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The Scottish Historical Review
A collection of articles


  1. Life in a Country Manse about 1720
    Mr. James Laurie, the minister of Kirkmichael has noted down from the years 1711 to 1732 memoranda of his income and expenses, his bonds, his bills, drugs he used, wages he paid, crops he reaped, books he bought, bargains he made. For twenty frugal years this venerable little note-book served him, and after the lapse of 180 years it may also serve us; for it affords glimpses of the quaint quiet rural life of Scotland in the early part of the eighteenth century.
  2. Scottish Officers in Sweden
    An account of some of the Scots Officers who served in Sweden.
  3. The Scalacronica of Sir Thomas Gray
    In his account of the Norman Kings he reveals information not available elsewhere and from the point of view of a soldier. Written around 1355 this gives us a unique glimpse into that period.
  4. The Celtic Trews
    The costume consisted of a blouse with sleeves, confined in some cases by a belt, with trousers fitting close at the ankle, and a tartan plaid fastened up at the shoulder with a brooch.' This form of Celtic dress is of special interest to all who are connected with the Scottish Highlands.
  5. Scottish Industrial Undertakings before the Union
    Some interesting facts about the industrial and other undertakings around the 17th century.
  6. The Scottish Ancestors of President Roosevelt
    President Roosevelt, whose name is unmistakably of Dutch origin, has nevertheless a more decided ancestral connection with Scotland than with Holland.
  7. The Templars in Scotland in the Thirteenth Century
    Information from a Charter Deed from 1354 held in the General Registry House in Edinburgh.
  8. Scottish Students in Heidelberg, 1386-1662
    Lots of Scottish names in this article and amazing how far it goes back.
  9. The History of Divorce in Scotland
    Seems there were a lot more reasons accepted for a divorce settlement in Scotland.
  10. Scotsmen Serving the Swedes
    Quite an account of Scots who did great service for the Swedes.
  11. The Hospitallers in Scotland in the Fifteenth Century
    THE Knights of S. John of Jerusalem, and their brethren the Templars, were popular Orders in their early history, and as fighting forces of trained warriors their services during the Crusades and in support of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem are recognised as valuable, and would have been still more so but for the jealousy and frequent quarrels between them.
  12. Superstition in Scotland of Today
    Probably few of those who year by year visit the northern counties of Scotland have any notion of the fairy lore and superstitions which, notwithstanding our modern wholesale education, are still cherished and believed in by the natives. The isolation of the crofter communities and the mystic temperament of the Celt are probably the chief contributory causes for these survivals elsewhere relegated to the limbo of forgotten things, and as every year, with the spread of education from one source or another, they will become less vigorous, it seems desirable to place on record the following instances which have come under observation within recent years.
  13. Notes on Swedo-Scottish Families
    THE editor is indebted to Mr. John S. Samuel for these biographical and historical Notes of Scotsmen in Sweden. They were prepared by Herr Eric E. Etzcl, D.Ph., Upsala, partly from information in Anrep.: Svenska Adelns Aettartaflor, and partly from researches in the private archives of members of the Swedish nobility, who trace their descent from Scotsmen who migrated to Sweden, for the most part during the Thirty Years' War. That prolonged struggle attracted a large number of Scottish soldiers of fortune, who at its close settled in Sweden, and afterwards made for themselves a name in its military and industrial annals.
  14. Helenore, or The Fortunate Shepherdess
    THIS manuscript volume is, so far as I know, the only copy in existence in Alexander Ross's autograph of one of the finest Pastorals in the Scottish vernacular—a poem which, in the counties of Forfar, Kincardine, Aberdeen, and so along to Inverness, easily holds in public estimation a place equal, if not superior, to that held by Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd in the Lothians and other lowland counties of Scotland. In one respect it is undoubtedly superior—as a genuine and faithful record of the habits, customs and common speech of the locality and period the poet professes to describe.
  15. John Bruce, Historiographer 1745-1826
    Mr. Bruce's intellectual powers were of the very highest order. He was equally distinguished as an accurate historian and an elegant scholar. The extent, the variety, and the correctness of his general information was astonishing.... In the more vigorous period of his life he was eminently distinguished by that qualification which is so rarely to be met with, in which great knowledge is combined with a shrewdness and pleasing urbanity of manners which rendered his communications agreeable to everyone. His conversational powers were captivating in the extreme, and his sallies of innocent humour and flashes of wit were irresistibly entertaining.
  16. Scots in Poland
    This article gives many Scottish names in Poland.
  17. A List of Persons Attainted after the '45
    Mr. James Stillie, bookseller, George Street, Edinburgh, had discovered amongst his papers a rare, if not unique, copy of the official list of men attainted for their share in the rising of 1745.
  18. Lord Elgin in Canada. 1847-1854
    Of such too readily forgotten statesmen, the eighth earl of Elgin and Kincardine is one of the foremost. He dominated Canada during seven critical years in the most critical period of Canadian history—1841-1867; but since his work was not that of war but only of its prevention, and of the creation of Canadian self-government, he has been relegated to the background of history, to make room for more romantic figures. It is time to restore him to his rightful place of pre-eminence.
