Issue Number 42 Spring 2017

The Fair City Calisthenic Troupe, 1900-1910. James Kelly Image courtesy of Local & Family History, A K Bell Library, Perth CONTENTS

Page Chairman’s Notes 2 News from the Archive 3 Our Assistant Achivist 4 Watch this Space: The East Guide 5 A Jacobite Poem 6 Stan Keay 7 A Young Soldier’s Homecoming 8 Early Photographers of Perth 12 The Poor in Perthshire 18 The Angus Children 21 Wage Comparisons of Yesteryear 23 Friends’ Talks 2016-2017 session 24

Notes from our Chairman

Firstly I would like to thank everyone for their kind messages and good wishes in regard to my accident. My physiotherapists have told me they cannot predict how long it will take to maximise the functionality in my right hand nor how much I can expect to recover.

Turning to our Committee, it is with great sadness that I have to report that our Secretary of many years, Tommy Smyth, has stepped down due to health problems. Jim Ferguson, our Treasurer, is also resigning at the AGM having wished to go last year but very kindly agreeing to carry on until this May. So, we have some important vacancies to fill and if any members are willing to be nominated to fill these posts, please let us know so that we can ensure due process is followed at the AGM.

On a happier note and as many of you will know, we have a new Assistant Archivist, Sarah Wilcock, who took up her post on 26th September 2016. She and our new Archivist, Ishbel MacKinnon, have settled in extremely well and attend our Committee meetings as often as they can. Thus the excellent productive relationship the Friends have had with the Archive staff is continuing as before.

In terms of what the Friends have been doing to assist the Archive, we recently contributed £200 to purchase the Bill Anderson Album from Perth Railway Boxing Club. This was offered to the Archive by a bookseller but without our help it might not have been possible to acquire it. Our Archivist contacted the Perth Railway Boxing Club to let them know and they spontaneously donated several boxes of their records to the Archive. These contain photographs, pamphlets and press cuttings which will contribute to the history of boxing in Perth.

Given that occurrence, your Committee discussed the matter of purchases for the Archive collections and concluded that, to try to ensure important items were not “missed”, we should fund an amount of £500 on a rolling basis. The use of this fund would be at the discretion of the Archivist and would be topped up from time to time depending on the usage of the fund. The Friends’ Committee also agreed to help fund a work placement during 2017 to facilitate cataloguing of the Perth Theatre Archive; the total required was £3,000 and the Committee agreed to donate £500.

Also in this edition I am very pleased to let everyone know that Culture Perth and , the new charitable trust running our libraries, museums and Archive, have agreed to continue the previous agreement for room hire. Thus we will not have to pay for rooms for committee meetings or talks. They have also agreed that the Archive staff will assist us with planning and delivering our talks each year at no cost to the Friends. This is excellent news and will allow us to continue to run our talks at an affordable price to non-members. Alan Grant

2 News from the Archive

It will come as no surprise to hear that it has been a busy six months in the Archive. We would like to say a special thank you to our volunteers who have been tremendously patient with us during the transition period for the Assistant Archivist.

Plans for the new collection store are on-going. It has recently been announced that the location for the new Resource Centre will be a site on Auld Bond Road at Inveralmond. We will keep the Friends’ Committee informed of any development updates. For now, it is business as usual in the Archive.

We have had some fantastic talks over the winter season with Nicola Cowmeadow’s and Syd House’s sold-out talk on Carolina, Lady Nairne, being a particular highlight. The process of finalising the speakers for the 2017/2018 talk season is underway and we will update you with the completed programme in due course. Just to remind you that subscription renewal is approaching and we very much hope that you choose to continue your membership with the Friends.

