Issue 18, 2006

Issue No 18 NEWSLETTER of Perth & Kinross Council Archive Hon. Presidents: Bob Scott, Provost, Perth & Kinross Council: Sir William Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie At least the uniforms were glorious….. Perthshire’s Fencibles of the 1790s CONTENTS CHAIRMAN’S NOTES & ARCHIVES NEWS….2 OH, TO BE A SOLDIER: THE FENCIBLES…..3 AN AULD ARHIVIST REMEMBERS…………7 FOCUS ON BLAIRGOWRIE…………………..8 A SOCIAL HISTORY OF BLAIRGOWRIE…….9 GREYFRIARS BURIAL GROUND…………….10 FINDING AIDS IN THE ARCHIVE…………...13 A Fencibles Colonel of 1795 by John Kay of Edinburgh Perth & Kinross Council Archive, AK Bell Library, York Place, Perth PH2 8EP, Tel: 01738 477012 Email: [email protected] A Word from our Chairman The Friends have been working away on various projects during the year, accumulating knowledge and information and making it available to the public. A major job is to find a way of communicat- ing this knowledge to the wider public. The Friends committee and Archive staff have been looking at applying for grants, which would help us employ a researcher who would be able to take the Friends projects on, incorporating them into the educational aims of Perth & Kinross Council. We will let you know how we get on. As usual, the newsletter has reached enjoyable and high standards, thanks to the superb efforts of the editor, David Wilson, and the articles submitted by Friends and other visitors to the Archive. We’ve been so fortunate with the number and high standard of articles, that we have several we’re saving for future publications of the newsletter. But to make sure this high standard is maintained – keep sending in those articles! We’re also looking forward to this year’s AGM, which will be in the AK Bell Theatre on 25 May We’ll be able to catch up with the Friends’ activities and after business we’ll be treated to a very interesting illustrated talk by Chris Fleet, looking at the maps of Perthshire (details are in the en- closed leaflet). We look forward to seeing you there. Jim Ferguson News from the Archives The work of the Archive continues, helped by our regular band of volunteers who are producing extra finding aids and weeding duplicate material to give us more storage space. Plans to make the source databases available via the website are under way. We’re also hoping that a six-month project to put all our descriptive lists into electronic format will be able to start soon – we’re just looking for a touch typist! Work on the web pages continues, but we would still like more ideas to include on the Friends pages. So if you can, have a look and let me know if you have any suggestions. You can see the Friends’ pages via www.pkc.gov.uk/archives. The Archive has been quite busy over the past few months. Recent visitors have been looking at house history and family history – the two most popular kinds of enquiries – as well as; medicine in Perth; Macrosty Park in Crieff; the Pomarium Feuars Association; St John’s Kirk; planning ap- plications; Luncarty Bleach Fields, and many other subjects. Most of our visitors willingly took part in a national survey at the end of February, which was designed to assess archive services throughout the UK. Judging from the feedback, Perth & Kinross Council Archive appear to be pro- viding quite a good service – although there’s always room for improvement. Recent accessions include: records of Perth & Kinross Headteachers Association 1931-1995; Powmill climatological records, 1973-1996; Perth & District Pipe Band 1967-1998; William Robertson, Merchant, Coupar Angus, 1816-1848; Perthshire Society of Natural Sciences, 1867- 1990; Perth City Hall, 1927-2005; Strathearn Ramblers, 1996-2005, Scrimgeours of Crieff, 1901-1951; Stuart of Annat, c1791-1988, and the Balbeggie and Collace United Free Church, 1907-1990. Jan Merchant 2 Oh, to be a Soldier... Perthshire’s Fencibles Regiments of the 1790s If you were a young blood in Perth at the end of the 18th century and decided on a night out on the town with the boys, you could end up the next morning nursing not only a thumping hangover, but discovering that you had also joined the Army, whether you liked it or not. Let me explain… Since the early 17th century, militia regiments had been raised (and in due course disbanded) for home defence purposes. Whenever there was a threat of invasion or internal rebellion, these volunteers stood ready for action, thus releasing regular troops for foreign service. In the war with France that broke out in 1793 the auxiliary force was raised on a slightly different basis from previous militias. They were the ‘Regiments of Defencible Men,’ shortened to ‘the fencibles’. The fencibles were raised throughout Britain on the command of the