Tales from the Kirk Session The Kirk that Stole Christmas by Dr. Jean Barclay The Presbyterian Church of Scotland did not like Christmas and ensured that it was not celebrated in Scotland for some 400 years. The old winter festival of Yule had lasted 12 days and, Yule Day, as `Christmas Day`, continued to be recognised by the Catholic Church. After the Reformation of 1560, however, the founding fathers of the Church of Scotland had no time for `Christ’s mass` and other `popish` rites. In the Calvinistic First Book of Discipline, John Knox and others stated that any doctrine that `men by laws, councils or constitutions have imposed upon the consciences of men, without the express commandment of God’s word…and keeping of holy days of certain Saints commanded by men, such as be all those that the Papists have invented as the feasts (as they term them) of the Apostles, Martyrs, Virgins, of Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany, Purification and other fond feasts of our Lady, because in God’s Scriptures they neither have commandment nor assurance, we judge them utterly to be abolished from this Realm: and affirming farther that obstinate maintainers and teachers of such abominations ought not to escape the punishment of the civil Magistrates`. In 1573 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland confirmed the abolishment of `all days that hereto have been kept holy except the Sabbath day, such as Yule day, saints days and such others` and in 1583 it forbade…
James and Charles Stewart, Builders
James Stewart and Sons, Builders and Quarrymen Dunfermline’s Industrial Past by George Beattie Born in Falkland but brought up in Dunfermline, James Stewart served an apprenticeship as a stone-mason with a then noted country builder at Cowstrandburn, near Dunfermline. He was later employed by the Dunfermline firm of Messrs W & J Hutchison, stone masons and builders. In 1876 Messrs Hutchison were awarded the contract for building the new City Chambers in Dunfermline and James Stewart was the foreman stone-mason on this project which took almost three years to complete. The ornate and impressive stonework on this building is testimony to Mr Stewart’s ability and it is probably no surprise that he started in business on his own a short time after the City Chambers building was completed. It would appear that James Stewart was initially in partnership with one of the Hutchison family as there is a reference in one of the Trade Directories of the early 1880s to a building company of Stewart & Hutchison. If so, this partnership did not last long as the Dunfermline Trades Directory of 1890 indicates that Mr Stewart was then trading on his own account from premises in Burt Street, Dunfermline. He also had premises at Grantsbank (now Pilmuir Street) from an early period. It may be that the Grantsbank premises and the Foundry Street premises, mentioned in the above letter heading, were one and the same. In 1900, whilst still at Grantsbank, James Stewart was…
A Middle-Class Scandal – The Margaret Ker Story
In “The A Middle Class Scandal – the Margaret Ker Story”, the second of our Tales from the Kirk Session, Jean Barclay tells the story of a two year long series of hearings in which the Kirk tried to discover the truth about Margaret Ker’s illegitimate child.
Gardening in Victorian Dunfermline
by Sue Mowat In July 1854 the Fife Herald published a report on a Dunfermline horticultural show. Among its descriptions of the exhibits and the lists of prize-winners, the report commented that : The Dunfermline amateur florists are reputed all around this district as being superior in the cultivation of the many-tinted family of flora, and no less so in that of the vegetables and roots, early cabbages and carrots, as well as the pansies and dahlias. There is plenty of evidence from other contemporary sources that this was no idle boast. The Horticultural Societies By the mid-nineteenth century four horticultural societies flourished in the town, each of them holding at least two competitive shows every year. All the competitors were men and because much of the information in this article comes from newspaper reports of the Societies and their shows, it is inevitably heavily male-biased. Although this no doubt reflects to some extent the actual situation ‘on the ground’ there is no reason to suppose that women had no interest in gardening, although they probably confined themselves to flower cultivation. The cover of Mrs Loudon’s “Gardening for Ladies” published in 1834 shows a lady and her child wielding a rake and a hoe. However daintily they may be grasping the tools there can be no doubt that they intend to use them. The Ancient Society of Gardeners Although it was not particularly ancient, having been founded in 1716, this was the oldest of the four…
Profaning the Sabbath
In the first of our new series drawn from the Dunfermline Parish Records, “Tales from the Kirk Session“, Jean Barclay provides us with a detailed insight into how people lived in Dunfermline in the Seventeenth Century, and how the Church sought to stop them “Profaning the Sabbath”. By Dr. Jean Barclay The post-reformation Presbyterian church was governed by a hierarchy of ecclesiastical courts. In order of precedence these were the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the county synods, presbyteries for a group of parishes and kirk sessions of ministers and elders for a burgh and its hinterland. The kirk session took Sunday and church attendance seriously and punished those who neglected the commandment `remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy`. Church attendance on Sunday meant sitting through sermons in the morning and afternoon and there were also fast days at troubled times and the Sacrament of the Lord`s supper which lasted several days in June. To relieve the tedium of long sermons (and perhaps stay awake) people tried various means, including taking snuff. And this became so prevalent that in March 1648 the session `thought fit that public admonishing should be given out of the pulpit to those that `offers and takes snising in the kirk in tyme of preaching or prayer`. Many people found it difficult to attend church, especially those living at some distance, but few excuses were accepted. In June 1657 for example it was recorded…