Kirkwall Map Discovery

Our team of volunteers have been hard at work sifting through the bundles of documents in the Balfour of Balfour & Trenaby papers. They have been finding lots of interesting documents and we are gradually listing them all on our new online catalogue, so that everyone can see the list too. 

Last week Anne was looking at bundle 9 in the 26th box. It is a bundle of bundles. Rather than individual unrelated documents, bundle 9 contains several groups of related documents. One group is grandly called the 'Langstane Process" and is a court case about a disputed piece of ground in Kirkwall in 1798. What is very interesting is that it comes with a plan.

A plan from 1798! 1798! Why am I exclaiming? 

Because we don't have many detailed plans of Kirkwall for the 1700s. This is a very early map of Kirkwall and we're all very excited!! 

D2/26/9 - Plan of disputed lands in Kirkwall, 1798.
Click on image to enlarge it on your screen. 
Not to be reproduced without permission from Orkney Archive

There are a few recognisable features in this plan such as The Strynd and the High Street (now Albert Street). See if you can work out where in Kirkwall it was, where the burn was and where the bridges were. Once we know more about the court case, we'll share the story. In the meantime, just admire the map. 

Other maps of Kirkwall in this time period are this one from 33 years earlier: 

D8/E/19 Kirkwall 1766, surveyed by William Aberdeen
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Not to be reproduced without permission from Orkney Archive

And this one from 33 years later: 

D8/E/28 Kirkwall boundaries, 1831
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Not to be reproduced without permission from Orkney Archive

Pigtail Tobacco, Brandy, and Other Necessities

New post by Guest Blogger: Joan Barrett

Part One:

When I read on Facebook an invitation to volunteer for work on the LIFTE project from the University of the Highlands and Islands, I immediately responded, offering to help with the transcription of 17th-century Orcadian documents. My grandfather was born on Westray in 1884; his mother’s family traces there to the mid 1600’s. Over many years I had struggled with their wills and sasines, so I thought perhaps that practice would help me to get started.

Handwriting was my first challenge. I spent untold hours with palaeography tutorials from the National Archives and from ScottishHandwriting.com. I became fairly proficient with Secretary Hand, but little could prepare me for the idiosyncratic handwriting used in “accompts” and letters.

Next was vocabulary. Anne Mitchell, our LIFTE group leader, introduced us to the Dictionary of Scottish Language. Soon my transcriptions became weighed down with footnotes containing definitions from the DSL.

Early in the project, I developed an interest in Captain Peter Winchester. When new documents were offered, I greedily took everything relating to him. Of the ninety-seven documents I transcribed for LIFTE, sixty-six pertained to Peter Winchester, including a few concerning his children. Since the conclusion of LIFTE, I have transcribed thirteen more Winchester documents and have one remaining to be finished.

Peter Winchester presents as both a privateer during the Anglo-Dutch wars and as a merchant, plying his trade in Scotland, Norway, the Netherlands, England, Ireland, France, and Spain. The products he carried, bought, and sold allow us a glimpse into his world. Of particular interest is Orkney Archives D14.6.8.Acct resting PW 1663-7.

Types of merchandise mentioned range widely. Building materials include nails (double, door, and window), knapples or knapholts (clapboard), and wooden planks of fir and oak called deals. Practical goods included vinegar, brandy and “wyne,” firkens of soap, flour, nutmegs, bags of pepper, enetseids (aniseeds), prunes, sugar loaves, horn spoons, and courtain frenzie (curtain fringe). Weaponry-related items include shot, a “great large doubell springed stock lock,” a firelock, and a broadsword. Tobacco and pipes include “cutt & dry tobaco & thre disson of pypes,” twist “tobakcoe,” and “10 p[ounds] pigtaill tob[acco] at 12 sh per pund.”

Much of the merchandise was destined for the tailoring trade. Fabrics include stenting (canvas), buckram, red baize, drop silk, and both “inglish” and “orknay cloath.” Many items were used in the construction of garments, such as hooks and eyes, pasboord (a stiffening) and ballen (whalebone), plus lavish embellishments including gold buttons and “drop silver and gold louping.”

Individual items might have been meant for Captain Winchester and his family: a golf ball, “ane pair childrens shoon,” “a pair quhyt chiverings” (white kid gloves), “ane gray leigh (low) crouned hatt and a kease yrto,” a pair of stockings plus “3 paire ditto fyner,” and a “kain with ane quhyt ivorie head.”

In November 1663, items specifically meant for Peter Winchester were “ane coffen (coffin) to his chyld 24 sh, kirk libartie 40 sh” and “for making the graff (grave) and bell at 27 sh 8 d.” The memorial for Peter Winchester’s wife, Jean Baikie, includes the names of three of their children interred at St. Magnus Cathedral. The death dates of Peter and Arthur are later than 1663, so it is likely that it was Alexander whose death is referenced here.

The years during which I spent discovering 17th-century Orkney have been illuminating and enriching. I will always appreciate the opportunity to be part of the LIFTE experience.

Following is a snapshot containing lines numbered 1-17 of this document:

Archive reference: D14/6/8 from the Walter Traill Dennison archive collection