The Charterhouse Project was launched on 21st February. The BBC and ITV were in the AK Bell Library filming interviews with key members of the project and this included a look at some of the tacks, letters and charters held in the Archive. This is a very exciting project based around the Charterhouse where King James I was buried, possibly near the site of the King James VI Hospital. The Charterhouse Project is intended to highlight the medieval history of Perth, using the latest advancements in digital technology to aid historical and archaeological research into the medieval Charterhouse and its royal tombs. Ishbel MacKinnon

3 Our Assistant Achivist

Hello everyone, my name is Sarah Wilcock and I was recently appointed Assistant Archivist here at Perth & Kinross Council Archive. It has been a whirlwind first six months with lots to learn and a fantastic archive collection to explore but I feel I’ve got my feet under me now and it’s full steam ahead.

I’m fairly new to the archive profession, beginning in 2012 as a Cultural Assistant in the William Patrick Library in East Dunbartonshire, where I was first introduced to and fell in love with archives. While working in the library, I became heavily involved in promoting our collections, particularly those of the Archive and it is a passion that I have brought with me to Perth & Kinross. Through my hands-on work with the archive collections in East Dunbartonshire, I came to realise that I wished to pursue a career in this field. I returned to university in September 2015 and graduated in November 2016 with an MSc in Information Management and Preservation from the University of Glasgow.

I am thrilled to be here at the Perth & Kinross Council Archive and have already met many wonderful and welcoming people with the same passion and drive for making archives accessible to all. I look forward to meeting and working with many more of the Friends in the future. Sarah Wilcock

4 Watch this Space

A Guide to the History and Culture of East Perthshire through the Archive is coming soon! This is the third in a series of illustrated booklets compiled by Friends’ volunteers, Margaret Smith and Jackie Hay. The first two cover Highland Perthshire and Kinross-shire. The latest guide is an introduction to the wide variety of records held by PKCA relating to the area covered by the former Eastern District Council, comprising the parishes of , Bendochy, Blairgowrie, Caputh, Cargill, , Collace, , , Kinloch, Kirkmichael, Lethendy, , Rattray and St Martins.

The Guide includes details of the official records of the justices of the peace, constabulary and local authority as well as the community collections, which have been arranged into six themes. We hope the Guide will encourage visitors to the Archive to see what they can discover about their family and local history.

The Friends wish to express their gratitude to Dr David Robertson for his generous financial support of this project.

Jackie Hay

5 Jacobite Poem

In August 2016, the Archive purchased an interesting Jacobite poem called ‘After the Defeat at Culloden’ with financial support from the National Fund for Acquisitions. The poem has strong local connections and is a valuable addition to our existing Jacobite collections. During the autumn it was displayed in Perth Museum & Art Gallery’s ‘Art of War’ exhibition, alongside other items from our own and national collections. The Friends kindly paid for cleaning, conservation and mounting, prior to the exhibition. This generous support enabled many hundreds of visitors to see the poem and learn more about Perth & Kinross Council Archive. A very brief description follows and if anyone is curious to find out more you would be most welcome to look at it in the Archive.

……….

‘After the Defeat at Culloden’ is a poem in three parts. Folio 1 consists of thirty- nine lines written as a fictionalised conversation between Lady and the Duke of Perth, asking for a description of the Battle of Culloden. Folio 2 comprises seven lines written as a fictionalised reply from the Duke of Perth to Lady Weem, assuring her that "The prince is safe and I no terrors Feell". Folio 3 is thirty-two lines written as a fictionalised conversation between Major Lockhart and The Duke of Cumberland. The final ten lines are written from Charles Edward Stuart's perspective, following the brutal defeat of the Jacobite forces at Culloden in 1745, ‘where shall I go or whether shall I turn – But still for my disstressed Friends Ill murn’. The poem is addressed to ‘Mr Mallicken at Deanstoun Mill’ and reads as a contemporary account of the Battle but our initial research on the author suggests that it may have been written in the later 18th century. A pencil annotation at the foot of Folio 4 suggests a date of c1746 but this is written in a later hand and so remains open to interpretation; we will continue to research this intriguing poem and its characters to establish more about its provenance. Ishbel MacKinnon and Sarah Wilcock

6 STAN KEAY

Friends will have been sad to learn of the death of Stan Keay, one of our founder members and a former Treasurer. A man of learning and culture, Stan attended all the meetings of the Friends and was always ready with questions and comments at the end of a talk. He seemed to know, and be known to, everyone in Perth!

