Archive in a Pandemic A-Z: E is for

ENQUIRIES

Throughout the lonely weeks of Lockdown and the gradual re-awakening of services, Archive staff have been diligently answering enquiries. Even during Lockdown itself, when most of our staff scattered to the four winds either self-isolating or re-deployed in essential services, there was always at least one person with a nose in a book or deciphering a document or developing a photograph. 

Due to the high number of enquiries we received during this time period and the low numbers of staff, we are still working through the backlog. As we gradually catch up, please don't be too disappointed if we take a little longer than usual to answer, we will not forget you. 

At the beginning of 2020 we changed to a paperless method of recording enquiries as around 80% now come via email. If anyone does actually write a letter, it is a source of much delight and everyone wants to see it. The last one we received was in green ink. What a treat! (we are so easily pleased...)

Each enquiry is recorded in a database and given a reference number. The enquirer is sent an acknowledgement and their number. We then record any work done and emails sent on our Enquiry Progress Report form. Enquirer's contact details are never shown on this form, they are only known by their initials. This helps to protect the enquirer's contact details which are only saved in the database. Any scans done are saved in the enquiries folder along with the Progress Report. 

There are five members of staff who do enquiries, two full-time archivists and three part-time archive assistants who all job-share one position. Sometimes an enquiry is done by just one person, and sometimes by many of us, especially when one of us utilises the "Help! I'm Stuck" category. We all have developed different strengths and interests over the years, so sometimes it is good to bring a fresh pair of eyes to an enquiry or look at it from another perspective. 

We don't charge for enquiries, but at the same time do not accept ones which will take a great long time. Some take a couple of hours research time at the most, but many can be done within an hour. When I say an hour, what I really mean is 10 minutes one day, 20 minutes another day, 30 minutes the next day all slotted in between our other daily tasks and running the searchroom. 

Since Lockdown began up to the present day we have researched and answered enquiries on the following subjects:

Place names of Swona

Photos of Copinsay

Family History queries: Reid, Turfus and Corrigall, etc

Maeshowe drawing (see below)

Undated pencil drawing of Maeshowe, archive reference D8/3/11

Helping with research for Radio shows

Orkney Piers

Witchcraft trials

James Keith of Benholm and Cromwellian Orkney (see below)

Extract from Statement made by George Monck regarding an iron box of jewels, 18 January 1654 

Old mills

Crown Chamberlains

Helping with research for journalists on articles

Councillors and council official enquiries

Vice-Admirals of Scotland

Margaret Gardiner

Stromness Footballers (see below)

A new deposit resulted from this enquiry of this photo and a small silver
medal awarded in 1915, archive reference AccNo:2819.

Scuttling of the German Fleet

Helping with research for documentary film makers 

Motor Vehicle Registrations

Old maps (see below)

Lithographed plan of the commonty of Deerness as divided, 1839
Grainger and Miller, surveyor. Archive Reference D7/2/1[F4]

Margaret Tait

Press gangs

Military history, particularly soldier's lives

Orkney's connections to the slave trade

Kirkwall Streets

Newspaper copies of particular articles or whole papers for birthdays and anniversaries

Helping with research for book publications both fiction and non-fiction

Orkney sound archives 

Help with Fereday Prize projects

and many many more...

We do love enquiries and look forward every day to learning about the contents of our Archive collections, Orkney history and what you love to research too. 

The Wreck of the Jonge Louisa - a gift from the sea

A post from the Balfour Blogger #1:

On 12th February 1785, Pat Hagart, Factor to the Earldom of Orkney, sat down at his desk in Kirkwall and began a two year correspondence with Messrs Jean Texier, ship owners in Amsterdam, which ended with a fraction of the value of their beautiful brigantine and her cargo being delivered to them in January 1787.

Pat Hagart, as representative of the Crown in matters of the sea, had received news of a remarkable event off Deerness, the most easterly parish on mainland Orkney, and had gone to there to investigate.

D5-29-3 Extract of Letter written by Pat Hagart in 1785

In the previous month of 1785, on Sunday 16th January, a brigantine had been found three or four leagues east of Orkney. She was in a desperate condition...and with much difficulty brought to land but without any person aboard. Pat Hagart does not say who had first spotted her, but that seven boats from Deerness went out to the stricken vessel and established that not a single person remained aboard.

