Procurators Fiscal records

Sudden deaths in Scotland are investigated by procurators fiscal (local state-funded prosecutors). Procurators fiscal may then petition the sheriff for a Fatal Accident Inquiry, where a public inquiry is considered appropriate.

The findings of investigations into sudden deaths by the local procurator fiscal are recorded in the Register of Corrected Entries maintained by the National Records of Scotland. Some other records survive in Orkney Archives, Shetland Archives and a few other local authority archives services. These consist mainly of police reports to the procurator fiscal on sudden deaths, fires, and a wide range of offences. Some of these police reports are annotated to indicate the fiscal’s decision on whether to prosecute or not, and sometimes the reason is also given.

The National Records of Scotland hold records of Fatal Accident Inquiries held by sheriff courts (since 1895). There are fewer sources for fatal accidents before 1895. For more information about these, and for further details about Fatal Accident Inquiries, sheriff court records and the records of procurators fiscal go to the National Records of Scotland website https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20240326182459/https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/fatal-accident-inquiry-records> [accessed 26 April 2024].

Criminal registers and photographs

Criminal registers were generated by prison authorities and by the police. From 1871 a register of prisoners for Scotland was kept in Edinburgh by the secretary of the managers of the General Prison at Perth and the Home Secretary was enabled to make regulations for the photographing of all prisoners.[1] These regulations specified the number of photographs to be printed and the persons to whom the photographs should be sent. This use of photography occurred immediately after pioneering work in criminal identification using photography had begun in France during the Paris Commune of 1870-71.

After 1879, a register of prisoners photographed under the 1871 act and liberated each quarter was printed by Her Majesties Stationery Office (HMSO) and circulated quarterly. Also an annual register of habitual criminals was published by HMSO on behalf of Prison Commissioners. Neither of these had photographs but were registers of distinctive marks and peculiarities. Judging by surviving registers the system whereby prison authorities sent out a register of released prisoners and files with photographs of prisoners to police forces did not change until the 1930s.

Under the Habitual Criminals Act, 1869, individuals with more than one conviction were subject to police supervision following their release from prison.[2] The names, addresses and other details of these individuals, sometimes referred to as “ticket of leave prisoners”, were sometimes recorded in “Registers of Returned Convicts”. An example of such a register is held by Aberdeen City & Aberdeenshire Archives (reference POL/AC/6/6) which covers the period 1869 to 1939. 60 of the 260 entries within the volume are also accompanied by photographs.

Surviving records of criminals, prisoners and crimes generally fall into one of six types:

1. Formal registers of criminals.

Printed annually and quarterly by HMSO.

2. Records of crimes (sometimes called criminal registers).

These record the crimes reported, the name of the person apprehended, their residence, age, and often their height and other descriptive characteristics, the names of witnesses, the name of the investigating officer, details of court proceedings, outcomes and recovery of any fines. They may cover all crimes reported within a police district or may be restricted to crimes reported to an individual police station.

3. Albums of criminal register entries compiled by a police force.

In most cases where a photograph is part of a much larger entry, running to several pages.

4. Albums of photographs.

With the minimum amount of information about the criminal, compiled by a police force, possibly using the photographs supplied by prison authorities as part of the criminal register entries, or from photographs taken by the police force itself of each prisoner at the time of arrest or release under police supervision.

5. Registers of juvenile offenders compiled by a police force.

Mainly records of juveniles sentenced to punishment by whipping, especially after the Children’s Act 1908, often with a note of the financial costs of carrying out the sentence, such as the fees paid to the medical officer in attendance.

6. Printed notifications under the Licensing (Scotland) Act, 1903.

Details of a person convicted of three or more offences mentioned in the first schedule of the Inebriates Act, 1898, circulated to licensed premises and secretaries of clubs and police forces in counties etc.

Examples of the above records are held by several archives. Perth & Kinross Council Archive holds photographic and conviction records for Perthshire, Perthshire & Kinross-shire and Perth & Kinross constabularies for the periods 1875-1906 and 1915-1955. Glasgow City Archives hold four registers among the records of Strathclyde Police. Of these, two for Glasgow, covering 1910-33 (SR22/63/11-12) do not contain photographs, but two for Dunbartonshire, covering 1903-14 (SR22/77/8-9) do contain photographs. The National Records of Scotland hold several albums, including one for Greenock prison, 1872-1888 (HH12/56/7). Aberdeen City Archives hold two criminal registers compiled by Aberdeen City Police: the first covers prisoners liberated from Perth Prison, 1882-1884, and the second is a ‘register of returned convicts’, 1869-1938, containing notes on the whereabouts of released convicts, and includes photographs of prisoners between 1869 and 1897. Among the records of Dunbarton County Constabulary, held by Glasgow City Archives, are three notifications of prisoners with alcohol addiction under the Licensing (Scotland) Act, 1903 supplied to the Colquhoun Arms Hotel, Rhu (SR22/77/23).

