George Mackay Brown and the Scottish Catholic Imagination Scottish Religious Cultures Historical Perspectives An innovative study of George Mackay Brown as a Scottish Catholic writer with a truly international reach This lively new study is the very first book to offer an absorbing history of the uncharted territory that is Scottish Catholic fiction. For Scottish Catholic writers of the twentieth century, faith was the key influence on both their artistic process and creative vision. By focusing on one of the best known of Scotland’s literary converts, George Mackay Brown, this book explores both the Scottish Catholic modernist movement of the twentieth century and the particularities of Brown’s writing which have been routinely overlooked by previous studies. The book provides sustained and illuminating close readings of key texts in Brown’s corpus and includes detailed comparisons between Brown’s writing and an established canon of Catholic writers, including Graham Greene, Muriel Spark and Flannery O’Connor. This timely book reveals that Brown’s Catholic imagination extended far beyond the ‘small green world’ of Orkney and ultimately embraced a universal human experience. Linden Bicket is a Teaching Fellow in the School of Divinity in New College, at the University of Edinburgh. She has published widely on George Mackay Brown Linden Bicket and her research focuses on patterns of faith and scepticism in the fictive worlds of story, film and theatre. Poor Relief and the Cover image: George Mackay Brown (left of crucifix) at the Italian Church in Scotland, Chapel, Orkney © Orkney Library & Archive Cover design: www.hayesdesign.co.uk 1560−1650 ISBN 978-1-4744-1165-3 edinburghuniversitypress.com John McCallum POOR RELIEF AND THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND, 1560–1650 Scottish Religious Cultures Historical Perspectives Series Editors: Scott R. Spurlock and Crawford Gribben Religion has played a key formational role in the development of Scottish society shaping cultural norms, defining individual and corporate identities, and underpinning legal and political institutions. This series presents the very best scholarship on the role of religion as a formative and yet divisive force in Scottish society and highlights its positive and negative functions in the development of the nation’s culture. The impact of the Scots diaspora on the wider world means that the subject has major significance far outwith Scotland. Available titles George Mackay Brown and the Scottish Catholic Imagination Linden Bicket Poor Relief and the Church in Scotland, 1560–1650 John McCallum Forthcoming titles The Catholic Church in Scotland: Financial Development, 1772–1930 Darren Tierney Miracles of Healing: Psychotherapy and Religion in Twentieth-century Scotland Gavin Miller Presbyterianism Re-established: The Presbyteries of Dunblane and Stirling after the Williamite Revolution Andrew Muirhead edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/src POOR RELIEF AND THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND, 1560–1650 JOHN McCALLUM For Hannah Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © John McCallum, 2018 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 10/12 ITC New Baskerville by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 2727 2 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 2728 9 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 2729 6 (epub) The right of John McCallum to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Contents List of Tables vi Acknowledgements vii Conventions ix Abbreviations x Map of Key Locations Mentioned xii Introduction 1 1 Ideas, Attitudes and Ambitions 27 Part I The Development of Kirk Session Poor Relief 2 Urban Beginnings and Developments, c. 1560–c. 1610 53 3 Poor Relief Beyond the Main Burghs, c. 1590–c. 1650 79 4 Poor Relief Under Stress 102 Part II The Nature of Kirk Session Poor Relief 5 The Mechanics of Relief 135 6 Who Were the Poor? The Recipients of Relief 167 7 Who Was Deserving? Decision-making and Discrimination 187 8 Beyond the Kirk Session: Mixed Economies of Relief 206 Conclusion 236 Appendix: Equivalent Values from Wages and Prices 242 Bibliography 246 Index 265 Tables 3.1 Galston Collections by Month, April 1592–March 1594 84 3.2 Kilmadock Annual Collections and Distributions, 1624–48 86 3.3 Kinnaird Collections, 1634–42 94 Acknowledgements This book really had its origins in the research for its predecessor. When working on the kirk session minutes of Fife, I became intrigued by the collections and relief payments sitting alongside the cases of fornication, slander and adultery. Realising that they raised questions which could not be satisfactorily dealt with in a short sub-section of a doctoral thesis, or