George Stanley Keay was born in Main Street, Bridgend, on 10th May 1927 but most of his boyhood was spent in the very centre of Perth. He passionately adored his native city and had a very deep and very wide knowledge of everything to do with it. Until the age of 86, when he started to have health problems, he was fit to pursue his various interests – reading, music and drama. He amassed a large library; his sons report that they counted 6000-7000 books in his house. Stan, a man of very strong convictions, thoroughly enjoyed discussion and argument. Any friends and acquaintances who met him by chance in the city centre could easily spend a rather long time in conversation with him!

With Stan’s death on Boxing Day 2016, Perth has not only lost one of her most fiercely loyal citizens but also one of her real “characters”. We offer our sincere condolences to his family.

Margaret Borland-Stroyan

Friends’ Contact Details: Please note changes to the telephone number, to the e-mail address and to the times of evening talks (now at 6.30pm, not 7pm).

Friends of Perth & Kinross Council Archive A K Bell Library, York Place, Perth PH2 8EP 01738 477022 [email protected] Scottish Registered Charity Number: SC 031537

7 A Young Soldier’s Homecoming Lieutenant Thomas (Tommy) James Graham Stirling of Strowan

Why should the death of this young soldier result in scenes in that can only be compared to those televised in recent years at servicemen’s funeral processions in Royal Wootton Bassett?

In 1880, Egypt was ruled by Khedive Tewfik but he was almost bankrupt and the country’s finances were under the control of Britain and France. This led to discontent in the country and an army colonel named Arabi Pasha led a nationalist revolt under the banner ‘Egypt for the Egyptians’, aimed at expelling Europeans and Turks from Egypt altogether.

To counter this, in May 1882 Sir Garnet Wolseley sailed from Britain with a force of around 30,000 soldiers and landed at Ismailia. The main force of Arabi’s army was located at Tel-el- Kebir, between Ismailia and Cairo, and on 12th September two infantry divisions plus a cavalry brigade of Wolseley’s forces began a night march through the desert with the intention of surprising the enemy’s forces as dawn broke.

They were not spotted until they were barely 300 yards from the enemy’s lines; the Egyptian sentries fired and the troops responded with a bayonet charge, followed by the cavalry. The battle was over in an hour. Only 57 British troops were killed as against over 2,000 rebels but amongst the British dead was 24- year-old Lieutenant Thomas (Tommy) James Graham Stirling of Strowan, who was killed whilst leading a charge. Some of Arabi’s soldiers had halted suddenly and, being familiar with the intricate defensive works, they took shelter and struck down the leaders of the advancing party.

8 Tommy was buried on the field where he fell and would have lain there forever but for the determination of one man to recover his body so that he could lie with his ancestors in the old kirkyard at Strowan. Enter now that larger-than- life character Colonel Williamson, laird of the neighbouring estate of .

David Robertson Williamson had succeeded to his estate in 1852 at the age of 22. His one and only child, Charles, had been born the following year and he had hoped that Charles would follow in his footsteps as a keen horseman, foxhunter and general all-round sportsman as well as helping to manage their 35,000-acre estate. But Charles was a great disappointment to his father in this respect; he was quiet with intellectual interests and the two increasingly grew apart. Tommy Graham Stirling was five years younger than Charles and was everything that David would have liked Charles to have been. In effect, he became the son that David had always wanted.

It was David Williamson who taught the young lad riding, shooting, fishing and other country pursuits. When David, who by now had become Colonel Williamson, heard the news of Tommy’s death he immediately rode over to Strowan House and offered to bring Tommy’s body home for burial. Old Graham Stirling was delighted to accept the offer (this was some years before they had a serious falling out over the route of the proposed Crieff & Comrie Railway) and on 19th September, only six days after the battle, Colonel Williamson and his groom left for Egypt.

