Am now going through all the pages I photographed while in Kirkwall and beginning to make notes on their content. My main parish of interest is Orphir. I found the Library has Kirk Sessions for just over 100 years beginning 1709 ! I'm seeing some phrases that I don't understand at all. These Kirk Sessions notes also included disbursements to the parish poor which were each named sometimes with hardship notations. Deposits were also recorded as were loans from the Donation Box which had to be repaid at a later date. Marriage money is noted by who gave the money [cautioner] and who it was for. Uses of the Mortcloth were noted, but I can't be sure if the name given was the name of the deceased or the name of the person paying for the rental. Other notes are for payments to persons doing repairs to the church or grounds and 'mowing' of the churchyard. How might mowing be accomplished back then ? A sickle or scythe ? One particular mortcloth was written in the Dec 29, 1765 minutes as being - rental of Mortcloth to Thomas ISBISTER's wife. Did the wife die or was it her husband Thomas that died ? Occasionally there will be a deposit notation that someone made a donation equal to the price of a fleece of wool or the price of an unmarked lamb. Why such a notation and not just a deposit of X number of shillings ? I've seen new lambs in Orphir wearing their colors - a dye mark whick I suppose denotes ownership or perhaps it marks a male or female ? I'm guessing here. One specific incident in 1765 had to do with questioning a family for 'blasphemous' verbal accusations of Peter WILSON stealing George TAYLOR's 'teather'. At first I thought the word was 'teeth' ! Evidently the TAYLORs in Cutmillies cursed Peter WILSON in Hobbister as a Proven Thief, wished ill towards his wife, cow, calf and bairns, then prayed his peats would burn up ! Witnesses to the case were called up and their ages were given. One was Isobel GARIOK aged 30 & upwards. Another was James FERQUHARD aged 40 & upwards. If anyone knows what a 'teather' is, please let me know, as I live in cowboy country, the nearest image I can conjure up are like the reins to a horse which can be used as a tether to tie it to a post so it won't wander off while the rider is on an errand or partaking of a brewski. This is proving to be most interesting reading, and the original books were in amaing shape - digital photos are very clear. Seems the microfilmed parish books of the 1800s I have access to are much less readable than the originals in Kirkwall. Microfilming done in the 70s and 80s was good for the time which led me to think the originals must be in horrible shape by now, but they are in magnificent shape, it was the filming process at fault. Am working on adding these notations to my website run my Mike Clouston that contains the Free Church records for Orphir and a few other parishes. Will not be using the original wording, its much too long to wade through and the images I've taken of the pages are copyrighted. I am allowed to condense and paraphrase these notes and not cause problems with copyright issues. There are not very many Orphir researchers our there, but I hope to add to our growing databases available by slowly getting these done. Meg Greenwood / Oklahoma USA Also Posted to the ORKNEY-L Mailing List

Good work... really interesting. I wonder whether 'tether' is a generic term for the animal in question being tethered. In other words 'Peter Wilson stole George Taylor's tether (teather)' ... would mean he took the tether and the attached animal to boot !..... makes sense to my simple way of thinking. No doubt wiser Orkadian brains than mine with solve the missing the story. These are the sort of things that make interesting reading and an understanding of life in earlier days... Food for thought ..... The loan to the church by way of animals rather than shillings...... I wonder whether the church in good Scottish fashion was doing a bit of speculating. They had worked out that on average that by the time the loan was repaid the value would have increased. The animal would also have grown if young and they could sell at a time to suit themselves also with no charge for grazing.... ???? Thanks Clinton McInnes (NZ) On 3/08/2004, at 3:51 AM, Greenwood wrote: > Am now going through all the pages I photographed while in Kirkwall and > beginning to make notes on their content. My main parish of interest > is > Orphir. I found the Library has Kirk Sessions for just over 100 years > beginning 1709 ! I'm seeing some phrases that I don't understand at > all. > > These Kirk Sessions notes also included disbursements to the parish > poor > which were each named sometimes with hardship notations. Deposits were > also recorded as were loans from the Donation Box which had to be > repaid > at a later date. Marriage money is noted by who gave the money > [cautioner] and who it was for. Uses of the Mortcloth were noted, but > I > can't be sure if the name given was the name of the deceased or the > name > of the person paying for the rental. Other notes are for payments to > persons doing repairs to the church or grounds and 'mowing' of the > churchyard. How might mowing be accomplished back then ? A sickle or > scythe ? > > One particular mortcloth was written in the Dec 29, 1765 minutes as > being - rental of Mortcloth to Thomas ISBISTER's wife. Did the wife > die > or was it her husband Thomas that died ? > > Occasionally there will be a deposit notation that someone made a > donation equal to the price of a fleece of wool or the price of an > unmarked lamb. Why such a notation and not just a deposit of X number > of shillings ? I've seen new lambs in Orphir wearing their colors - a > dye mark whick I suppose denotes ownership or perhaps it marks a male > or > female ? I'm guessing here. > > One specific incident in 1765 had to do with questioning a family for > 'blasphemous' verbal accusations of Peter WILSON stealing George > TAYLOR's 'teather'. At first I thought the word was 'teeth' ! > Evidently the TAYLORs in Cutmillies cursed Peter WILSON in Hobbister as > a Proven Thief, wished ill towards his wife, cow, calf and bairns, then > prayed his peats would burn up ! Witnesses to the case were called up > and their ages were given. One was Isobel GARIOK aged 30 & upwards. > Another was James FERQUHARD aged 40 & upwards. > > If anyone knows what a 'teather' is, please let me know, as I live in > cowboy country, the nearest image I can conjure up are like the reins > to > a horse which can be used as a tether to tie it to a post so it won't > wander off while the rider is on an errand or partaking of a brewski. > > This is proving to be most interesting reading, and the original books > were in amaing shape - digital photos are very clear. Seems the > microfilmed parish books of the 1800s I have access to are much less > readable than the originals in Kirkwall. Microfilming done in the 70s > and 80s was good for the time which led me to think the originals must > be in horrible shape by now, but they are in magnificent shape, it was > the filming process at fault. > > Am working on adding these notations to my website run my Mike Clouston > that contains the Free Church records for Orphir and a few other > parishes. Will not be using the original wording, its much too long to > wade through and the images I've taken of the pages are copyrighted. > I > am allowed to condense and paraphrase these notes and not cause > problems > with copyright issues. > > There are not very many Orphir researchers our there, but I hope to add > to our growing databases available by slowly getting these done. > > Meg Greenwood / Oklahoma USA > Also Posted to the ORKNEY-L Mailing List > > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the > word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com > >