sovereign ‘for the duration of the war plus one month’, and Perthshire had its due share. Each regiment consisted of ten companies of a hundred men each; one grenadier, one light infantry and eight ‘battalion’ companies. They used ordi- nary recruiting methods, and were on the same basis as the regular army for pay, weapons, clothing and training, while their officers were appointed as in the army by a sovereign’s commission (unlike Three Fencibles Officers: Fencibles, with their splendid uniforms but often unmilitary bearing, were mercilessly satirised, as in this 1795 caricature by John Kay 3 regular officers though, they were not entitled to half pay on the disbandment of the regiment). The Scottish fencibles were recruited to serve only at home except in the case of an invasion of England, although they could volunteer for service abroad. To attract recruits, a bounty was offered, usually £2 2s. or £3 3s., although on occasion as much as £10 was given. Most of the bounty was promptly taken back to pay for the soldier’s uniform and equipment, and he was only left with a residue. Very often a prominent landowner took it upon himself to raise the regiment, and often paid an extra bounty out of his own pocket. The Perthshire Fencible regiments raised in 1793 and 1794 were as follows: Sir James Grant of Grant’s Regiment 1793-1800 Perthshire Fencible Cavalry 1794 - 1800 Royal Clan Alpin Fencible Infantry 1799 - 1802 Perthshire Regiment of Fencibles 1794 - 1799 The Duke of Atholl’s Regiment Earl of Breadalbane Fencibles 1793 - 1802 Col. Graham of Balgowan’s Regiment of Perthshire Volunteers 1793 -? Drummond Fencibles 1794 - 1802 (raised in Perth by Capt Drummond for their Colonel, Lord Elgin) From 1793 onwards recruiting was intensive because of the need to raise large bodies of men quickly, and after the initial surge of volunteers, devious and often distinctly illegal methods came to be used. The Act of 1793 to raise the Fencibles had stipulated certain safeguards. Recruiting was not allowed on a Sunday; apprentices, schoolmasters, clergymen, indentured clerks, constables, seamen and ‘men with more than two legitimate children’ were all exempt from service, and only authorised commissioned or non-commissioned officers were to be used for recruiting. The Act laid down that once the recruit had accepted the king’s shilling, he then had twenty-four hours to change his mind. Whether he changed it or not, after twenty-four hours he was brought by the recruiting officer before the magistrate’s court in Perth to be ‘attested’, or sworn in. If the recruit willingly attested, well and good; but many had been given the King’s shilling in extremely doubt- ful circumstances - for instance, when they were too drunk to know what they were doing. In such cases they could petition the magistrates, claiming illegal enlistment. However, they were then obliged to lodge £1 ‘smart money’ as security (the equivalent of a month’s wages for a farm la- bourer.) If the magistrates found that the petitioner had been illegally enlisted, the ‘smart money’ was returned to him; but if they found the enlistment fair, it was the recruiting officer who received the pound, less a couple of shillings for court expenses. There are nearly two hundred illegal enlistment petitions for the years 1793 and 1794 in the Council Archive, which shows the desperate need to enlist men in those years. Some recruiters had preyed on ignorance and naivety. Cases included giving the King’s shilling on a Sunday; using private soldiers to do the work (legally it had to be at least a corporal) and trying to recruit apprentices, and even in one case a serving naval seaman! But as recruiting officers received a bounty of up to three guineas a head, their keenness was perhaps understandable. 4 Other more devious methods were used. Drink came into it a lot. A common practice was to get the potential recruit so drunk that he had no idea what he was doing, and slip the shilling into his pocket, or into his hand in a handshake. Many a Perth public house keeper is mentioned in the indictments. The Drummond and Breadalbane Fencibles are two regiments most commonly mentioned, but Lt. McKillop and Sgt. McDonald of the Argyllshire Fencibles, stationed in Perth in 1795, were notorious throughout the county. On one occasion with a party of soldiers they knocked on the door of a lodging house in Coupar An- gus, allegedly looking for a deserter. The landlady let them in and they searched the house thoroughly. One young man, minding his own business, was offered a shilling by one of the soldiers “as compen- sation for the trouble caused”, but he refused it. As they left the house another soldier offered 1d to him “for further trouble”.

Load more