Who Do You Think You Are - Annie Lennox 5th Sep

[Shona]

Originally Posted by Olde Crone

In England, under the old poor law rules, the parish authorities would always seek out near relatives, and then distant relatives, and more or less force them to take on a burden to the parish. I'm sure it would have been the same in Scotland particularly where the father was of ample means or had a standing in the community.

OC

Before 1845, there were no poorhouses in Scotland. There was no systematic levying of poor rates. It was normal to raise money for the poor at the kirk door. Responsibilty for who received relief lay with the Kirk and heritors (lansowners). Those entitled to poor relief were people who couldn't work because of age and infirmity, this included orphaned children, but illegitimate children were often excluded. Was the reference to Mrs C having no use for the wee lass taken from Kirk Session records? If so, there is likely to have been an earlier entry in the minutes about her placement.

On another note, the Rose family of MacDuff were very well connected. William Rose was the factor for the Second Earl of Fife (the main landowner and MP) for about 30 years until 1795. The Earl was seldom in the area and left all his business dealings to Rose. William Rose had a large family. Given James Rose was a solicitor, I wonder if he was related to William Rose.