Register of Marriages in Castleton Parish

It was an autumnal Sunday; the 15th September.

The 258th day, of the 37th week, of 1771.

At the bottom of the page was a faintly scrawled, Finis. It was the end for 23,712 days. Not until William Boag was married to Margaret Elliot, the eldest surviving daughter of Thomas Elliot, farmer, in Kirndean, Castleton, on the 17th August 1836, by the Rev. Angus Barton was the “Register of Marriages in Castleton Parish” reinstated.

What happened that Sunday, in 1771, to the keeper of the Castleton marriage register: did he die, or walk away from his job on some principle, or are the subsequent registers simply lost ?

It wasn’t from the lack of local ministers, in fact on the last page of 1771 entries, there are not one but two marriages for Castleton ministers, the Rev Robert Rutherford and the infamous Rev W James Fletcher.

At this point I have to declare my interest, my grandmother was Hannah Jane Murray Elliot who herself was married in Newcastleton in 1913 and both her parents were Elliot also married in the village so the missing marriages are a real blight on genealogy research. For many years Thomas Elliot my great, great maternal grandfather living at 14 South Hermitage Street was the local grocer.

Looking at dates and churches and ministers in Castleton between 1771 and 1836 for some reason why all these years marriages are missing I haven’t been able to come up with anything and it would be worth reading all the session records to see if any clues lie there. The villagers were certainly very active in church life, particularly the Secessionists who broke away and formed their own churches and the furore over the Rev James Fletcher who resigned over an accusation which amounted to heresy. In addition Henry Scott, the 3rd Duke of Buccleuch, moved the villagers to a new site in 1793, probably because where they were in the old village of Castleton was better for his sheep rather than “to found a hand loom weaving centre” but the facts of the move seem to be rather censored.

A thriving church community; villagers deeply interested in the affairs of a number of churches, particularly for the size of the village. It’s hard to believe that marriage records weren’t kept from 1772-1835. I’m sure they were simply mislaid when one of the numerous church moves were made.

The recommencement of entries in 1836 could be easier explained as the “Act for Marriages in England 1836” came into being. This legalised the concept of civil marriage into England & Wales from 1st January 1837. So this may have precipitated the restart although Newcastleton is in Scotland it’s on the border. Since the Marriage Act 1753, the only legally recognised marriages in England & Wales (with the exception of Jews & Quakers) were those performed in a parish church by a clergyman of the Church of England. This meant that Roman Catholics and members of other dissenting congregations, as also atheists, Muslims, Hindus or members of any other religious body, had to be married according to (the Anglican) rites and ceremonies which they did not support.

 So I make a plea to the local Border historians get this matter better known and get everybody to search the old lofts and churches and likely places. If they can come up with a lost Michelangelo anything is possible.

This is a guest blog by Strath Stewart to celebrate Everybody Writes Day.

Langholm Archive Group and Poor Houses

Langholm Archive Group was mentioned on a RootsChat forum  today, and
that reminded me that I was intending to look at their website.
I've seen some of their publications, and we have some in our archive.
I've found The Ewes Valley (see our review), Memorials of Westerkirk Churchyard, Memorials of Watcarrick and Esdalemuir Churchyards, Memorials of Langholm Parish to be really excellent publications and I recommend them.

Their website is a very useful resource, and includes a newspaper archive (for the Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser) and a photo archive.

So searching for "poor", it's interesting to see in the newspaper index that there were reports between 1850 and 1854 of notices of meetings and elections to Parochial Board, a respectable married woman (no children) was wanted to care for persons admitted to Casual Sick Poor House, numbers of poor in Langholm area and expenditure, appointments of Inspector of Poor and Collector of Poors' Rate also Registrar of births, deaths and marriages; the death of the teacher on 6th October 1858 at the age of 52, Mr George J Todd, who was also Inspector of the Poor, session clerk and Registrar.
There are photos of Mr Todd and his school in their photo archive.

There are several references to Casual Sick Poor Houses.

The Eskdale & Liddesdale Advertiser have an article about a new  Casual Sick Poor House in Langholm.

Nearby Newcastleton had a Casual Sick House, too.

