The Disruption.....

[DavidWW]

Can't find that pre-1855 record?, - here's one possible reason.


The Disruption of 1843

David W Webster © 1999

Prior to the start of statutory recording of births, marriages and deaths in Scotland in 1855, the recording of births (more often christenings) and marriages (or very often the proclamation or *calling* of the banns) was the responsibility of the Established Church of Scotland to which the great majority of the population belonged. Up to 1843 that worked reasonably well, although, especially in the cities, there are indications that large numbers of births were not registered in the early 1800's. Indeed the overall level of events registered in the Parochial Registers of the Established Church of Scotland appears, according to all accounts, to have diminished during that period, most especially in urban areas, i.e. small country parishes are the best bet.

Then, in 1843, around 40% of the ministers of the Established Church of Scotland walked out of the General Assembly in Edinburgh and formed the Free Church of Scotland, taking with them somewhere around 60% of the communicants of the Established Church of Scotland. The dispute, which had been simmering for a couple of decades, involved patronage in terms of the appointment of ministers.

(It's fascinating to speculate that, but for The Disruption, Scotland might well have the same system of civil registration today as her northern European neighbours in Norway, Sweden and Finland, where civil registration was carried out by the State Lutheran Churches on behalf of the state until quite recently, with all taxpayers contributing a fraction of a per cent of their income tax to the church to fund that activity, unless you specifically withdraw from paying that element of tax.)

Overnight, you can well imagine the effect on vital records in Scotland. The great majority of the Free Church congregations maintained the keeping of records, but a large number of these records between 1843 and 1854 have not survived. Some records came back into the Established Kirk when approximately two-thirds of the Free Church congregations amalgamated with the Established Church in 1929; and other Free Kirk records, some of which contain records of christenings and marriages or calling of banns, are in the Scottish Record Office, but there is, as yet, no common index of these Free Kirk records.

[marilyn morning]

David

I missed this the first time around.

Regards
Marilyn