The people behind the names

The Kelso Dispensary 

When you trace your genealogy you research the names, the dates and the places. This has to be step one. The second step, though, is digging a little deeper and finding out extra details that can help you understand somebody’s life.

Take this entry in the 1851 census of Stichill, Roxburghshire: Margaret Guthrie, aged 73, born in Greenlaw, married to James Guthrie. James and Margaret have a daughter living with them, her name is Alison and she is 30 years old. You can see the full entry on our website.

Tracing James and Margaret back to the 1841 census we see they that are living in the same house. A quick search online tells us that James Guthrie married Margaret Waddel in 1807, in Stichill.

Using these common genealogy tools we have learn something of James and Margaret. What else can we learn? Thanks to a generous contribution through our ‘Sponsor an Index’ scheme we can learn something remarkable.

When just 16 (in 1780) years of age Margaret was seen at the Kelso Dispensary due to ‘Obstructed Menses’. How scared she likely was as a young girl being seen by a physician in an age when this was very rare. We do not know how severe her condition was but it is possible that it is only because of the kind (and free) help of the Kelso dispensary that Alison was ever born.

The lesson for us, don’t be content with a list of names, dates and places; dig deeper, search more records and learn more about the lives of your ancestors.

The Kelso Dispensary

For the majority of people in 1777 there was no proper health care. Struggling to simply feed and clothe their children, most families couldn’t afford to see a doctor or buy medicine from the apothecary. This meant that of course there was high infant mortality, and countless families left to rely on the parish for poor relief when the man of the house was taken ill, or died.

In Kelso a group of men and women wanted to change this and they founded the Kelso Dispensary. A charitable institution, it was founded by benefactors and subscribers. Each subscriber could ‘recommend’ people who couldn't afford to see a doctor and they would receive free healthcare.

The records that the institution left behind are fascinating. They record who visited the dispensary, which parish they were from, who recommended them, the date seen, the age of the patient, the disease and the outcome of the case.

We think it is fitting that the records of this charitable organisation are the first to be indexed by our ‘Sponsor an Index’ programme. The first 1,743 entries are now online for you to access for free.

We hope that these prove useful to you. If they don’t cover the period needed get in touch about our ‘Sponsor an Index’ programme and together we can get more of these records online.

UPDATE 18 March 2016: The indexing of volume 1 is now completed. There are now 2,561 entries online! Search online for free: www.scottishindexes.com

Scottish Quaker Marriages - Index Coming Soon

Quaker Meeting House 

Update - December 2014

You can now search Quaker births and marriages on our new website www.scottishindexes.com

We’ve been looking at the Digest of Scottish Quaker births, marriages and deaths again, with a view to creating an index. Interestingly before the digest of marriages starts properly there are two pages of marriages which “have been either considered irregular or to have been but imperfectly recorded”. Here are a couple of examples:

Book: 17

Page: 3

Names: Ormston Jane, Waldie John

Date of Minute: 1749, Novr. 26

Description: [Jane Ormston] daur of Charles (merchant) of Kelso: Fewar and Commissary Clerk

Information given: At Kelso Monthly Meeting a letter was read from Jane Ormston acknowledging her having married contrary to the Rules of the Society. {The first child of this Marriage is recorded in the Parish Register as born 5th September 1750.}

Monthly Meeting or other records: Kelso Mo Mg

Book: 14

Page: 17

Names: Cook James, Liddell Mary

Date of Minute:1703, 4, 25

Description: [James Cook] of Linlithgow: [Mary Liddell] daur of James [Liddell]

Information given: These Friends applied to Hamilton Monthly Meeting the second time for leave to marry and were directed to wait till Mary Liddell could produce a certificate from Ireland - The Marriage appears to have taken place as Mary Liddell, as James Cook’s widow, afterwards married George Cunningham, as below. - 

Monthly Meeting or other records Hamilton & Glasgow Mo Mg.

© Copyright National Records of Scotland reference CH10/1/64 and Emma Maxwell of www.maxwellancestry.com

We will index these two pages with the rest of the volume of marriages so that they can be easily found. I’m not sure what the total number of entries will be but it will certainly help to fill in some of the ‘missing’ entries that cannot be found in the OPRs. 

If you have arrived here from Google and wonder what we’re all about take a look at the ‘Online Indexes’ tab to see what we have available already to help you trace your Scottish family tree.