Example of an 18th century Brigantine
By John Robinson, George Francis Dow - The Sailing Ships of New England 1607-1907,
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31394623

The brigantine was found at least 11 miles/16.5 kilometres out. It was January, when the weather could be inclement and dangerous, yet someone in Deerness or out at sea to the east saw the vessel and then William Stove of Pickletillum, Robert Stove of Sandside, Andrew Cormack of Netherby, Oliver Craigie of Breck, Edward Ritch of Cutpool, Andrew Skea in Copinsay and Edward Pottinger (probably of Copinsay) set out, with 33 others, at the oars of seven boats to see what was afoot.

What they found was the Jonge Louisa, the wreck of a beautiful ship, minus one of her masts and no-one answering the Deerness men when they hailed her. Somehow the men boarded her and with much difficulty brought [her] to land.

A Brigantine Caught on a Lee Shore Painting by Richard Henry Nibbs

It is not clear where the Jonge Louisa was brought to; probably first to the island of Copinsay and subsequently to Sandside on the east coast of Deerness. Pat Hagart describes her in his letter on 9th April 1785 as being in an unfavourable situation. In November 1785 Thomas Balfour, on behalf of his brother John Balfour, owner of Copinsay, was claiming salvage on the Jonge Louisa. This suggests she was moored off Copinsay, or on Copinsay, at some time. Thomas also writes of bringing her into Sandside.

The excitement and speculation in Deerness must have been enormous. The men who brought her in were all from the east side of the parish. They were experienced seamen, the workforce of a peninsula that is almost an island, living by a combination of the land and the sea. Life was not easy in 1785. High numbers of young men were leaving Orkney to join the British Army, the Royal Navy or to go to the Nor Wast to work for the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. But that January Deerness fielded 40 men to rescue the Jonge Louisa. The possibilities for advantage from saving her were considerable and the news of her discovery will, no doubt, have travelled throughout the parish quickly.

Imagine the news spreading around Deerness from house to house in a place where many people were close family to one another and a community of neighbours and friends. There would have been amazement, a need to hear about how she had been brought in, and, much more importantly, what might be salvageable from her. Was there a cargo? What was it? In what condition? What about the outfitting of the ship? What about the crew's possessions? What was re-usable? Sails, ropes? Endless possibilities. And last, but not least, what had happened to her luckless crew?

Imagine too all the discussion by the men of the parish on what to do next. Inspection of the hold showed she carried iron and thousands of planks of wood (deals). Whilst the deals were manna from heaven to Deerness, the iron was a problem, to know how to process it and disappear it into the community, as was the ship herself. The decision must therefore have been made, probably reluctantly, to let the Crown's representative in Orkney, Pat Hagart, know of the Jonge Louisa's rescue and also Thomas Balfour, representative of one of the main landowners in Deerness.

The news of the ship's arrival appears to have taken some time to reach Pat Hagart. Note the Jonge Louisa's arrival on the 16th January and that Pat Hagart's letter is not written until the 12th February. In his letter to Amsterdam, Hagart advises that he found the ship to be load with Deals [and] iron, but strip'd of every thing that could be carried away. Just how bare was she when she arrived?

D5-29-3 Extract of letter written by Pat Hagart to Messrs Jean Texier in Feb 1785

Hagart does not give a date for his visit to Deerness but he had to go over her with a very fine tooth comb indeed to find any clue as to her ownership. He found a paper wrote in the Dutch language but very much spoilt with salt water and that gave him enough information to conclude he should write to Messrs Texier.

D5-29-3 Extract of letter written by Pat Hagart to Messrs Jean Texier in Feb 1785

Given that he did not put quill to paper until mid-February, and that there was good money to be made from the salvage of the ship and a cut in the disposal of a valuable cargo, it is reasonable to think that Hagart did not delay in writing to Messrs Texier once he knew who owned her. So any other delay in the matter was either on the part of the landowner Dr Thomas Balfour or the Deerness men. Given too that Balfour might turn her arrival on his shores to his advantage, the conclusion that Deerness men, fully aware of the claims landowner and Crown might pursue, held back on the news of her arrival, and took best advantage of what cargo no-one could argue to have been on board her when she was taken to shore. Only Deerness men could say what was still removable at that point...

Or a Danish Captain who had reported to Messrs Texier that he had seen and clearly boarded the Jonge Louisa off the Norwegian coast near the island of Hitra (previously Hitteroe) after 9th December 1784. (see below)

Pat Hagart's letter would have left Orkney by ship in trusted hands and been passed along a pathway of further trusted hands until it finally arrived in Amsterdam. Messrs Texier received Pat's letter and responded on 18th March 1785. This letter produced a response from Pat on 9th April, a speedy turnaround for the time. 