Lieutenant Thomas James Graham Stirling

9 They arrived at Alexandria on the boat from Brindisi and immediately travelled to Tel-el-Kebir, where they exhumed Tommy’s body and commenced their homeward journey. Leaving Alexandria in a Royal Navy ship bound for Portsmouth, they then travelled by train to Crieff and arrived there on the morning of Saturday 21st October.

The Crieff Company of the 1st Perthshire Volunteers was in attendance and the family waggonette stood at the station, draped in black and hung inside with the Black Watch tartan ready to receive the coffin. A large gathering of many hundreds looked on in solemn silence and with evident emotion as Colonel Williamson stepped from the train and the coffin was removed from the van and carried shoulder high to the waggonette by six non-commissioned officers and privates between the lines of the Volunteers.

Thomas’s helmet and sword lay on top of the coffin and the onlookers showed great interest in the helmet. It had become well known that the fatal shot was inflicted in the head and the helmet displayed a bullet hole above the left temple. The Volunteers now marched to the front of the carriage and the procession slowly made its way down King Street, Gallowhill, and North Bridge Street and from there to Strowan House. The immense crowd of people who had assembled outside the station removed their hats as the procession passed.

Tommy’s coffin lay in Strowan House until the following Monday when the funeral took place. Although the family had made arrangements for a private funeral, the public’s eagerness to take part in the event and pay their last respects made this impossible. For some time before and after the funeral ceremony the town’s bell and that of the Free Church tolled at intervals.

10 Inside the mansion house, a section of the funeral service of the Episcopal Church was performed by the Rev. Mr Ridgway of Edinburgh and Mr Kitchin of in the presence of the family and a number of friends. This should have been followed by a Presbyterian service in the open air in front of the house but this proved impossible owing to the heavy rain then falling.

Instead, the coffin was removed to the corridor and the detachment of the Black Watch who had arrived by train from Perth were marched into the corridor and took up their position by the coffin. The Rev. Mr Campbell of conducted the simple burial service of the Presbyterian Church, then the coffin was removed to the door by the soldiers and carried by them shoulder high across the lawn to the family burying place in the old churchyard of Strowan close by.

The plate on the coffin lid, which was in the form of a cross, bore the inscription: “Thomas James Graham Stirling. Born 20th December 1858; fell in action at Tel-el-Kebir in Egypt, 13th September 1882” and on the lid were his plumed hat, belts and revolver. At the graveside the coffin was rested while the remainder of the service was finished and then, amid the solemn silence of the large assembled crowd, the soldiers lowered the body of their fallen comrade into its final resting place.

Images courtesy of Bernard Byrom

Tommy’s Grave Bernard Byrom

11 As reported in Newsletter 41, the Archive has begun to use the exhibition space outside “Local & Family History”. Friends will have seen the first one last autumn, a special exhibition on “The Courier 1816-2016”, marking the 200th anniversary of a great daily newspaper. The second exhibition, running from 29th November 2016 to 13th January 1917 was “The Early Photographers of Perthshire”, details of which can now be found below. One of James Kelly’s photographs from the gallery is illustrated on the front cover, as shown here: The Early Photographers of Perthshire: Archival Sources

The Early Photographers of Perthshire was published by Tippermuir Books Ltd. at the end of November 2016 and accompanied by an exhibition of the same name in the AK Bell Library. The aim of writing The Early Photographers of Perthshire was twofold: to shine a light on Perthshire's part in Scottish photographic history; and to provide an archival resource of the contributions, large and small, made by Perthshire’s early photographers.