Related Knowledge Base entries

Police station records

References

[1] Prevention of Crimes Act 1871 (34 & 35 Vict., c.112).

[2] Habitual Criminals Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 99)

Postal Directories

Postal directories are printed primary sources and not archival records in the true sense, since they are commercial publications rather than records produced by a bureaucracy. Nevertheless, postal directories are among the most frequently consulted items in archive search rooms in Scotland, both by archivists and researchers, and they make a very useful back-up to original records, such as valuation rolls, maps and census returns.

Advantages

Compared to valuation rolls, postal directories have certain advantages to the researcher. Firstly, they are compact: one volume covers a city or county, while the equivalent valuation roll might run to over a dozen volumes. They are arranged alphabetically, principally by personal name, but also, in the case of cities and large towns, by address. If there is a section in a postal directory arranged by street name, all of one street appears in same place, unlike in many valuation rolls, where a street may be divided between wards. Directories for towns and cities can give the researcher a good grasp of street intersections at a glance (i.e. at which point a street was intersected by another). Some directories have a section classified by trade, so that someone looking for the names of medical practitioners or blacksmiths or some other profession or type of business in a place, can find a list of these. Some have useful appendices, such as lists of schools and other educational establishments, charitable institutions, and other organizations. For business historians and genealogists many directories are useful because they often provide both a business and home address for businessmen and industrialists

Disadvantages

There are disadvantages to directories, or, rather, things to bear in mind when using them. Firstly, they are principally a form of commercial advertising. Not every household or building is listed in a directory, and certainly much fewer than in valuation rolls. Directories do not provide information as to who owns the building. They are not as reliably updated as valuation rolls each year. In general, directories should be used with caution, and bear in mind that any directory was a commercially produced form of advertising, and the names and addresses within it are principally those of individuals or businesses who have paid for an entry.

Contributors: Robin Urquhart (SCAN, 2002)

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Postal-directories

Why might someone go on appearing in a Postal Directory after they have moved from a property, or even after they have died?

Information within postal directories was either paid for by subscribers or collected by employees of the publisher who produced the directory. It is possible that someone may have paid for several years’ entries in a directory and died before the publication date. Alternatively, information about the inhabitants of a building may not have been updated promptly by the publisher.

Why might a property not be listed in a Post Office Directory?

In many cases because the owner or resident of the property did not subscribe to the directory. Another possibility is that the property is known by two addresses (e.g. occupies a corner site with an entrance at each street, and the directory only includes one of the addresses).

Why might there be only one or two persons listed at a tenement property (which should have had 6 or more households)?

Usually because the tenement had commercial properties (e.g. shops, store-rooms or workshops) on the ground floor, and it is the proprietors of these businesses who paid to be included in the directory.

Poor Relief records

The survival of records at a parish level relating to poor relief is complicated by the overlapping responsibilities of kirk sessions, heritors and (after 1845) parochial boards. The most likely source of information at parish level is the records of kirk sessions, but heritors minutes should be consulted too. Parochial Board records sometimes include pre-1845 material, which began life as heritors’ or kirk session records. Examples are minute books (of the heritors or of a heritors’ committee on the management of the poors fund), poor rolls, registers of poor persons, and accounts. Anyone researching poor relief (and other parochial matters) is strongly advised to look at the catalogues to the records of all three of these bodies (kirk sessions, heritors, and parochial boards) for any given parish.

Before 1845, under the old poor law, many parishes did not keep formal poor records. Kirk session minutes and heritors’ minutes generally contain references to collections for the poor and to disbursements which might mention the names of individuals. If financial accounts survive, these are more likely to show the names of individual recipients of support. Where registers were kept, it was often the practice to have two rolls, a ‘permanent roll’ for paupers who were expected to be chargeable for the remainder of their lives, and a roll of ‘occasional poor’ for the others.