Messrs Texier were able to give a detailed account of events leading up to the arrival of the Jonge Louisa off Orkney. The ship, under the command of Captain Nathaniel Pronk, had headed from Holland, north through the Skagerrak and then south through the Cattegat, into the Baltic Sea, and to St Petersburg where she was loaded with iron, and thence to Wybourg (now Vyborg on the Russian side of the Russian/Finnish border) where a large cargo of wood was loaded. The iron belonged to Messrs Texier and the wood to Messrs Mauritz, Dreyer and Bendix with whom Pat Hagart would liaise regarding the eventual sale of the wood.

D5-29-3 Extract of letter written by Messrs Jean Texier, Amsterdam to Pat Hagart in March 1785

The Jonge Louisa turned south again, heading back to Amsterdam, came successfully back through the Baltic Sea, the Cattegat and the Skagerrak, but on or about the 9th December, being on the Coast of Jutland, the sea being very high with a great Storm, the boats having got loose and fallen upon the Hatches, tore them to pieces and the ship got soon full of water. In such condition having nothing to live upon, the Captain and Crew took to the boat and were taken up at Sea by an English Captain who carried them to Dieppe and thence back to Amsterdam to report the abandonment of the ship. 

Basic representation of the last journey of the Jonge Louisa.
Orange is the route she should have taken back to Amsterdam;
Purple shows roughly where she was blown off course to after the crew abandoned her.

Messrs Texier had some suspicion that the vessel had been left too soon by the Crew and made enquiries in Norway, being advised by a Danish Captain, that she had been seen not far from Hiether Wie (now Hitra). The Danish Captain reported his removal of the ship's cable and the greater part of the kitchen furniture. There were no further reports of her being seen until 31 days after the storm, when she appeared off Deerness, having come across the North Sea in one piece, pushed across by the east winds. 

D5/29/3 Extract from letter written by Messrs Jean Texier re Danish Captain, 7th June 1785

Once the Crown, via the Earldom, and the Balfours were involved, the Deerness inhabitants lost control of the ship and cargo but local men were employed later in 1785 to unload the vessel and transfer her cargo to Kirkwall for sale. The ship and cargo were kept under watch until dispersal, with that watch organised by Thomas Balfour's main man in Deerness, George Louttit, schoolmaster. Is his report tongue in cheek when he describes a gale on 20 October 1785, in which some of the deals were damaged? Louttit lived in Deerness and one of his sisters was married to James Petrie at Stonehall. Might his loyalties have been divided between his employer and his family's best interests?

The men who finally unloaded the Jonge Louisa were Gilbert Wick, Thomas Miller, Robert Stove, Magnus Dick, John Laughton, John Sutherland, Hugh Peace, William Work, a second Hugh Peace and William Sinclair. Is Robert Stove a young Sergeant? (See our previous blog post here). He is probably not the same Robert Stove of Sandside who helped bring the ship under control, for that group of the original seven men were in hot dispute with Pat Hagart over salvage monies. It was the opinion, when the men ultimately went to law in the autumn of 1785, of David Balfour lawyer in Edinburgh and brother of landowner Thomas Balfour, that they had no claim on the cargo of the ship, but they did have a salvage claim for the ship itself and in the end they received £70 between them for their efforts, equivalent to approximately £6000 today. Presumably it was further sub-divided with the 33 men who helped in the initial rescue of the ship.

D2/52/12 - Extract showing the result of the court case where £70 was awarded to
Deerness men for salving the ship, 16th Jan 1786

A shipwreck was a valuable event and everyone involved in processing that wreck could make money and benefit from her arrival. In the case of the Jonge Louisa, the bounty was great, and there was none of the extra effort of feeding, clothing and generally looking after her crew. The Earldom dealt with her salvage and the ultimate sale of her cargo, and the ship itself, being paid for work done by the ship's and cargo's owners. Having the opportunity to purchase and sell the cargo, the Balfours received salvage monies, bought parts of the cargo and no doubt made money from that. Others, for example: Kenneth Sutherland of Campston bought deals from the cargo; George Louttit was paid for his endeavours in Deerness; the boatmen who rescued her were paid; their lawyer was paid; the men who unloaded the ship were paid. Who knows what other bounty also furnished the houses and farms and boats of Deerness following the arrival of the Jonge Louisa.

D2/52/2  Extract showing the final salvage amount made from the wreck.

