Issue No. 28 April 2010 The King James VI Hospital, Perth. CONTENTS page Notes from the Chair & Archive News 2 King James VI Hospital Foundation; the early centuries 5 The Foundation as a property developer in 19thC. Perth 10 Dr Mary Young, 1948—2010 12 800th birthday for Perth’s Charter 14 The William the Lion Charter in Translation 17 Exploring the history of schools in a Perthshire Village 18 Professor Donald McIntyre 1923—2009 19 The Black Art of using Search Engines 20 Worth a look; The Perth Theatre Collection 1935—1938 24 Notes from the Chair There must be some truth in the saying that time flies when one's enjoying one- self, because it seems no time since our last Newsletter in October! Our AGM is on Thursday 27 May at 6.30pm. Please do consider in advance of the meeting whether you could make any spare time to contribute to the Friends by serving on the committee. This is particularly im- portant this year, as three slots are becoming free: those of chair- man, secretary and committee member. It goes almost without saying that we cannot manage without a secretary – and Christine will be a hard act to follow! If you feel you might be able to serve as a committee member, do please contact myself or anyone else on the current committee. One of our Life Members, Dr David Munro Robertson, has just printed his attractively illustrated book on the Highland Perthshire artist, Andrew Scott Rankin. Copies of the book, which involved some research in the Archive read- ing room, the National Archives of Scotland and Local Studies, are now on sale in the Library and elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Alyth oral history project is pro- ceeding slowly but surely, as the Friends interview volunteers about their war- time memories. Friends who were able to attend Derek Hall's talk in October on Scottish Mo- nastic Landscapes have confirmed how interesting it was. To my knowledge, at least two Friends have subsequently ordered his book on the subject. Curiously, our own Archive contains an 18th century letter detailing medieval ecclesiastical establishments in the South-West of Scotland and Cumbria. Our first meeting of 2010 concerned a Perthshire "nabob" and Enlightenment Man, Alexander Dow, and his links with well-known smugglers in Berwickshire. Derek Janes, the curator of Gunsgreen House in Eyemouth, described to us FRIENDS of P&KC ARCHIVE, AK Bell Library, York Place, PERTH PH2 8EP Scottish Registered Charity No. SCO315 Tel: ( 01738 ) 477012 Email: [email protected]. Hon. Presidents; The Provost; Sir Wm. Macpherson of Cluny and Blairgowrie; Mr Donald Abbott Editor: David Wilson how the smugglers adapted this house with secret hiding places. He is still researching the various characters in his story and hopes to ublish his find- ings by 2012. We now look forward to Lindsay Farquharson's talk on Wednesday 21 April on Bridging Perthshire's Past, the project she is managing for the Perth & Kinross Heritage Trust. It is hard to imagine Perthshire without the great roads and bridges built by General Wade, his successor Major Caulfield and others, but there are also many overgrown tracks and ruined bridges, now abandoned, which once formed part of the Wade network. Our AGM will be followed by a talk from another archaeologist, Dr Birgitta Hoffmann on Excavating Perthshire's Landscape – in the Archive. The speaker is very well known as an expert on the Gask Ridge in Roman times, but on this occasion she will be describing her project to reconstruct pre-17th century landscapes by using archival sources. Looking forward to seeing you on the 21st of April and at the AGM on the 27th of May. Margaret Borland-Stroyan ================================================ Archive News Well, the last few weeks have been quite hectic here (so what’s new, I hear you cry). Where shall I start? First, John, our work experience student, has been joined by Zoe, each coming in one day a week to learn the art of archiv- ing while they study for their diploma in Archives and Records Management. Needless to say, they are helping us a great deal as well as gaining invaluable on-the-job training. Also, we’ve been working on the Heraldry 800 schools project with the Friends, which is proving just a touch more complex than we first thought, but should hopefully prove to be a valuable resource for pupils throughout P&K. Come the summer, we’ll also be partners in another project closely 3 associated with the Perth 800 celebrations – one led by the YMCA, so watch this space for news. As usual, we’ve been giving talks to local groups (it was one