I Didn't Call Him a Liar, Just an Untruthsayer!

Today, we have been looking through the Orphir Church records on behalf of a family history researcher. We didn't find the people we were looking for, but were reminded of how small some of supposed crimes brought to the church elders' attention were and how disproportionate the punishments.

The children of Thomas Inksetter of Buxa were twice hauled up in front of the Church committee for the sin of 'breach of Sabbath'. In May 1728, they were flouting the Lord's day 'in taking a sheep with their dog'; and in October 1732 they were spotted by some neighbours 'carrying a burden in time of Divine worship'.

That's right, not only were they seen CARRYING SOMETHING on the Sabbath, they were carrying it while the Church was in session. The investigation into this incident went on for several weeks, with both children being brought before the elders and either denying all or saying they were too sick to attend. (The classic get-out clause from P.E. lessons to Sabbath Breach chidings.)

At no point does anyone ask why the witnesses to their crime were not at church either...

Later on in the saga, the burden is sensationally  revealed to have been a quantity of butter 'stealth from David Louttit on the same day.'

Catherine Slatter was accused of 'uttering imprecations' against neighbour Elspeth Scott when quarrelling about a piece of grass; this charge was stoutly denied and both women were told to grow up ( or 'exhorted to peace and a better agreement'.)

Three women were charged with the 'sin of uncleanness', (fornication, that old chestnut) in the same Church session. One Margaret Inksetter was accused of carrying the child of a married man, one Margaret Garrioch was pregnant by her boss's son and one Marjory Gorie admitted that she had been 'in her naked bed' in the presence of one James Cloustone but that he had been fully clothed throughout and that there had been 'no carnal dealing.' She may have been lying though as she had his baby several months later.

Couples accused of ante-nuptial fornication could either sit in the 'Publick place of repentance', a sort of 18th century naughty chair, or pay a fine of £4 which, considering that a male domestic servant's yearly wage in the 1790s was not much over £5*, was a considerable price.

The best entry is Peter Garrioch's complaint against the 'abuse' he suffered from William Knarston. According to Peter, William called him 'a Knave and a Lyar before one witness.' William poo-pooed this telling of events, insisting that 'he only called him an untruth-sayer.'

This verbal trickery did not fool the Church elders and William was fined 40 shillings by the Civil magistrate.





* Kirkwall and St. Ola, Statistical Account of Scotland 1791-1799

Rant For A Reverend

Whilst perusing our D10 collection, which is a box full of miscellaneous papers collected by a Kirkwall cabinet maker James Tait (yet another example of a useful collection pulled together by an amateur historian), I found a letter addressed to the Procurator Fiscal by a South Ronaldsay minister named John Gerard regarding the way that unwanted pregnancies were being dealt with in his parish.

Some of the ministers who we read about were very kind and understanding to unwed mothers in their Parish. Thomas Kay of North Ronaldsay, for example, allowed a young mother to baptise her illegitimate child in 1873 and persuaded the rest of the session that she was to be treated decently. Gerard, or "Old Gerard" as he was known begins his letter "Queen Anne put unmarried women to death who concealed their pregnancy - What is now the punishment, if any?"

Gerard was described as a passionate man, or, as my boss put it when I showed her the letter, 'crazy.' There is a lot of underlining and exclamation marks in the letter as he lists examples of abortions and illegitimate births in his Parish and tells of the young couples whom he has forced to marry, one girl whom he has dragged "politely"straight from her birthing bed.

There is one somewhat amusing tale of a girl who, Sonia-Eastenders-style did not realise that she was pregnant, took to her bed with pains, got up when the "curmurring in her guts" had stopped and then angrily demanded to know who had put a baby in her bed.



There are some very horrible tales within his letter, however, of infanticide and children being abandoned which I shall not share as they really are distressing. Gerard seems to have no sympathy for these girls who must have been terrified to find themselves in such a situation and whose fear of exposure drove them to terrible, previously unthinkable acts.

I took a look at Goodfellow's Two Old Pulpit Worthies of Orkney which contains a biography of Gerard. Chapter titles include 'His Hasty Temper and Passionate Nature', 'His Ideas of Women', 'His Strange Antics',and 'His Scathing Rebukes.'

Goodfellow claims that Gerard "had a warm and kindly heart." Examples of his kindness include, warning men to marry a woman who is not "an old hag as ugly as sin", who has a good inheritance but to choose Prudence over Piety as, although a pious woman is ideal, you don't want to be stuck with a "regular Tartarean" (OED definition: 'a vixen or shrew.')

Gerard further demonstrated his warmth of heart when a neighbour's pig wandered onto his lands. Gerard shot it with his gun and then demanded that his neighbour collect his pig. He did not tell the poor man that he had shot the animal, however, and the farmer was confronted with a carcass when he was expecting to pick up a live animal.

When Gerard found the sheep of another neighbour grazing upon his lawn what do you suppose he did? Why what any reasonable man would do, of course; he whipped out his pocket knife, slit the poor sheep's throat and hung the livid remains upon his fence to warn others against repeating the neighbour's mistake. Sensible, measured and not at all weird.

He also congratulated a woman of his acquaintance for having a big mouth saying " I dinna like wee bits o' prim prinket mouths. Commend me to a leddy wi' a mouth could swallow a cod." Charm personified. She must have been thrilled.

The only thing I like about Gerard is that his funeral addresses used to have "Greet here" in the margin at sections where he wished to move his audience with a well-timed tear.

Information taken from Two Old Pulpit Worthies of Orkney by Alexander Goodfellow, 1925 and Orkney Archive Reference D10/20.

J'accuse!

We hold vast quantities of Church records here in the archives with something for every Parish. Some parishes have several books and others only one or two.

The minute books are the best. They are basically a diary of what was going on day to day in the Church and the community.

What would you guess is the most frequent word that is mentioned in these books? Pews perhaps? Hymn? Charity? Lord?

No. It's fornication.

The church elders took their position as the moral guides of their flock very seriously indeed and if there was even a hint of impropriety amongst the Parish folk, then the fornicators would be marched down to the church to explain themselves, apologize and be chastised in front of the whole congregation for several Sundays in a row. They even had a special stool, like a modern 'naughty chair' for them to sit on and sometimes, there was even an unbecoming sack for them to wear whilst they did so.

This blog is pure, so we shall not regale you with some of the more lurid tales that have caused many a reader to gasp in delicate horror. We did, however, chortle heartily at the chastisement of Isabella Smith of Stromness.

Isabella was basically a meddlesome gossip who was getting on the nerves of all her neighbours and causing trouble amongst the parishioners.

The Stromness church minutes for the 2nd of May 1815 (pictured above) detail her crimes:

She 'had a too common practise of not adhering to the truth in conversing with individuals, telling to one, one thing, and to another, another.' ...'She had a practise of disagreeing with her neighbours.'... 'That she acted as a busybody going from house to house, sowing the seeds of dissension amongst her neighbours.' ...'It would be a tedious labour to have written a full detail of all the circumstances connected to these references (complaints.)'

These notes are followed by a list of Isabella's (ridiculous and seemingly pointless) lies and the final accusation that she had called one Ephy Smith 'a strumpet'. Isabella denied this last, saying that it was only 'in her mind to call her a strumpet.'

The clerk again calls these complaints tedious and finishes his entry saying that the moaning session had had to stop as it had gotten too late to carry on.

Isabella does sound like a nightmare, but to be fair to her, the next week Ephy Smith and her boyfriend were hauled before the session as they had been caught fornicating, again, after having previously been suspended from the congregation for the same crime. So she did have point there.

Photo reference : L/37651

Church Record reference: OCR/FC/30/1