*************************

Sources used: 

Balfour papers: D2/23/3; D2/52/2; D2/52/9

Graemeshall papers: D5/29/3

History of Orkney by W P L Thomson

Google Maps

Wikipedia

Robert Stove and the Serjeant's House

Time for another blog from the Balfour Blogger:

There is a house in Deerness which has been called The Sergeant’s for as long as anyone can remember. You’ll not find that name on any map but ask and you’ll be directed to a single storey, traditional house on the left about half-way through the parish.

Ask why it’s called The Sergeant’s and you might hear of  WW1, the Boer War, or the Crimea, but its pedigree is older than that, going back to Napoleon and the retirement in 1817 of Quartermaster Sergeant Robert Stove of the British Army who came home then to Deerness and his house and family.

And what has all of this to do with the Balfour papers?

Thomas Balfour was one of the three sons of William and Elizabeth Balfour. The French Revolution raised fears of revolt across Europe and Fencible regiments were set up throughout mainland Britain, including the Orkney and Shetland Fencibles – akin to the Home Guard of WW2. The Orkney and Shetland regiment was raised in April 1793, led by Tom Balfour, Colonel Thomas Balfour. It was potentially a lucrative role, and realistically, in Orkney or Shetland, not a dangerous one. However as matters heated up in Europe, and particularly as rebellion threatened in Ireland, the North Lowland Fencibles were formed in November 1794 and the Regiment shipped to Ireland to deal with insurrection and possible French invasion there. Tom Balfour became the Colonel of the regiment and took with him, men who had originally enlisted with the local Fencibles in 1793.

One of these men was Robert Stove from Deerness. He was born in 1768 or 69, 5’8’’ tall, brown hair and brown eyes, a fair complexion and well-built according to his enlistment records. He described himself as a labourer and was married, although this is not stated in his army record. His wife was Isabel Meal and they were married in Kirkwall on 3 September 1791. The Reverend Barry officiated and Peter Laughton and John Voy witnessed the marriage.

Orkney Archive Reference D2/16/6

Robert and Isobel had a son, James, born on 6 February 1794, when the Orkney and Shetland Fencibles were still in Orkney. Their second child, Margaret, was born on 1 July 1795 by which time his new Regiment, the North Lowland Fencibles, had shipped out to Ireland, based at Monaghan.

Orkney Archive Reference D2/16/6

In amongst the Balfour boxes, there are many papers relating to both the Orkney & Shetland Fencibles and to the North Lowland Fencibles. Many relate to attempts to bring order to regimental financial matters after Colonel Tom Balfour’s early death in 1799, but amongst the repetitive correspondence surrounding this muddle, there are papers relating to the men of the regiments and these are a rich vein for anyone with an ancestor who might have disappeared into the British Army at this time. Army service was a means of earning money, as was naval service (although the Press Gang was a scourge to be avoided) and the Balfour papers contain the oaths of attestation for many men who joined up in Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and elsewhere, along with paymaster lists and correspondence, many with fascinating snippets about a period when it’s hard to find records for ancestors. Orkney Family History Society will ultimately hold details of the men on the pay lists etc, and in addition, the catalogue of the Balfour papers will detail correspondence and other documents relating to the Regiments.

So what of Robert? He appears as the signatory of a letter dated 23 July 1800, from Downpatrick, Ireland about some money matter probably part of the legacy of confusion following his Colonel’s death.  He was Quartermaster Sergeant of the North Lowland Fencibles, a non-commissioned officer responsible for supplies. He was able to read and write, and signs the letter in a clear hand. Many of the men of the Regiment were illiterate – lots of their enlistment papers are marked simply with X. There are records of a schoolmaster in Deerness, George Louttit, contemporary with Robert growing up so whilst education was not compulsory, it was available and that ability to read and write undoubtedly saw Robert reach the level he did in the Army.

Orkney Archive Reference D2./22/2

Robert was with the North Lowland Fencibles until 1802 when the Regiment was disbanded as were many other Fencible regiments, as a result of the Peace of Amiens. Robert returned to the British Army in 1804, this time to the 36^th Regiment of Foot having presumably spent the intervening 2 years home in Orkney. There is no record of whether he was able to come on home on leave between 1794 and 1802. He then remains in the Army until 1817 when he is discharged ‘being worn out’, aged 48 having served throughout the European struggle culminating in Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815. The 36^th did not fight at Waterloo but formed part of the army of occupation until December 1815. They then returned to England and it is at Portsmouth on 15 March 1817 that he leaves the Army.

