train from Ayr to Hurlford, and dashed to the ground. The officials immediately proceeded to the spot and found him terribly mutilated and quite dead. He was conveyed to Ayr by the down late train and examined by Drs Dobbs and Craig; but life was quite extinct. The fingers were almost severed from the right hand and the skull was fractured. Later the same night his son arrived from Troon on the mournfull errand of conveying his parent's remains.

WOMAN BURNED TO DEATH

Saturday November 26, 1881 On Thursday the Alloa Police authorities received information that a widow residing at Tullibody, named Margaret Cameron or Jamieson, had been burned to death in her own house. So far as could be learned, deceased, who lived by herself, had been visited by her two sons and a daughter - all farm servants - who had given her a sum of money from their "auld term" fees, which she had spent on drink. In about half an hour after having been seen on the street, her lifeless body, charred to a cinder, was found near the fireplace.

[Note: The actual death certificate merely records burns to neck and chest, which speaks volumes about the veracity of press reports!]

DEATH ON LINE

12th December 1907: Yesterday the mangled remains of David Durward (54), a yardman who resided at Burnside Street, Flemington, Wishaw, were found on the main line of the Caledonian Railway, at Shieldmuir. It is supposed that while following his employment he was run down by a passenger train.

We hope you have enjoyed this issue of our "oldnewspaper". Contributions are welcome for future issues, but please note that they must all be Scottish news items, and not less than about 70 years old (for copyright reasons). They may be emailed to gordon@kinhelp.co.uk

Copyright G. Johnson, 1998