  19. A forgotten Scottish Scholar of the Sixteenth Century
    A French historian, M. Ferdinand Buisson, well known for his services to primary education in France, has given a picture of Wilson and his surroundings which puts it beyond doubt that he was one of whom his country had reason to be proud.
  20. The Castle Campbell Inventory
    An Inventory of Archibald, 7th Earl of Argyll's Castle of Campbell (formerly called Castle Gloume), in the Shire of Clackmannan, taken on 21 February, 1595. Transcribed from the original, preserved in the Argyll Charter Chest.
  21. Four Representative Documents of Scottish History
    Life of St Columba by Adamnan, Life of St. Margaret, Book of Discipline, Autobiography of Dr Alexander Carlyle Minister of Inveresk.
  22. Intellectual Influences of Scotland on the Continent
    It is a natural question to ask—has Scotland, on her part, exercised any perceptible influence on the sister nations of the Christian group?
  23. Narrative of a Journey from Edinburgh to Dresden in 1814
    William Anderson journey from Edinburgh to Dresden and back in 1814, on which he travelled as quickly as he could, partly post, partly by Diligence, and faster than the mail, occupied fifty-nine days, of which, however, in consequence of enforced delays, only thirty-six were spent in actual travelling, when his progress was at the average rate of eighty-eight miles a day.
  24. Sir David Lindsay: 1490-1555
    THERE was a time, not so long ago, when Lindsay's name was familiar and honoured among the people of his native land, and when, as Dr. James Taylor says, his writings were to be found in almost every cottage north of the Tweed. In his Scottish History and Literature, Dr. John M. Ross testifies to the piety with which Scotland remembered her old "makar." During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries upwards of twenty editions of his works were published. His verses were on almost every tongue. Until Burns appeared he was in fact the poet of the Scottish people.
  25. A Scottish Charter-Chest
    SIR JAMES RAMSAY has laid historical students under another and an unexpected obligation by publishing to the world the large series of deeds and other documents connected with his own estates in Forfarshire and Perthshire, from the early part of the thirteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century. Apart from their value to the family in possession, the contents of a charter-chest have always more or less of general interest. They often throw curious light on the domestic life of bygone generations, and thus supply fresh data to the historian.
  26. A Biographical Sketch of General Robert Melville of Strathkinness
    GENERAL ROBERT MELVILLE was descended from the Melvilles of Carnbee, in the county of Fife, in Scotland, a branch of the antient and noble family of the same name, of which the chief is the Earl of Leven and Melville. The ancestor of the family is held to have been the first Norman who passed into Scotland. He was a person of distinction of Normandy, named De Malville or De Melville, who accompanied William the Conqueror into England, in the autumn of 1066. Meeting, however, with some cause of disgust from William, he, before the close of that year, secretly withdrew to the court of Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland.
  27. The Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons (now the Scots Greys)
    Amongst a number of papers which lately came into the possession of Colonel F. J. Agnew Wallace, late of the Scots Greys, a collection of letters written in the years immediately before the Union by Lord John Hay, Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons (now the Scots Greys), came to light, and I am indebted to Colonel Wallace for permission to publish a selection of extracts from them.
  28. Alexander Farquharson of Brouchdearg and his Farquharson Genealogies
    The 'Genealogy of the Name of Farquharson ' down to the year 1733, by Alexander Farquharson of Brouchdearg—commonly known as the Brouch-dearg MS.—in which the writer traces the descent of practically all the members of his clan in his time, scattered though they were through four counties, with a completeness and accuracy which leave little to be desired, and with a modesty and frankness not always observable in such performances.
  29. The Revolution Government in the Highlands
    AN unfortunate prominence has been given to the massacre » of Glencoe, which, however discreditable to its authors, was an isolated event, and cannot be regarded as a real indication of a settled policy. The interest taken in it has only tended to distract attention from the more important question of the way in which the problem of Highland government was regarded by the Revolution statesmen, and of how they attempted to deal with it.
  30. Mr. Hutcheson's 'Journal,' 1783
    Mr. Charles Hutcheson, a young man (aged 21) of some spirit and intelligence, with a taste for good literature and a device of a sentimental journey engaging his holiday mind, has been able to set down some part of the truth about the life of himself and his friends, and may be thanked for another instalment of his travels to Arran.
  31. Journal to Arran in [Buteshire] Argyle-Shire
    A continuation of the previous article.
  32. Peasant Life in Argyllshire in the End of the Eighteenth Century
    I was born in the year 1774 at Barichreil, a small village of Nether Lorn. My father was a descendant of that McCallum of Colagin, the sight of whom, as he entered Kilbride Church one Sunday, followed by his twelve sons in order of their age, provoked the Lady of Dunollie to exclaim:  A third of Albyn were none too much for McCallum of Colagin!