the book which it became, the subject morphed into one which would occupy me for not far short of a decade. As a result, I have amassed many years of debts to individuals and institutions, which are rather inadequately repaid here. The ideas for the project were first properly aired at the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute’s reading weekend in 2010, and the incred- ibly stimulating response from those present in the form of encourage- ment, specific suggestions, and pertinent questions was formative. As the project developed further feedback and stimulation was provided by audi- ences in Durham, Glasgow, the Institute of Historical Research, Stirling and Warwick, and in the closing stages of research at Edinburgh, Newman University Birmingham, and Oxford. Colleagues have been generous in conversation and correspondence ranging from points of detail and com- menting on drafts, to general comparisons, principles, and encourage- ment, including Martyn Bennett, Jane Dawson, Helen Gair, Kevin Gould, Nick Hayes, Alan MacDonald, Roger Mason, Andrew Pettegree, Steven Reid, Jamie Reid-Baxter, Bess Rhodes, and Alec Ryrie. Particular thanks go to Chris Langley for constant encouragement, advice, references and feedback: I’m looking forward to his book coming out almost as much as I’ve been looking forward to this one being published. Part way through the research for this book, I was lucky enough to join the History team at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), and I could not imagine a more fantastic group of colleagues and students to work along- side while finishing it. Special shout-outs go to Amy Fuller, Kevin Gould, Carl Kilcourse, Sergio Lussana and Jenny Woodley, and in particular to Lizbeth Powell not just for her friendship, or for all the beer, but also for putting up with limitless amounts of poor relief chat, asking the right ques- tions, and through her own work inspiring what I hope will be my next major project. The PhD students I have had the pleasure of co-supervising have collectively taught me more about the research process than I suspect they realise. More practically I am immensely grateful to the School of Arts and Humanities at NTU for supporting my archival research and confer- ence travel, and most importantly providing a sabbatical (or ‘gap-year’, or viii Poor Relief and the Church in Scotland, 1560–1650 ‘holiday’, according to some of the aforenamed), which provided the space in which to complete the book. I also gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the Strathmartine Trust which facilitated some of the early archival research. In the early stages I also benefitted hugely from working with Alan MacDonald on a Leverhulme-funded project on early modern climate, which enabled me to look at the church court records and the economic context in new ways (and to spend more of my time reading kirk session and presbytery minutes!). Very useful feedback and suggestions came from Edinburgh University Press’s anonymous peer reviewers (as well as from referees of previous articles relating to this subject). Archivists and staff at the institutions listed in the Bibliography, especially the National Records of Scotland, have never failed to be helpful and friendly, and equal thanks must go to the extraordinarily effective Inter-Library Loan team at NTU’s library. These institutions provided materials, but Nottingham’s Bromley House Library provided something just as important: an incred- ibly conducive environment in which to write, peacefully. Although the people mentioned above (anonymously or otherwise) have made the book better than it would otherwise have been, they should not be held account- able for its flaws, which are my responsibility alone. Closer to home, my parents continue to be supportive, reading drafts and taking an impressive interest in a subject which they are unlikely ever to have chosen for themselves. The book’s dedication expresses my greatest debt. Hannah deserves to have a far cooler book than this one dedicated to her, but I am unlikely to write one, so this will have to do. Conventions All sums of money are expressed in pounds Scots, except on a few occa- sions where noted otherwise. The pound Scots was worth 1/12th of a pound Sterling as of 1603. A merk was 13s 4d, and other units or coins are explained where mentioned in the text. Throughout the text, dates are given in post-1600 style, that is assuming the year to begin on 1 January (the change is made silently where required). The original spelling has been maintained when quoting from manuscripts but the spelling and transliteration of printed primary source editions has been retained even where the editorial presentation would now be considered unconventional.