Searching for "poor" in the photo archive, yields photos of two other Poor officers, James Morrison, 1896 to 1930, and Archie Oliver, 1931.

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Border Clans Day, Langholm

We had a stall at the Border Clans Day, at the Buccleuch Centre, Langholm on Sunday, 6th September 2009.

The Armstrong, Elliot, Johnston and Moffat clans were all present, and Lady Fiona Armstrong came round and talked to us.

As well as ourselves, Dumfries and Galloway FHS were there, as was Dumfries and Galloway Council Archives, Cumbria Council Archives, and Liddesdale Heritage Centre. There was an ITV Border News team as well.

We don't often attend events outside our area, the 4 Border counties (Berwickshire, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire) of Scotland, however, many people who lived in these counties, also lived, worked, or married someone in the adjacent Scottish county of Dumfriesshire, or in the adjacent English counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, so attending these events, is a way of making the Society known to people who would not normally see us, and it was interesting to meet new people.

I had several discussions with American and Canadian Armstrongs who had come for Homecoming 2009, and stayed on a bit, all of them just beginning their family history.

Another discussion was with Frank Rutherford of Liddesdale Heritage Centre about Newcastleton, which is in Liddesdale. Newcastleton is about 10 miles from Langholm and the road that joins the two is very scenic. Frank thinks that the Casual Sick House probably was used temporarily to house paupers.

We showed various people our new Borders Poor Law Records publications, Jedburgh Parish (1852-1874) and Jedburgh Parish (1875-1893), and were heartened by their praise and by the number of sales we made.

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Where are the Newcastleton Poor Registers ?

Back in February 2009, one of the Poor Law Records volunteers told me that
she would really like to transcribe the Castleton parish Poor Law Records,
as she had many family members who might be in those records.
The parishes for which records have been digitised are Bowden, Broughton,
Drumelzier, Eckford, Eddleston, Eyemouth, Glenholm, Hounam, Kilbucho,
Jedburgh, Kelso, Lilliesleaf, Linton, Makerstoun, Manor, Maxton, Morebattle,
Oxnam, Peebles, Skirling, Smailholm, St Boswells, Stichill, Stobo, Traquair,
Tweedsmuir, Yetholm; and Castleton is missing.
When I next went to Hawick Heritage Hub I discovered that the only records
they had relating to Castleton and the Parochial Board was the McKinley Fund
minute book which contained only a few summary minutes and was not relevant.
I wondered where the Poor Law records were and whether they have been lost,
are in another archive, or even in somebody's attic.
The ministry began in 1574 with Martin Elliot, the rector, parson and vicar.
Initially the session was within the jurisdiction of Langholm Presbytery,
and the synod of Dumfries. On 9 December 1604, the session united with
Wheelkirk, Ettleton and Belkirk. By the early twentieth century the session
was within the jurisdiction of Hawick Presbytery, so I thought that if the
records were not in the Scottish Borders Archives, they might have been in
Langholm, and found their way into Dumfries and Galloway Archives.
Alas, that hope was soon dashed, and another idea that they might be lurking
in Newcastleton Heritage Centre was also in vain.
The poor registers aren't listed in the National Archives catalogue, either.
This is clearly something that needs more investigation.
My colleague, Davina Smart, discovered in the Valuation Roll for
Roxburghshire, from Whitsunday 1924 to Whitsunday 1925, the following
information:
Casual Sick House, South Hermitage Street, Castleton; Proprietor Parish
Council of Langholm; Inhabitant Occupier: Lancelot Graham, Caretaker.
She thought this might be the poorhouse, and it is next to the church
building now used as the heritage centre.
This isn't as unlikely as it might seem.
Most poor houses (officially all) closed by 1930, but some a great deal
earlier; Jedburgh poor house was closed in 1921, but the Shelter was used for
vagrants until 1930. There was some discussion about using it for the casual
sick, or as an overflow for Jedburgh Cottage Hospital.
In Linton, a building attached to the poor house was built as a pauper
hospital for the casual sick in 1857, and was still in use in 1916.
By 1952 it had become a wash house for the school which had taken over the
poor house.
However, although Castleton was sending its paupers to Jedburgh poor house by
1884, it's not impossible for the Casual Sick House to have been the
poor house initially.

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