Kirk Sessions, Isle of Coll - 1

Some time ago I extracted a few random items from Isle of Coll kirk sessions minutes HERE, HERE, and HERE to illustrate the eighteenth century content and language. I promised myself I would do more ― proper transcripts ― because I have printouts of the entire works. Grateful thanks to my friend Victoria, Canadian ex-pat and archivist in Edinburgh.

Thank you, Keith Dash at Coll Genealogy (www.collgenealogy.com)

Coll is in the inner Hebrides of Argyll, a geographic "twin" to the Isle of Tiree with which it had a shared parish history for a long time (Coll has always had a smaller population than its sister island). Savvy researchers know that the oldest surviving Coll baptisms and marriages were recorded not in Old Parochial Registers (OPRs) per se, but in minutes of the Kirk Sessions.

National Records of Scotland (NRS) have the surviving Coll records in CH2/70/1 (Kirk Sessions 1733-1813) and CH2/70/2 (Kirk Sessions 1813-1872). They've been digitized and can be viewed in the NRS Search Rooms on their Virtual Volumes system.[1] Several regional archives in Scotland also have access to the service. Kirk Sessions are not currently available on ScotlandsPeople but the NRS plan to begin placing them online in 2017 "following the re-launch of the ScotlandsPeople website in 2016."

The Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City calls the records OPRs, referring to their FHL microfilms 1041081 and 1041082 with dates for Coll births and marriages as 1776-1856.[2]

However, despite the CH2/70/1 description, there are no session minutes for Coll between 1735 and 1776, more than a generation. Although Coll had a resident assistant (Mr. Hector Maclean) during that time, the minister of the dual-island parish resided in Tiree; if minutes or a register were kept in Coll they have not been found.[3] Also, Coll researchers have noted in the later records that marriages about 1780-1792 are missing, a period coinciding with the lack of an assistant minister on the island.

One might ask, since Tiree OPRs begin/are available from 1766, do they contain Coll baptisms and marriages before 1776? The answer appears to be only if a Coll person came over to marry a Tiree person, or presented a child there for baptism.

I propose to transcribe the few pages of the earliest existing minutes. While the NRS and FHL both give "1733" as the start date, I find the first entry is 1732. Spellings are "as is" or as best I can decipher. Square brackets indicate guesses; lines ---- indicate indecipherable letters or words. Note that patronymics are still in usage in many instances. Unfortunately the width of the blog's column makes it awkward to keep each line on one line. Let's begin with the first, the only entry in 1732; the month was not given:

Ballohodh 26th 1732

after prayer

[Sedt]* Mr Wm Morisson Moderator

Laird of Coll

Allan McLean

Hector McLean

John McLean                    Elders

Lach: McLean absent

The session Appoints Donald og [ye?] Treasuror to pay to Mr William

Morisson five shilling Sterling out of the session box the [9th?] five shill his people

to And: Campbell Bursar to the people of Mull and [showed?] the r[eceip]t of the

sd money under Mr Campbell his hands

     The session finding of --- are several delinquents whose fines have not

been modified and having M--- upon that head do modify as follows

I---: Allan McAllan and his wife are fined in four pounds ---- 08

each

Nom Angus McDhoil vic Jamish and his Miss in six pounds ---- 06

Nom John McLean and Ann Man Jan vic Alister in six shills each 06

Nom William McNeill and Katherine Man Jan vic Eachnin in six mks each 08

Nom Lach: McHorlick and Mary Man Jan bhan in six mrks each 08

Nom John McAlister and his Miss Shiavonn----h in six merks each 08

Nom Donn McAllan og aroloss is fined in ten shill 00

[last line torn and illegible]

(next page)

     The session Appointed the Minister to ----- to Mr John McLean to

cause Eann McAllan og aroloss fornication pay his fine of ten shills

Ster:      The session being informed that [some?] two women came

from Barra who have brought forth children here since they came

the one in fornication the other in adultry as its to their fathers being

in Barra Therefor the Presbty appoint [Jo?] T---- forth with to go

and cause them leave this country otherways if they do not obey they will

meet with more [ink blot] treatment this was intimated to the bod--

      The session Appoints [ye?] Collector to give John McNeill

vic Dhoil[ink blot] blind boy three merk--- out of the former fines

Also[ink blot] Mary Nean Neill a ffool three merks out of the

sd fines[ink blot] they Appoint [Ihan?] Ian vic Lachlan in Arnabost

three Merk[ink blot] of the sd fines Nothing else occurring they closed

---- --[ink blot]

* No doubt the abbreviation for sederunt meaning they were seated, but more formally to indicate that a church session was underway.

Any corrections or additions are more than welcome.

[1] http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/church-court-records-online.

[2] See "Tyree, Argyll, Scotland," in the FamilySearch Wiki (https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Tyree,_Arygll,_Scotland).

[3] Nicholas Maclean-Bristol, The Kirk on the Hill, the story of the church in the Isle of Coll AD 550-2007. Coll: The Society of West Highland and Island Historical Research, 2007.

© 2016 Brenda Dougall Merriman