In this period the classes of record which are mainly used by researchers are:

Kirk session records

Heritors’ records

Parliamentary Papers after 1707

The Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845 established parochial boards in rural parishes and in the towns, and a central Board of Supervision in Edinburgh. The forms of records created by the new poor law were closely controlled by the Board of Supervision which had direct oversight, both of the local inspectors of poor and of poorhouse governors. At least some types of record were printed in Edinburgh as volumes of blank forms, to the Board’s specifications. Not all the local boards used these forms, but even if they did not, their records were required to include the same information. The main record types (other than the minutes of the board and its committees) were those kept by the inspectors, in particular the Registers of Poor and the Record of Applications for Relief.

The records which are mainly used by researchers in the period 1845 to 1930 are:

Parochial Board and Parish Council minute books

Registers of Poor

General Registers of Poor

Children’s Separate Registers

Applications for Relief

Miscellaneous records of inspectors of poor

Scottish poorhouse records

Board of Supervision and Local Government Board Records

Parliamentary papers after 1707

Those with a special interest in the form of the post 1845 records are referred to the records themselves and also to the Annual Reports of the Board of Supervision. The Appendix to the Fifth Report (1851) lists the record series to be kept by poorhouses, and the Appendices to the Tenth and Twentieth Reports (1855 and 1865) list the records to be kept by inspectors, with illustrations of the formats of the most important series.

Not all the records referred to are available for public access and in particular those containing personal information about living individuals will be subject to data protection restrictions. From the 1920s it was common practice for parish councils and public assistance committees in urban areas to anonymise cases in the minutes by giving them a number. If the cross indexes to these numbers have not survived it is not possible to identify the people discussed.

Kirk session records are held either in the National Records of Scotland (NRS) or in local authority archives services (under charge and superintendence). Heritors’ records are usually held in NRS. Post-1845 poor law records are generally kept in local authority archives services but their survival is patchy. The registers of poor for Dundee after 1845, for example, were all destroyed by an administrator and only the poorhouse records survive. By contrast, significant sets of records for Glasgow and Govan parishes survive, held by Glasgow City Archives.

Other Knowledge Base entries on poor relief

Poor law 1579-1845

Poor law 1845-1948

Scottish Poorhouses

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Poor relief records

Where can I find parochial board, parish council and poor relief records for a parish?

The records of most parochial boards and parish councils have passed to local authorities in Scotland. Many are now held by local authority archives, some are with local authority library services and a few are with the National Records of Scotland. In some areas (e.g. Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Dumfriesshire) the survival rate is very good. In other areas (e.g. Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire) very little survives. In general, very little survives for the parochial boards of the major cities, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, except Glasgow, where huge runs of application registers survive for Glasgow City, Barony and Govan parishes (held by Glasgow City Archives). The National Records of Scotland hold parochial board and parish council records for some parishes in East Lothian (CO7/7, DC4/4-12, DC5/4-5, DC7/4), Midlothian (CO2/77-91), and Wigtownshire (CO4/30-47). For parochial board and parish council records for other parishes you should contact the appropriate local authority archive, in the first instance.

The responsibilities of heritors, kirk sessions and parochial boards overlapped to some extent, and this is reflected in the surviving records of many parishes. Some heritors’ records survive among kirk session records and vice versa. For example some kirk session minute books contain minutes of heritors’ meetings, and the minute books of some parochial boards predate 1845, and begin as the minute book of heritors’ meetings before becoming the minute book of the parochial boards. Many kirk sessions continued to provide for the poor out of church collections for several years after 1845. For example, the minutes of the kirk session of Greenlaw contain lists of poor who received contributions after communion services until 1881. The records of the heritors of Dirleton parish contain poor rolls from 1825 until 1847. For any given parish the researcher should check the catalogues to the kirk session, heritors’ and parochial board minutes.

Where can I find heritors’ records for a parish?

Heritors’ records are the responsibility of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland and heritors’ records for most parishes are held at the National Archives of Scotland. The responsibilities of heritors, kirk sessions and parochial boards overlapped to some extent, and this is reflected in the surviving records of many parishes. Some heritors’ records survive among kirk session records and vice versa. For example some kirk session minute books contain minutes of heritors’ meetings, and the minute books of some parochial boards predate 1845, and begin as the minute book of heritors’ meetings before becoming the minute book of the parochial boards. Many kirk sessions continued to provide for the poor out of church collections for several years after 1845. For example, the minutes of the kirk session of Greenlaw contain lists of poor who received contributions after communion services until 1881. The records of the heritors of Dirleton parish contain poor rolls from 1825 until 1847. For any given parish the researcher should check the catalogues to the kirk session, heritors’ and parochial board minutes.

Where can I find kirk session records for a parish?