12

An early photograph of Perth—taken prior to the formation of Tay Street, circa 1866-69 Unidentified Photographer, probably Magnus Jackson Courtesy of Perth Museum & Art Gallery

The book authored by Roben Antoniewicz and Paul S. Philippou includes some 308 photographs (the earliest dating from the 1840s), sourced from more than a dozen archives mainly but not exclusively located in Scotland. The largest collection of photographs used in the book are those contained within the personal collection of Perth photographer Roben Antoniewicz, amassed over several decades. Culture Perth & Kinross provided the bulk of the remaining images: 93 from Perth Museum & Art Gallery; 10 from the AK Bell Library; and 12 from Perth & Kinross Council Archive. However without access to other archives and collections, the book would have failed to have the depth and width required of such a study. This short article is concerned with these archives.

13

The Special Collections Division of St Andrews University Library is home to the Rossie Priory Glass Plate Negative Collection of 223 early wet collodion glass plate negatives and some 90 stereoscopic images produced at Lord and Lady Kinnaird’s studio in the grounds of Rossie Priory, by (c1851- 1870). This internationally important and truly remarkable collection was acquired by sale from a New York auctioneers in 2014. Four photographs from the St Andrews collection feature in The Early Photographers of Perthshire, which also includes photographs from National Museums Scotland (1); the National Portrait Gallery (1); the Glasgow School of Art (3); and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (1).

Katie Murie, 1860-1890. Peter Ewing Courtesy of the Perth & Kinross Council Archive

MS 204/9/3 (57)

Giving an international aspect to the book, six photographs reproduced under licence from the Getty Institute’s Open Content Program make a significant contribution to the chapter on pioneering Scottish calotypists David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. The J. Paul Getty Museum, located in Los Angeles, USA, through its Open Content Program provides a great asset for researchers. It comprises almost 100,000 images (including paintings, drawings, manuscripts, photographs, antiquities, sculpture, decorative arts, artists' sketchbooks, watercolours, rare prints from the sixteenth through the eighteenth century, and nineteenth-century architectural drawings of cultural landmarks), which can be used freely and without permission providing attribution is given.

14

Unidentified Children 1884-1893. J.E. & C. Ireland Courtesy of Local & Family History, A K Bell Library, Perth

Two archives from which photographs were sourced in the production of The Early Photographers of Perthshire were chance discoveries and, unlike the other archives mentioned in this article, have little online presence: the first is that of Glenalmond College; the second that of Blair Castle.

A reference in The British Journal Photograph Almanac & Photographer’s Daily Companion 1908 to a Glenalmond Photographic Club led the authors to a visit to Glenalmond College and an appointment with the school archivist. The substantial and largely uncatalogued Glenalmond College archive includes photographs, lantern slides, cameras, and a lantern projector associated with the Glenalmond Photographic Club, which was founded 21st June 1890 by Arthur Sankey Reid, a science master at the school.

The Blair Castle archive includes materials that date from 1180 to the present day and is well known to genealogists. Among the substantial Atholl family collection is a series of calotypes from Queen Victoria’s 1844 trip to the Highlands and originals by one of the most highly regarded figures in photographic history, David Octavius Hill. As with the Glenalmond College archive, the authors had no idea of what treasures the Blair Castle archive contained before arranging a visit to the castle.

15 Further details of the UK-located archives mentioned in this article are provided below. Emphasis is given to photographic holdings relevant to The Early Photographers of Perthshire, from which the information has been extracted:

The Glasgow School of Art - Duncan Brown Photographic Collection: 305 photographs of individuals, landscapes, ships, shipyards, stately homes and Glasgow street-scenes, taken between 1853 and 1896 (in three bound volumes ) by Callander-born Duncan Brown.

National Museums Scotland - History of Photography Collection: Photographic apparatus and images, including an album of 110 salt prints (Talbot calotypes) produced by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, donated by the former to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1851.

National Portrait Gallery - Photographs Collection: More than 250,000 photographic images of which some 130,000 are original negatives, dating from the 1840s to the present day. Hill and Adamson Collection: 1,500 negatives produced by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, arranged in three albums. Rupert William Potter Collection: 198 photographs taken by Rupert William Potter dating from the 1860s to the early part of the twentieth century.