Back home in Deerness...

Robert and Isobel are recorded in the 1821 census of Deerness along with Margaret, their daughter. It is possible that James, their son, had followed his father into the British Army – a record exists on-line of  the marriage of a James Stove of the 36^th Regiment of Foot to Maria Sophia Wood in Malta, where the Regiment was stationed, in 1819.

In 1831 Robert was 62 and on 12^th March that year he married Isabella Matches. She was 37 and in 1832 a son, Robert, their only child, was born. Isobel Meal had clearly died between 1821 and 1831. Robert had a British Army pension and perhaps it was one of the attractions to Isabella, who at 37 didn’t have much in prospect before her as she grew older, still unmarried. In the 1851 census he is 82 years old and described as a Chelsea pensioner and their house is called Little Millhouse, the ‘’proper’’ name it still has. Robert died aged 89 in 1858 – 41 years a British Army pensioner, a remarkable record for the times.

The outline events of Robert Stove’s life are recorded in Deerness parish records, in Kirkwall records, national census records, variously in the Balfour Archive and even the National Archives. Other lives are similarly recorded, a snippet here, a snippet there -- a case of looking in the obvious places and then the less likely, such as papers in local archives. There are treasures to be found! Out of such treasure, we can weave the story of the life of a soldier, of modest rank and background, who was born almost 250 years ago and who was the namesake of a house which is still remembered for him---- even if a lot of folk don’t realise it.

Thank you to Judy Stove, New South Wales, Australia, great, great grand-daughter of Robert Stove for allowing me to dip into her research into his life.

(Posted by Archiver on behalf of the Balfour Blogger.)

In far off days we tell..

This moving poem about the Battle of Neuve Chapelle was written by J H Craigie of Orkney. It is a newspaper cutting which was kept in a scrapbook by Dr. Duncan, Stromness during WW1.

As the text is a bit faint, here is a transcription:


Neuve Chapelle by Lance Corporal J H Craigie

In a dirty trench I am lying
Amidst dying and the dead
With a piece of shrapnel sticking
In my dazed and aching head
For I've been sorely stricken
In the carnage that befell
Among the Seaforth Highlanders
That day at Neuve Chapelle



At morn we mustered full of hope
And strength and lusty life
And marched with hearts as true as steel
Into the deadly strife
The foe we scattered like the chaff
To all the winds that blow
But the price of our great victory
None but soldiers know.

The very heavens quivered
With the roar of shot and shell
The fire and fumes around us
Made the quaking earth a hell
My colonel, he is wounded,
My captain, he is slain,
My mates around are lying
Upon the gory plain.

And now my sight grows happy
And my head is strong and light
I see my father's cottage
At the falling of the night
And through the window pane the light
Comes flickering from the fire
For now the night is flickering fast
Around me cold and dire.

Oh yes, I hear my mother's voice
As in the days of old,
"Come in," she cries, "we're waiting,
And its getting dark and cold
Come in and lay your aching head
Upon your mother's breast
Your father he will take the book,
And then you'll go to rest."

He cleared his head and slowly sank
Upon the miry clay
And one more Seaforth Highlander
Gave up his life that day.
And sons of Orkney yet unknown
In far off days will tell
Their children how the Seaforths fought
And died at Neuve Chapelle.

The Battle of Neuve Chapelle took place from 10-13th March 1915. It was a British offensive in the Artois region of France which broke through at Neuve Chapelle, but the British were unable to exploit the success. (Information taken from Wikipedia)

Sadly James Craigie did not survive the war and was later killed at Loos, according to this report also saved in the scrapbook on page 23.

"Our Roll of Honour
Killed in Action
LANCE-CORPL. J H CRAIGIE, 8TH SEAFORTHS
The parents of Lance-Corporal J H Craigie (a native of Deerness) of the 8th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, have been notified that their son was killed in the action at Loos in September. Lance-Corpl. Craigie was first reported as missing, and it was stated at the time that he was neither killed or wounded, and the presumption was that he had been taken prisoner. No news came from him, however, and a few days ago the relatives were officially notified that he had been killed. Lance-Corporal Craigie is third of four young Deerness men who has fallen. The fourth, his brother, has been twice wounded, and is still in France. The relatives have the sincerest sympathy of the whole community in their bereavement."






Archive Reference for Scrapbook: D1/1127.

Our current exhibitions chart Orkney's experience of WW1 at home through the use of official documents, letters home, newspaper articles, diaries and photographs. We have three so far, each covering three months of the war. Click the dates to see a taster of each display so far: Aug - Oct 1914, Nov 1914 - Jan 1915 and Feb - Apr 1915.