of these that led to the YMCA project), hosting visits to the Archive itself and putting up dis- plays. One of the most rewarding was when we attended the International Women’s Day at the beginning of March with a display board featuring re- cords that related to women over the centuries. The response from attendees was so gratifying, we hope to see a few of them visiting us. Surprisingly, when we were researching the collections for documents, we realized we could have had a much bigger display, there was so much we could have shown. And thanks to the efforts of Hilary, one of our Friends volunteers, who produced the Women’s Sources database, we had a first-rate guide to where to look for material. But the most exciting news is that our Artist in the Archive project is now complete! Artist Kyra Clegg has produced two amazing multi-media exhibi- tions based on the collections we hold: Archived. Artworks and videos can be seen in both the AK Bell Library and Perth Theatre – and the videos can be viewed on the Archive’s web pages. Just log on to www.pkc.gov.uk/ archives and follow the links. Finally, we’re also continuing to respond to the results of the Preservation Survey we completed, primarily by re-boxing and wrapping items to ensure their longer-term survival. And we’ve been continuing with our daily work as usual, answering enquiries, helping researchers and accepting accessions – including minutes from Perth Lawn Tennis Club, 1882-1904 (ACC10/07). We’ve also managed to list one or two collections, including that of The Indigent Old Women's Society, Perth and Perth Ladies Clothing Society, 1806-1978 c(MS299), which includes some descrip- tions of living conditions in early 19th century Perth. So, come and have a look at Archived, and for those of you with internet ac- cess, also have a look at Perth – a place in history, also on our web pages. I’ll tell you more about this in the next issue, but meanwhile, I’d be in- terested in your thoughts. Jan Merchant 4 THE KING JAMES VI HOSPITAL FOUNDATION The handsome four-storey building in Hospital street in Perth is a puz- zle. It is clearly eighteenth century in style, but the inscription on the front says ‘Founded by King James VI in 1587’. In fact the charter setting up the foundation was given to Perth in 1569 (by the Regent Moray; James was two years old at the time). And it was not to be a hospital in our sense; its purpose was to provide relief and ‘hospitality’ for those in need, or in this case, ‘the poor, maimed, weak, distressed per- sons, orphans and fatherless children within the Burgh of Perth’ in the words of the original charter. So far as is known, it only had a small infir- mary section for about fifty years in the late 1700s. Its origins lay in the shattering events in the city ten years earlier. In July 1559, Perth had been the epicentre of the Protestant revolution, in which the city’s three Friaries and its Charterhouse monastery had been destroyed by furious mobs. Was it iconoclastic zeal, righteous anger at ecclesiastical Perth on the 12th of May 1559; the Sacking of the Friaries and the Monastery ( but Whitefriars, which should be at the far end of the banana-shaped High St., is missing ) Picture courtesy of Local Studies, AK Bell Library 5 luxury, mere delight in licensed mayhem? Or was it set up by the reformers in order to silence powerful opponents in the propaganda wars of that era – the friars’ original vocation being to defend Catholic doctrine by preaching in the marketplace? But from the outset, the truth about what then moved peo- ple to act as they did was obscured by partisan polemics (John Knox’s own history being among the least credible). The outcome of these dramatic events was not merely the physical destruc- tion of some renowned buildings and the dispersal of the friars. A vestigial ‘safety net’ for poorer citizens in times of dire need lay buried in the ruins of the friaries that, ironically, they themselves may have helped to destroy. It had long been an article of faith that clergy and laity had a duty to aid ‘poor members of Jesus Christ’ in need. For centuries, friaries had been showered with donations by the faithful for that purpose. Though much of this wealth stayed with the friars themselves, at least a fraction of it used to reach its in- tended recipients. Now even that little was gone, at a time when the poor of the towns were being hurt by rapid money inflation and trade dislocation, and when the climate had quite suddenly worsened, to the point where in some years (most notably in 1563) actual famine stalked the land.