Perth Museum & Art Gallery - Photographic Collection: 150,000 images from the earliest years of photography to the present day featuring a broad range of subjects connected with Perthshire. Early Daguerreotype Collection: A small number of sealed Daguerreotype portraits. Hill and Adamson Collection: Fifteen prints (calotype negatives) and 47 carbon prints (from the collection of Andrew Elliot in Edinburgh, 1928), produced by the partnership of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. The collection also includes a watercolour by Hill as well as several oil paintings and drawings.

16 Lantern Slide Collection: 5,000 lantern slides of local and general themes including historical sites and natural history, many associated with Perth photographer Henry Coates. Magnus Jackson Collection: 2,500 glass plate negatives of street scenes, local businesses, personal portraits, estates, buildings, landscapes and trees produced by Magnus Jackson. William Proudfoot Collection: Two oil paintings; a lithographic print on paper from 1870 (Crieff from Knockmary); two drawings (Mr Speedie, Fish Merchant and Sketch of a Labourer); and seventeen watercolours; all are attributed to the Perthshire artist and photographer William Proudfoot. Wood & Son Collection: 1,067 negatives from which the Woodall Series of black & white and hand-coloured postcards (1903-23) were produced. These comprise various postcard views taken by commercial and amateur photographers.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery - Adamson and Hill Collection: Over 6,000 items produced by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson and considered to be ‘one of the largest and most important holdings of early photography in the world.’ The Adamson and Hill holdings form part of the Scottish National Photography Collection established in 1984, which today comprises some 30,000 pieces.

University of St Andrews - Rossie Priory Glass Plate Negative Collection: The collection comprises ‘Portraits’, ‘Stereo Views’, ‘Artwork Reproductions’, ‘Still Life Views’, ‘Buildings’ and ‘Interiors’ and includes a number of portraits of the key figures in early Scottish photography and several images of the studio and darkrooms built at Rossie Priory by Lord and Lady Kinnaird.

The Early Photographers of Perthshire by Roben Antoniewicz and Paul S. Philippou is published by Tippermuir Books Ltd., Perth, 2016

Dr Paul S. Philippou and Roben Antoniewicz

17 At the AGM in May 2016 Paul Adair, Collections Officer at the Perth Museum & Art Gallery, presented a fascinating and illustrated talk on the life and work of the Victorian Perth photographer, Magnus Jackson. This photograph portrays the housing and living conditions of the Poor in Perthshire about 1880 at the time of its demolition to make way for Scott Street. The following three articles provide us with an inkling into the living conditions of the poor in Perthshire around 1800 and in Angus around 1900 (some discrepancies of costs). Key: 12 pence (d) = 1 shilling (s); 20 shillings = £1

Shuttlefield Close, Perth, circa 1880. Magnus Jackson Image courtesy of Local & Family History, AK Bell Library

The Poor in Perthshire

To say whether a man is poor or well-off, his salary must be considered in relation to essential expenditure. Perth & Kinross Council Archive holds records from the 12th century to the present day but my initial study was from the gift and deposit collection comprising family and estate papers and from records created by individuals, organisations, societies and businesses.

18

Starting with wages (and I failed miserably to compute the relative value to present day, even with the assistance of “Measuring Value” a service for calculating relative worth over time). In 1800, you could:

 employ a man servant for £10 – 10 shillings a year (excluding food);

 employ a maidservant for £3 – 3 shillings;

 hire a labourer for 1 shilling a day;

 hire a carpenter for 1 shilling and 6 pence. If so inclined, you could rent an acre of land for 12 shillings.

As today, food was a necessary expenditure with:

 cheese at 3 pence a pound in summer and 4 pence in winter;

 butter at 8 pence a pound;

 best beef at 4 pence a pound;

 a chicken for 9 pence;

 a dozen eggs for 3 pence.