 

Baton a hot Orkney Evening.

I'm sitting in a near empty searchroom listening to the sounds of the Queen's Commonwealth Games Baton pass by outside. Searching the catalogue for something appropriate to commemorate this occasion, I can find absolutely nothing on the subject. But that has never stopped us before... and nor will it tonight!

Here is a selection of hastily cobbled together...ahem...carefully researched items on Common, Wealth and Games.

Firstly Common or rather Commonty. Here is a copy of the beautiful lithographed plan of the commonty of Deerness from 1839. [Archive Reference: D7/2/1(F4)]

Commonty maps show common land divided among the tenants or owners of the local district or township. These plans provide names and is a good source for family or property historians.This plan is currently being shown in our Archive Searchroom exhibition, "Family History Sources in the Orkney Archive" (plug plug).

Secondly for Wealth here is a photograph of the Kirkwall Amateur Dramatic Society departing for Thurso to perform "Tons of Money" in 1938. [Archive reference: D44/4/2]

And thirdly for Games here are some extracts from an article about kids games which were imported and adapted in Orkney. The article was compiled and written by Ernest Marwick in the 1970s. [Archive Reference: D31/10/9]:

"The great majority of our games were imported from much further south. They frequently found their way to Kirkwall from the streets of London, especially the singing games. These were bought from Jewish book vendors at the Lammas Market, and were eagerly hunted for among piles of penny broadsheets containing the songs and diversions of the age. No sooner had Orkney children learned them than they began to adapt them to their own tastes."

"Before we pass on to the more modern singing games, an unnoticed survival from Norse times may be described. This is what we know in Orkney as faely fight . Boys, ranged against each other as individuals (very seldom as teams) threw handfuls of wet turf, which were hastily kicked from the ground on the toe of the boot and as hastily converted to missiles. The game was so fast, and the antagonists so excited and breathless, that direct hits were few. The Norsemen used to enjoy this game. They called it Torfleikr."

"Now to the singing games."

"See the robbers passing by, passing by, passing by:

See the robbers passing by, my fair lady.

What's the robbers done to you, done to you, done to you?

What's the robbers done to you, may fair lady?

Broke my locks and stole my gold, stole my gold, stole my gold.

Broke my locks and stole my gold, my fair lady.

We shall go and capture them, capture them, capture them

We shall go and capture them, my fair lady.

This was a tug-o-war game"

"John, John the gundyman

Washed his face in the frying-pan

Combed his hair wi' the leg o' the chair:

John, John the gundyman

The child was held on the knee, and the actions of the washing and combing were simulated while the appropriate words were being sung."

"Go round and round the village

Go round and round the village

Go round and round the village

As you have done before.

Go in and out the windows, etc.

Stand up and face your lover, etc.

Come follow me to London (or Dublin), etc.

The children stand in a circle with a space between each. The player who begins the game walks around outside the circle during the singing of the first verse. He varies this during the second verse by making his way through the spaces between the players, passing in front of the first, behind the next, and so on. Throughout the third verse he stands in front of the player he chooses. He leads her around the circle while the last verse is sung, after which he joins the players in the circle, and the game begins all over again."



New Displays and Strange Old Customs

 

We are proud to announce that we now have a new display of archives about Deerness in the Library foyer and continuing upstairs in the Archive Searchroom . [Now over.] This display is to help promote the Deerness in 100 objects event at Deerness Hall from 24 June - 7 August.

Our display includes school log books, kirk session minutes, photos of ploughing cups and medals, and one of the Deerness Coastguard Station books.

We have also provided some nice colour photocopies of some of the contents of the archive items to the Deerness Hall for the public to view there.

We are all waiting impatiently for our day off so that we can go down to Deerness and experience it ourselves.

We have not forgotten all you pirate fans out there though - do not despair! We have copied and moved the display of Orkney Pirate archives and Tall Ships photos down to the wavy wall in the library. The wavy wall (a very apt place to put it!) is near the childrens area on the way to the Marwick Room and the Computer Room in the main part of the Library.

And just to keep you laughing through the weekend here are a couple of drawings we found recently in the Customs & Excise Records. These are instructions to Kirkwall Customs Officials to watch out for some ingenious ways of smuggling tea and lace from ships in 1834.

Archive reference: CE55/2/6 Customs and Excise Records : Board’s Orders: Board to Collector, 1834.