Kirk session records are the responsibility of the Keeper of the Records of Scotland. The records of most kirk sessions are held at the National Archives of Scotland. However, some are then sent back (the National Archives use the term ‘retransmitted’) to local archives under what is known as ‘charge and superintendence’ (that is, they are kept by local archives under certain conditions). To find out whether the kirk session records for a parish survive, and whether they are held at the National Archives of Scotland or a local authority archive contact the National Archives of Scotland or the local archive concerned. The responsibilities of heritors, kirk sessions and parochial boards overlapped to some extent, and this is reflected in the surviving records of many parishes. Some heritors’ records survive among kirk session records and vice versa. For example some kirk session minute books contain minutes of heritors’ meetings, and the minute books of some parochial boards predate 1845, and begin as the minute book of heritors’ meetings before becoming the minute book of the parochial boards. Many kirk sessions continue to provide for the poor out of church collections for several years after 1845. For example, the minutes of the kirk session of Greenlaw contain lists of poor who received contributions after communion services until 1881. The records of the heritors of Dirleton parish contain poor rolls from 1825 until 1847. For any given parish the researcher should check the catalogues to the kirk session, heritors’ and parochial board minutes.

Why might the information in a register of the poor contradict information in other records?

There are several reasons why this may be so.

Where an individual was ill or elderly he or she might have been able to give only vague information to the Inspector of the Poor.

Some applicants gave false information in order to qualify for relief (for example someone born in Ardrossan parish but applying in Glasgow might state that he or she was born in Ireland, in order to obtain relief rather than being sent to Ardrossan or his or her application being referred to Ardrossan).

Clerical error might result in a place name being mis-spelt or located in the wrong parish or county.

I have seen the term ‘General Register of the Poor’ used. Does this refer to a central register of the poor, kept nationally for the whole of Scotland?

No, the term ‘general register of the poor’ refers to a type of poor relief register kept by individual parishes. In 1865 the Board of Supervision introduced new General Registers of Poor and Children’s Separate Registers. Where poor relief registers survive they generally are found among county council and civil parish records in local authority archives and libraries.

If poor relief registers do not survive for a parish, is it worthwhile looking in parochial board/parish council minutes for information on a pauper?

The amount of information in parochial board or parish council minutes relating to individual applicants varies from parish to parish. The minutes for some parishes, particularly rural parishes, contain a lot of information, including the residence of the applicant and their living conditions, the reason for application, reasons for the application being accepted or rejected, other members of the applicant’s family and their earnings, and other comments by the Inspector of the Poor. However, for many parishes the minutes include very little information on each applicant, often containing the name and the decision of the board or council and little else. After the 1920s the minute entries may be anonymised by referring to case numbers and not to surnames. In addition, remember that searching through minute books can be very time-consuming.

Poor Relief – Poorhouse records

The Board of Supervision issued detailed regulations for the records to be kept by poorhouse governors. They included a register of inmates with details, including the religious persuasion of each, a journal, which was an official log book or office diary, and a report book of offences against the rules of the poorhouse and punishments imposed. For many poorhouses all that survive are minute books of the managing committee or board, and these usually survive among county council or civil parish records held by local authority archives.

Substantial records survive for a few poorhouses, most notably those for Kyle Union poorhouse in Ayr, whose records (held by Ayrshire Archives) contain registers of inmates, financial records, punishment books, and plans. Most poorhouse records are held by local authority archives services. Where a poorhouse became a hospital, records (including registers of inmates) may survive among the records of the hospital concerned, held by the appropriate health board archive.

The National Records of Scotland hold sets of architectural plans for 40 Scottish poorhouses in the RHP plans series. Most are in large portfolios, which makes handling awkward, and photocopying impossible. Typically, these portfolios include plans, sections and elevations of a new poorhouse, along with drawings for later additions and alterations, ranging from the mid-19th century to the 1920s. The records of the Home and Health Department (HH), in the National Records of Scotland, contain the minute books and other records of the Board of Supervision and the Local Government Board for Scotland, which supervised civil parishes in Scotland. These include annual reports and financial accounts of poorhouse committees.

Poorhouse records, where they survive, are used by a variety of researchers, including school and university students and teachers looking at the treatment of the poor and the history of medical provision (since poorhouses operated hospital wards). Poorhouse admission registers are not, in general, very useful to family historians, since they contain few personal details of each inmate, apart from age and date of admission(s) and departure(s). However, they may refer to the parochial board or parish council to which the pauper applied, in turn leading the researcher to the appropriate register of applications or general register of the poor. They also may contain details of diet and the cost of food.