A minister in Caputh in 1793 supplied details of a poor family in his parish: the husband a day labourer and his wife with four children all under 7 years of age. His earnings each week on average was 5 shillings and 9 pence and his wife earned 2 shillings each week by spinning.

Their weekly expenditure was on:

 4 pecks of oatmeal and 2 pecks of barley meal, milk, fat, onions and potatoes were 1 shilling and 1 pence;

 soap, starch, blue* and oil, 3 pence;

 butter, cheese, bacon and other meat, 6 pence;

 thread and worsted, 1 pence. This came to a grand annual total of £16 – 13 shillings and 8 pence and a reserve of £3 – 9 shillings and 4 pence. *blue: a preparation for washing linen

19 Of the reserve, your necessary annual expenditure could be:

 a man's suit at 4 shillings;

 a working jacket and breeches, 4 shillings;

 a bonnet and handkerchief, 1 shilling and 1 pence;

 two shirts, 8 shillings;

 a pair of shoes and two pairs of stockings, 9 shillings;

 a woman's gown, petticoat, and shift, 7 shillings and 3 pence;

 handkerchief, apron, cap etc. and a pair of ladies shoes and stockings, 9 shillings and 6 pence;

 the children's wear cost 15 shillings.

Provision was made for sickness, bad weather and burials of 11 shillings, which left the family with no savings or debt, and the garden provided the household with cabbages, greens and potatoes. The comparison with the standard of living of the workers on the land and the expenses of some members of society was stark.

 a lawyer's annual hair-dressing bill was £7 – 1 shilling;

 a Laird's funeral with black cloth for mourning attire for servants, his seat in the kirk, pulpit etc., £41;

 tables for the funeral dinner, £1 – 16 shillings;

 for food, £6 – 2 shillings and 6 pence;

 for digging the grave, 10 shillings and 6 pence.

The burden for maintaining the poor fell on church members who were tenants, tradesmen, servants and charitable persons, while other people however rich contributed little or nothing, therefore justifying the common observation “it’s the poor in Scotland who maintain the poor”. The poor also begged from house to house and they had a share in everything the tenant could afford and it was considered unkind to refuse alms or night’s quarter to a poor person.

20 The poor fund in most parishes was totally inadequate but there were charitable institutions formed by people of different occupations and professions for the relief of any member who fell into distress. The foremost of those in Perthshire were the weavers, who gave 3 shillings weekly to their members while “on a bed of sickness” and 2 shillings weekly when “in a state of convalescence but unable to work”.

The number of beggars in Perth belonging to the parish was small compared with the large number of vagrants who swarmed around begging, cheating, swindling and stealing whatever possible.

References. B59/22 Regulations and receipt books. CC1/19 Poorhouse minute books and medical office reports.

Jim Fergusson The Angus Children

Perth Review Committee minutes record that at the meeting of 28th December 1899, instructions were given to the Inspector to arrange boarding out for these six children who were presently in the Poorhouse. It was believed that the children’s father (Thomas Angus) had an incurable illness and that their mother’s habits were “dissipated”.

They were recorded at the meeting on the 28th June 1900 as being ‘boarded out’ to a Miss Margaret McPherson in Waterloo in the parish of Auchtergaven. Miss McPherson was paid for:

Helen, aged 11; 3 shillings per week James, aged 7; 3 shillings per week Ann, aged 6; 3 shillings per week William, aged 4; 4 shillings per week Janet, aged 3; 5 shillings per week

21 The sixth child cited in the minute of December 1899 is not mentioned. There is however a birth record of a Thomas Roy Angus in June 1887 in Perth, whose parents were Thomas Angus, a shoemaker, and Ann Angus (nee McLaren), the same parents as on the birth certificates of the other five children.

