Issue 10, 2003

Issue No 10 NEWSLETTER Friends of Perth & Kinross Council Archive Honorary Presidents: Mike O’Malley, Provost of Perth & Kinross Council and Sir William Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie Welcome to another edition of the newsletter The next meeting of the Friends will include the AGM (see back page for details) which, marking the end of another session, encourages us to look over our achievements. As you are aware from past newsletters, our volunteer’s projects are coming along nicely - in fact, we have two articles in this edition based on two of the projects. The listing of the OS plans is complete, source lists of Genealogy and World War 1 are continuing, as is the Perth Burial Register database and Name Authority File. Listing an accession of Pullar’s engineering plans is continuing as is the listing of a set of diaries and the records of an alms house at Dunkeld. However, we do have room for one or two more volunteers to come forward and work on the Perth Burial Registers, so if you are free on Wednesdays or Fridays, and would be interested in helping, why don’t you give me a call? Other projects are being considered by the Friends’ committee - hopefully there’ll be more news of this in the next newsletter. Meanwhile, our sincere thanks go the Friends volunteers who have worked so hard on projects over the past year and are continuing to do so: John and Marjory Howat, Jim Ferguson and Gavin Lindsay, Alex Porter, Morag Sweet, Carolanne Erskine, Alan Grant and Graham Watson. We’ve also had a successful programme of outings and speakers, which, as you will see inside, continues into the next session and starts with David Strachan’s talk on the Archaeology of Perth. Our last speaker, Russell Leather, gave us a very interesting insight into the philanthropic activities of AK Bell and the Gannochy Trust. From a wish to provide Perth with fresher water and a healthier sewerage system in the 1920s, allied to the Garden City ideal and the belief that a healthy environment benefited all, AK Bell founded and built a Trust that moved from providing housing and amenities just in Perth to one that is today a major contributor to projects throughout Scotland. The Trust is currently involved in Heritage, Education, Health, Social Welfare and the Arts, but AK Bell’s principle that any project should benefit and hearten the people remains constant. Finally, there is the newsletter and we would like to thank those of you who have regularly contributed articles over the past months. We’ve had a very interesting array of subjects, all of them entertaining and interesting. Please continue to send material to the Archive - without the members’ contributions there would be no newsletter! If you have any questions or memories about a place or person, have come across an interesting archive during your own research or would like to share your research with the Friends, just contact Jan Merchant, the Assistant Archivist, at the address in the panel below. By the way, we’ve had lots of positive feedback on the newsletter’s new format, so for the moment at least, it will remain. See you at the AGM in May. Perth & Kinross Council Archive, AK Bell Library, York Place, Perth PH2 8EP, Tel: 01738 477012, Email: [email protected] Perth Burial Register 1845-1847 Marjory M Howat As part of one of the Friends Projects, one which aims to make the Perth Burial registers more accessible, I am currently putting the information from one of the registers (PE1/20/3A) on to the Friends’ computer database. In its original form, a researcher needs to know the date of death before further information can be found, but in the computer the starting point can be family or christian name, occupation, place of birth, cause of death, or address at time of death. At this period, Greyfriars is the town’s burial place, but no location of the grave is given, so it is not possible to locate a site if no headstone survives. In many cases, there would never have been any indication of who was buried where. The register simply notes the prices paid for burial according to the kind of coffin; from 9/6 for a ‘large covered coffin’ to 1/6 for a ‘Session coffin’. However, from the details given on the register, it is possible to learn something about life in the mid 1840s – although caution must be exercised in drawing conclusions from such limited information. The following are some of the thoughts that have occurred to me while working on the Register. It was a surprise to me how many people lived to a ripe old age. Infant mortality was high, but if an individual survived the early years, a long life was a possibility. For many deaths ‘old age’ is given as the cause and this seems to be an acceptable term to use for those aged 66 years and over. The cause of death would be entered according to information given by the person registering the death and 19th century medical terms are not always familiar to us. For example, ‘bowel hives’ is likely to be diarrhoea, while ‘nervous’ equals typhus and ‘mortification’ is gangrene. ‘Rose in head’ may be a contagious skin disease but needs clarification, but ‘consumption’, ‘asthma’ and ‘cancer in heart’ can be understood. Translating the more obscure medical terms is made easier by websites such as www.paul_smith.doctors.org.uk/ArchaicMedicalTerms. Teething is frequently given as the cause of death for a child, but since we now accept that teething itself is nor fatal, the real cause is more likely to have been contaminated food associated with weaning. An epidemic of measles, scarlet fever or ‘hooping cough’, must have been dreaded. For example, 1846 December 23, Hannah, daughter of Robert Stewart, painter, South Street, 4 years, hooping cough 1846 December 26, Jane, daughter of Robert Stewart, painter, South Street, 9 months, hooping cough 1847 January 2, James, son of Robert Stewart, painter South Street, 3 years, hooping cough Each child was buried in a ‘small covered coffin 6/-’ The occupation of each adult male is given, whether as the deceased, the spouse or the parent. Some of the occupations are unfamiliar, either because the job no longer exists or has become industrialised. For example, ‘boot closer’, ‘strolling player’, ‘sawyer’, ‘blockmaker’, ‘heckler’, ‘rope maker’ and ‘weaver’ were all much more common than today. Some occupations need clarification before apparent anomalies become clear. For instance, in the case of James Menzies, waiter, who was buried February 18 1846 in a large covered coffin, valued 9/6. The luxury of his large coffin is explained when one realises that a ‘waiter’ was the man who waited on the tides to collect dues on goods 2 coming into Perth by boat. But occasionally there remain apparent anomalies about which one can only speculate, as in the case of John Gilbert, who was a ‘travelling hawker’, but enjoyed the luxury of being buried in an expensive large covered coffin costing 9/6. In work like this project, the personality and prejudices of the data inputter should not be apparent; but in making a choice between filling in ‘n/k’ (not known) and ‘n/ a’ (not applicable), perhaps my prejudices are showing. The occupation of adult women is never given, but I refuse to believe that they did not make an economic contribution to the family. In the case of home textile production, the whole family had to help with the various processes to make the work viable as a means of support. This is an obvious instance, but there must have been other occupations where there was little division between work and home, so I always opt to state that the woman’s occupation was ‘n/k’, rather than assume that she was not economically active in addition to running the household.* Another type of entry, which I find difficult, is that of a stillborn child – and these are not infrequent. The child has a surname noted, but no christian name; there is a date of burial but no date of birth; the child is assigned a gender but existed zero hours. Unbaptized children who have died are also listed without a christian name. Where the child has survived for only a few hours, this is understandable, but what do we make of a case like that of the unbaptized son of Margaret, who died at 5 weeks old, cause of death unknown? Had Margaret being trying to conceal her son’s birth? The death of a child is always heartbreaking, and some entries indicate a very PERTH BURIAL REGISTER, 1832 3 lonely existence. For instance, on February 7 1846, Robert Pitkeathly, aged 11 years was buried. He had died of consumption and no relative’s name was noted. Robert was buried in a Session coffin at the cost of 1/6. Many of the addresses of the deceased are still familiar. According to the number of entries, South Street and High Street must have been densely populated. Some names have disappeared as addresses, for example, ‘Clay Holes’. The places of birth are mostly Perth or the surrounding villages, but some are evidence of wider travelling. For example, Cornell Whitehead, who had died of consumption at George Inn, had been born in America. A labourer, killed while working on the building of the railway line, had been born in Ireland. There was also James Grant, 42 years old, of the East India Company Service, who had been born in Bombay, while the birthplace of Isobela Hay, daughter of Lieutenant Hay, had been Calcutta.

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