Kirk Session
Elders with feet of Clay
In the fifth of our series of Tales from the Kirk Session, Jean Barclay recounts the stories of two kirk elders from the 1720’s who each got into trouble themselves. One was dealt with swiftly by Robert Ferguson’s case was more complicated. The tale unfolds in “Elders with Feet of Clay“.
The Tale of the Holes in the Floor
In the latest in our series Tales from the Kirk Session, Elaine Campbell tells the story of a case of “flagrant and scandalous behaviour” from 1752 where the witnesses were able to testify based on having had a very clear view of the events. Read more in “The Affair of the Holes in the Floor“.
Christmas Banned!
In the next in our “Tales from the Kirk Session” series, Jean Barclay describes the very slow re-emergence of Christmas after the Reformation. “The Kirk that Stole Christmas” describes these changes, from the attempted abolition of the holiday by the Kirk in the sixteenth century, right up to the establishment of the Public Holiday in 1958.
Margaret Ker and Robert Taylor
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.
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“.