  33. John of Swinton: A Border Fighter of the Middle Ages
    Close on five hundred and fifty years ago, on 22nd February, 1370-71, died David the Second. The male line of Bruce failed, the Stewarts succeeded, and Froissart tells us that a truce was established between England and Scotland with a provision that the Scots might arm and hire themselves out like to others for subsidies, taking which side they pleased, either English or French. Of this provision John of Swinton availed himself, and rode south to make his name and fortune.
  34. The Highland Emigration of 1770
    It is worth while to analyse the nature and the causes of the first great exodus from the Highlands, an exodus which reached its highest point of activity in the early seventies of the eighteenth century.
  35. The Causes of the Highland Emigrations of 1783-1803
    THE first great period of Highland emigration ended in 1775 with the outbreak of the American War of Independence. Then followed a perceptible pause, not broken until- the Treaty of Versailles, which formed the starting-point of a fresh movement.
  36. Eighteenth Century Highland Landlords and the Poverty Problem
    During the latter part of the eighteenth century the inhabitants of many parts of the Highlands and Hebrides were living permanently in a state that bordered upon destitution. They were badly housed, they were poorly fed, and they had a continual struggle to pay their rents.
  37. Eighteenth Century Highland Landlords and the Poverty Problem
    This is part 2 of the above article.
  38. The Western Highlands in the Eighteenth Century
    IN the muniment room at Dunvegan, the seat of MacLeod of MacLeod in Skye, are preserved a great number of documents which throw much light on the conditions prevailing in the Highlands during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
  39. Aesculapius in Fife: a Study of the Early Eighteenth Century
    AMONG the many records of Scottish domestic accounts during the seventeenth century which have been published there are few which make any reference at all to expenditure on medical attendance, though, as the papers dealt with in here clearly show, the doctor's bill must have formed an appreciable item in the annual budget of the family man.
  40. Rent-Rolls of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in Scotland
    IN the years 1828-29-30 the late James Maidment, Advocate, Edinburgh, published in very limited editions copies of certain papers which had come into his hands relating to the history, privileges and possessions of the Knights-Templars in Scotland and their successors the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. These pamphlets, five in number issued in paper covers, are now rare. To one of them entitled Abstract of the Charters and other papers recorded in the Chartulary of Torphichen from 1581 to 1596 is prefixed an introductory notice wherein the loss, or supposed loss, of the greater part of the Chartulary is deplored.
  41. Sir Archibald Lawrie's Charter Collections
    BORN at 48 West Nile Street, Glasgow, 8th September, 1837, oldest child of Professor James Adair Lawrie, M.D., and of Janet Finlay of The Moss, the future Sir Archibald Campbell Lawrie was fated to win high distinction as an advocate, judge and historical scholar.
  42. St. Helena in 1817
    THE following account of a short visit to St. Helena is extracted from a MS. diary which was purchased at the recent sale of the Ardpatrick Library.
  43. The Scots in Ulster
    A close connection has existed for nearly a thousand years between the west of Scotland and the north of Ireland, and a stream of migration has for eight hundred years flown as strongly from east to west as from west to east.
  44. Medical Folk-Lore in the Highlands of Scotland
    The writer, Dr. Fortescue Fox, Strathpeffer Spa, and the Editor of The Lancet, have most kindly permitted us to reprint the following paper, which we arc sure will prove most interesting to many of our readers.
  45. Use of Shortbread at the Communion
    At a meeting of Dumfries and Galloway Antiquarian Society on Thursday evening an interesting discussion took place regarding the use of shortbread at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, which appears at one time to have been universal throughout the south-west of Scotland.
  46. Various Forms of Scottish Surnames
    Surnames sit easy on Scotsmen. They are changed or undergo variation in a way that is confusing to the genealogist and interesting to the antiquary.
  47. Examination for Lord's Supper 1591
    The first volume of the Registers of Stirling ends with an entry made March 1591, after which is written the table of forbidden degrees, and then an interesting form of 'examination for the Lord's Supper.'
  48. Orkney Folklore
    Sea Myths
  49. A Scottish Song
    The Land o' the Thistle and the Brose
  50. Tartan in Family Portraits
    On page 48 of the June number, the editor comments on the illustration of the arms of Skene of that Ilk in Alexander Nisbet's Heraldic Plates recently published. A reproduction of the supporters of these arms is here given as being of interest to antiquaries. The date of registration of the arms is about 1672.
  51. Ogilvies in Austria
    I have often heard from competent and well-read persons that some time after what is called the Reformation a great body of Ogilvies emigrated en masse to the shores of the Baltic, and settled in Poland, principally in the province of Podlachia. This they are said to have done to enjoy the free exercise of their religion.
  52. Skean Dubh
    An old Skean Dubh belonging to the first Lord Campbell of Lochaw.
  53. Cant Family
    Inquiries have been made about the Scottish family of Cant in connection with the parentage of Hans or John Cant or Kant of Memel, who was grandfather of the philosopher Immanuel Kant and was (as slated by Immanuel) a Scotsman. The name occurs in Scottish records of the fifteenth century as connected with Edinburgh and Dunfermline.
  54. Communion Tokens
    During the past few years a great deal of interest has been taken in the old Communion Tokens used in various Scotch churches.

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