I am currently reading the Minutes of the Kirk Session of Rousay and Egilsay as part of my investigation into my family history. I must admit I was not overly keen to read about the goings on of the church in the 1730s, expecting it to be boring, but I can categorically state it is anything but!
The population of Rousay at the time would have been, perhaps, 600-700 people while Egilsay would have been about 200 so neither were very populous and it is likely that people living there would have known, or known of, everyone else on the islands. It is difficult to keep activities secret from others in a small community and this is reflected in the minutes of the Kirk Session.
There are many entries in the minutes regarding the sin of Fornication (it has a capital F to indicate its seriousness) where the people involved are called to repent infront of the congregation for several weeks before they can be absolved. There is also a very specific category of fornication called antenuptual fornication which is evidenced by the birth of a baby within the first nine months of marriage and again requires the appearance of the couple, once the mother has recovered from ‘childbed sickness’, in front of the congregation to repent and the payment of a fine, sometimes this is in the form of forfeiture of a payment made at the time of marriage. Furthermore, a sponsor has to be appointed to oversee the child’s moral education.
In addition to sexual misdemeanors there are crimes of Breach of the Sabbath. In one case two boatloads of people had come from the neighbouring island of Wyre ‘to cut and gather floss’ , reportedly on the evening of the sabbath. All were called to account for themselves and all denied they had broken the sabbath claiming instead that they did not set sail until the sun had risen the following day. It was concluded by the Session that the report had come from people on Gairsay, another nearby island, ‘out of envy to hinder them of the privilege of cutting floss’ but that those involved should be exhorted to take good care of the observation of the sabbath in future.
‘Intimation was made from the pulpit against idle and unnecessary walking up and down on Sabbath Evenings’ was recorded in the minutes on another occassion when it was reported that several people had been seen walking along the shoreline on a sabbath evening ‘under pretense of seeking stray sheep and …cattle’. It seems that there was no proof of the allegations but to be safe the minister exhorted them to ‘abstain from such a practice…except in case of necessity’.
Two things impress me from these tales. In addition to the moral teachings of the church which had to be upheld among the congregation it is also striking how much money is collected from these ‘crimes’. It is unclear what the full penalty for fornication was but at least two culprits paid 40 shillings as part payment for their transgression. To set this in context of other church funds, the usual collection from the congregation at church after the sermon was 1-2 shillings. Payments made by the church to the poor of the parish are likewise in single digit shillings, often the collection of the day shared between two or three people. In other words, the church had created a nice little earner for itself.
Secondly, there seems to be a general disregard for the system of punishment or at least a lacklustre attention to it. On many occassions it is noted in the minutes that a person so accused did not turn up at church to be rebuked from the pulpit. They are simply called to appear the following week but there seems little else used by the church to force compliance. One woman who was accused of adultery and often did not attend was considered to be unsuitably repentant so she was referred to the Presbytry of the North Isles. However, she did not appear there either! In other cases such as the sailing on the sabbath or walking along the shore the individuals involved simply stated, truly or not, that the sabbath was over or that it was a necessity to find lost sheep.
Ultimately, the church appears a joyless, money-grabbing institution while the people seem resourceful and inventive in their own defence. They are the kind of people from whom it is a pleasure to be a descendant!
Significantly Different 