Kirk Session records for Latheron

 

Latheron Old Parish Kirk and graveyard

Membership of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland was strongly adhered to in most communities.The Kirk Sessions were the local courts of the Presbyterian church. Latheron was a quoad omnia parish meaning it was a parish for both civil and religious purposes. Respected local residents were invited to eldership and then to attend regular meetings of the session which included the minister. Session members were only ever men as far as I can see – although mid-wives were consulted. Adhering to their formal meeting rules, the session dealt with all sorts of local issues including making lists of the poor for relief distributions, cross-examining unmarried women who were found to be pregnant and identifying who the Father was, punishing the breaking of the Sabbath, supporting the establishment of a local school (often just for boys), managing, via the treasurer, the collection of money from kirk meetings and the rent for the mort-cloths (fine quality or coarse). The most usual punishment was for the guilty person to stand humiliated before the congregation, of several hundred people, in sackcloth for one to three kirk days to repent their sins. This was usually very traumatic and distressing for those named. There were also fines dealt out, with quite large fines sometimes recorded, the money collected  frequently being distributed to the local poor.

A Repentance stool and sackcloth gown

Those who did not appear and do penance or pay the fine, could lose all church privileges, such as marriage, or baptism of their children – seen as a huge shame and disgrace. Or if all else failed the guilty party could be referred to a higher court such as the Presbytery and ultimately excommunicated.

The Session records for Latheron hold a huge lot of information and make fascinating reading. Over the next few blogs I will tell a few of the stories but readers need to locate the records and read them for themselves on Scotlands People.

The Latheron Parish kirk was built in 1734 the same year as the Session records start. It has had some additions and modifications but is now used as a heritage museum for Clan Gunn.

 

Latheron village with the old kirk on mid left