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Three interesting
articles extracted from the Scottish Historical Review.
The Scottish Parliament,
1560-1707
PROFESSOR TERRY in his recent treatise has ably elucidated the form and
working of the Scottish Parliament during the last century of its
existence, and has traced the rise in earlier times of its burgh and
shire members. He confines himself, however, to constitutional
developments as they appear in the records, and does not include in his
survey the external causes to which these effects were due. In this
paper I propose to view the subject from without rather than from
within, and to sketch in outline the action of political and
ecclesiastical forces in moulding Parliament from the Reformation to the
Union.
Glimpses of old Scots
Parish Life
A PERUSAL of the eighteenth century books of the Kirksession of Montrose
raises a broad question of the value of such records in the story of
Scots life and character. They hold nothing that enters into the
national ideal; to look into them for exemplary martyrs to virtue and
duty were idle; they are devoted to the sinful, and ignore the saintly.
They are, in fact, chiefly concerned with the shadows that lend variety
to parish life as reflected in the laws and usages of the Kirk.
Bishop Norie’s Dundee
Baptismal Register, 1722-26
IN December, 1904, when the library which had belonged to the Grahams of
Duntrune was being arranged for sale, a MS. was found inserted loosely
within a Note-book bearing the name of James Graham, dated 22nd May,
1666, and used first in that year for Memoranda as to the purchase and
sale of yarn and cloth; afterwards, in 1675, as a record of sheep
delivered to David Newall, shepherd in Claverhouse ; and finally as the
Family Register of David Graham of Duntrune (fifth Viscount Dundee, but
for the attainder), and of his children and grandchildren, the dates
being brought up in different hand-writings till 1824. The MS. within
the Note-book is written on 84 pp. measuring g inches by 4 inches, and
is a holograph record of baptisms in Dundee by Robert Norie (afterwards
Bishop Norie), covering the period from 21st June, 1722, till 8th
October, 1726. This Record is important in various ways. It supplies
genealogical particulars as to Forfarshire families which are not to be
found elsewhere; and it also shows that the adherents to Episcopacy were
more numerous in Dundee and its vicinity than one might imagine from the
Presbyterian histories of the time. Notes as to the leading families
might have been supplied, but it has been deemed advisable to print only
the text of the Register. Among the families represented either as
parents or sponsors are the following: Kid of Craigie, Kinloch of that
Ilk, Fothringham of Bandean, Hay of Murie, Crawford of Monorgan, Graham
of Duntrune, Baron Gray of Gray, Balfour of Forret, Brown of West-Horn,
Greenhills of Banchrie, Ogilvy of Newhall, Crichton of Crunan, Ogilvy of
Emplehall, Kinloch of Kibis. Clayhills of Invergowrie, Wedderburn of
Blackness, Forrester of Millhill, and Graham of Fintrie. The MS. is in
the possession of Mrs. Ida Clementina Graham-Wigan, of Duntrune, with
whose consent it has now been printed.
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