At the meeting on 30th May 1901, the Inspector was instructed to supply the children with ‘all necessary clothing’ as with all other children boarded out in the district. On 31st October 1901, the Inspector was instructed to arrange for the removal of the family from Margaret McPherson or Kennedy at Waterloo as she had moved to a smaller house and the accommodation

was insufficient to cater for the family. On 12th June 1902, the Committee refused to increase the aliment for these children as the aliment was already higher than that paid for other children from the Parish.

On 8th September 1903, the Inspector at Auchtergaven stated that he had paid aliment for the children to 3rd October and intimated that the Guardian wanted them removed by that date. The Committee, in respect of the physical condition of the children and their habits, instructed that the whole

family be removed to the Poorhouse temporarily. I have been unable to trace the children any further but as the eldest, Helen, would by then have been 15- years old, it is likely that she had been put out to service.

Boarding out of children became increasingly the norm in the latter half of the 19th century as it was a cheaper option than keeping them in the Poorhouse but there was no system for checking on their welfare properly

until after the Children Act 1908 and even then it was perfunctory. Judging from the statement in the minute of September, Benjamin Ramsay with whom they were placed did not treat them well.

Hilary Wright

22 Wage Comparisons of Yesteryear, 1793-1813

Below is an indication of some wage rates of an era. Come 1815 and the end of the Napoleonic Wars, returning former soldiers put pressure on the jobs market.

In 1793 in and around the central belt of Scotland, the weekly wages of tradesmen were as follows: shoemakers from 9 shillings (s) to 12 shillings (s); wrights and carpenters from 8s to 12s with some of the best workmen earning 18s; ordinary masons from 10s to 12s with the best of them earning 16s; printer’s compositors from 10s 6d to 18s; pressmen from 10s to 12s; bookbinders from 7s to 10s 6d; weavers from 12s to 14s with the better workmen earning up to 18s and sometimes £1; all of these were for working by the piece or job. Labourers, such as barrowmen to masons and other similar jobs, were hired for a daily wage of between 1s 3d and 1s 6d.

In the 1750s in the country, female servants were hired for 10s and a pair of shoes and this on a half-yearly basis. From the 1770s, maidservants in the country areas were paid between 15s and £1-10s for the half-year and a man servant £4 yearly. In 1792 in the parish of Errol in the Carse of , a ploughman was paid between £7-7s and £9-9s per annum and, if married, he paid £1 per annum for a house and £1-10s per annum for the keeping of a cow. Farm labourers were hired for 10d each day in winter and 1s per day in summer.

By 1813, the wage of a manservant was between £16 and £18 per annum with board usually provided and for a maidservant was between £7 and £8 per annum also with board. In 1838, farm servants were paid between £12 and £15 per annum.

Donald M. Abbott, FSA Scot

23 Friends’ Talks 2016-2017 session All talks take place in the Sandeman Meeting Room at the A K Bell Library, Perth, except for the AGM and talk in May, which will be held in the Soutar Theatre. Please note the varied times. Evening talks are now at 6.30pm (not 7pm) All are welcome to attend the talks, which are free to members and £5 for non-members. Places are limited so, to avoid disappointment on the day, please contact 01738 477022 or [email protected] to reserve your seat.

Date Time Talks 2016 Thursday 22 MikeTaylor 6.30 pm September 1916 - The Turning Point Ajay Close Thursday 20 2 pm Perthshire and the Suffragettes October

Thursday 17 Nicola Cowmeddow and Syd House 2 pm November Carolina, Lady Nairne - songs and history

2017 Philip Bryers Thursday 23 2 pm Researching the history and associations of February The Fair Maid’s House

Fraser Brown Thursday 23 2 pm Scots of the BVLA March (British Volunteers from Latin America)

Joanna Tucker

Thursday 20 6.30 pm A Tayside Abbey’s Attitude to its charters: the cartulary of

April Lindores in Caprington Castle

Thursday 18 6 pm AGM May 6.30 pm Professor Richard Oram

Coupar Angus Abbey

Honorary Presidents: The Provost Sir William Macpherson Mr Donald Abbott Scottish Registered Charity Number: SC 031537

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