Records which contain personal information about living individuals will be closed to the general public under data protection laws. Individuals have a right to access information about themselves.

Poor relief – poor registers (1845-1865)

Each civil parish had a poor roll, revised annually and available for public inspection. Paupers could only be admitted to the roll by order of the parochial board. The registers of poor, normally bound volumes of printed forms, contained the basic information about applicants admitted to the poor roll in this way. For each individual the register gives the name, address, marital status, age, birthplace, occupation, whether disabled and if so how, financial circumstances, and a record of the decision by the parochial board as to how the case was to be dealt with.

Poor relief – Inspectors of poor records

The inspectors were responsible for all paupers in their parish, whether or not they were entitled to relief there. If an inspector believed that a pauper’s settlement was elsewhere, he would write to his counterpart in that parish and invite him to admit liability. These were called ‘other parish claims’. Normally this would be agreed, but disputes and even litigation were always possible. The records of this process are recorded in registers of other parish claims, which may relate to claims by or against the parish, or possibly even both. The question of where a pauper had a settlement (and so a right to relief) was a purely legal one, to be settled by a sheriff, but the Board of Supervision might be referred to as a mediator, to prevent parishes from being involved in the costs of legal action. This was regarded as a last resort, but was quite common, and the resulting cases were often reported in the Poor Law Magazine, the professional journal for poor law inspectors, which is itself an important source for the poor law. Bound sets of the magazine occasionally survive among the records of a poor law authority.

Records of criminal prosecutions may also survive, mainly of absconding fathers, but sometimes also of various types of fraud.

Poor Relief – General Registers of Poor

In 1865 the Board of Supervision introduced new General Registers of Poor and Children’s Separate Registers. The main change in the General Registers was that all references to an individual pauper were to be placed on the same form. This would lead to forms which are sometimes almost short biographies of paupers, with details about occasional contacts with the system over a period of decades. They will also give the religious denomination of the pauper and the names, ages and earnings of a husband or children, possibly even of brothers or other relatives. Apart from the basic record, they may include details of medical treatment, or more exceptionally family correspondence, newscuttings or even photographs.

These registers were not much altered following their introduction with only one significant change in the early 1920s which came from the introduction of a separate system of relief to the able-bodied. This led to two separate series of registers, sometimes marked ‘Ordinary’ and ‘AB’ (for able-bodied). The registers lasted until the end of the poor law in 1948.

Not all of these registers have survived, due often to poor storage conditions or to a lack of understanding about their importance.

Records which contain personal information about living individuals will be closed to the general public under data protection laws. Individuals have a right to access information about themselves.

Poor Relief – Children’s Separate Registers

Children’s separate registers, introduced in 1865, were for children who had been separated from their parents, for example by being orphaned or deserted or, as increasingly often in the large towns, by being boarded out to rural areas. The information they contain is similar to the general registers: they give the name of the child, religious denomination and names of the parents if known, they may include details of medical treatment, or more exceptionally family correspondence, newscuttings or even photographs. These registers lasted longer than the parochial boards themselves, and indeed were not much altered until the end of the poor law in 1948.

Records which contain personal information about living individuals will be closed to the general public under data protection laws. Individuals have a right to access information about themselves.

Poor relief – central government records

Two series of Board of Supervision minute books survive in the National Records of Scotland: minute books (HH23) and the chairman’s minute books (HH24), covering the period 1845 -1894. The chairman’s minute books are essentially rough copies of the board’s minute book series, and do not appear to contain any additional information. Each meeting begins with a sederunt (a list of those present) and then records how different cases, usually poor relief appeals, were disposed of, but do not show why the decisions have been made or any discussion surrounding them. They also note any business being brought to the Board by separate parishes, usually in the form of a letter. They are clearly arranged with parish names being underlined and later cases of individual paupers being numbered and coming at the end of the minutes. This facilitates research, as they are not indexed.

In addition, the Board of Supervision records contain a series of minute books to meetings of the Committee on Lunatic Paupers, 1845-62 (HH27). This contains information regarding disputed assessments, reports on major issues affecting some poorhouses particularly with respect to illnesses and epidemics. The minutes of the committee on lunatic paupers contains slightly more information on individuals.

The Local Government Board minutes and other records, also held in the National Records of Scotland, (HH2 and HH10) include public health matters as well as poor law information.

The minute books of the Board of Supervision and the Local Government Board are most useful for social and administrative historians. They are of limited use to local historians, as they require lengthy research (there are no indexes). They are not detailed enough for the family historian but their completeness as a series of records gives a good overview of the poor relief system.