Thank you for the information, James. I have your book and use it, but still need to keep referring to it for information that has not registered in my mind. I had not realised before reading the session minutes, that there were legal requirements for registration, and now understand that these went back for centuries, although apparently they were a toothless tiger for impoverished families, as most of mine would have been! The sanction from the session would, I suspect, have been much more powerful. I had also recognised the impact of the various dissenting and schismatic groups within the church, and have been attempting to get a grasp of the scale of this. Some of the figures of the breakaway numbers are mind-boggling, when one considers the impact on a parish based society. I had assumed that fees were levied by the minister for conducting the ceremony and by the session clerk for recording it. The beadle is a new one on me. I have come across the office in Dickens etc., but not in Scotland. I have now looked up the definition but do not recall any reference to the office in any session minutes I have read so far. Oh for those missing records. Robert Slater

I think beadles were common in Scotland. I don't see why they wouldn't be. That is, I have *at least* one among my Orcadian ancestors (or ancestral collateral cousins). This was Samuel FLAWS, spouse of Helen BUDGE, of South Ronaldsay.