Blog posts with the tag 'Kirk Session'

Euphemia Sandison (c1819-1905), a woman’s life

Some people really make an impression, even dead people. Euphemia Sandison is one of them. I first came across her over ten years ago in the 1861 census for Walls, Orkney, the subject of my postgraduate genealogy certificate project. In that census, she was 41, single, a domestic servant, born in Walls and living in  |  more…

The effectiveness of public rebuke?

The Kirk Session of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland played a major role in policing the behaviour of parishioners in past times. Fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, sabbath-breakers, quarrelsome characters and the like (see  Walls Kirk Session records for examples) could be called to account for their behaviour, fined and eventually readmitted to communion. Public rebuke, chiefly  |  more…