The End of an Era

The National Health Service (NHS) was implemented across the UK in 1948. The new NHS brought to an end the charitable Kelso Dispensary which had been established as far back as 1777.

The Kelso Dispensary

In the records of this charitable institution there is a final report by the directors which I found interesting (NRS reference HH71/6). Here are some excerpts:

The

Kelso Dispensary and Cottage Hospital

“REPORT by the Directors to the Forty-first Annual Meeting of the Members to be held on Wednesday, 25th August, 1948, in the Town Hall, Kelso, at 3 p.m.

WITH the coming into operation of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act on the appointed day, 5th July, 1948, the Duties of the Directors as regards the administration of the actual Hospital ceased. The provisions of the Act as affecting the Hospital are, very briefly, that the Hospital Buildings and Equipment are transferred to the Secretary of State for Scotland, and the other assets comprising Invested Funds, Cash, etc., as ascertained at 4th July, are to be transferred to the newly-formed Border Hospital Group Board of Management, which body is responsible for the management of the Hospital from and after the appointed day…”

“The directors feel that as their last Act of Administration it is their duty to place before the subscribers and the general public this Report, including audited Accounts for the period from 15th May, 1947, to 5th July, 1948.

It is fitting to record that the Hospital and the Kelso Dispensary, whose functions were taken over by the Hospital in 1908, have given an uninterrupted record of service to the public since 3rd October, 1777. The Dispensary was the first of its type in Scotland, and served as a prototype for many similar Institutions in both Scotland and England.

One of the purposes of the Dispensary, a continuance of which was one of the conditions upon the Dispensary Funds we made over to the Hospital, was the provision of an Outdoor Nursing Service. The provision of this service is, since the passing of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act, wholly the responsibility of the Local Government, which in the case of Kelso, is Roxburgh County Council.”

I am working on an index to the patient registers, beginning in 1777 and working forward in time. Year One is available as a free PDF and the first complete volume will be published shortly from www.maxwellancestry.com. To register an interest please email me and I’ll notify you when Volume One is ready for sale: info@maxwellancestry.com

Sir John Pringle

One of the reasons I have been so slow to produce the first volume of the Kelso Dispensary records is that I keep getting distracted. The diseases are so interesting, not to mention the people in the registers and my constant amazement that so many ordinary people were given treatment.

Today I have been looking at Sir John Pringle who is one of the “Recommenders”, a quick Google search revealed that there is actually a monument to Sir John Pringle in Westminster Abbey!

By the time the dispensary opened its doors Sir John was about 70, but that doesn’t seem to have held him back.

So you never know perhaps you are alive today because the dispensary saved your GGGGgrandfather!

The closure of West Register House

As I sit in West Register House today I half expect to see tumbleweed roll along the search room floor. When I was in on Tuesday you could hear, in the background, the sound of staff sealing up boxes, deciding which computers and phones to take and reminding everybody that this is the last week that the West Search Room of the National Archives of Scotland will be open to the public. Today though there is just silence, stillness and a general sadness for what will be lost.

Since the start of the photography trial last spring I’ve spent a lot of time here and it’s been a very pleasant place to work. As this is the less used search room there is a more peaceful atmosphere. Staff are relaxed and on hand to help, the desks are modern and the lamps well placed. There is more space, you generally have about two desks each so plenty of room for books on cushions, laptops and notebooks.

There is also a camera stand available in this search room, which means we have high quality images and I can take them very quickly. We hope the stand will be available from Monday onwards at General Register House, as from that day on we will all be able to take photographs in the Historic Search Room there - which will a momentous day!

The rationale for having just one search room is sensible to a degree, they will save money and we won’t have to go to two venues to see documents. With more and more information on the Virtual Volumes system, the need for as many desks will I suppose have reduced. The Virtual Volumes system is where you can view documents that have been digitally imaged on the computer screen. This makes access easier and reduces the risk of damage to the documents.

I am sad however that this is my last week in the wonderfully tranquil West Register House and would like to thank all the staff that help bring these historical documents to us, whether they are on the front desk, in the search room or behind the scenes, they all do a fantastic job. Without them our Kelso Dispensary project, our prison records project and poor roll projects would not be happening, not to mention the exciting new projects we have planned for later this year. This means that even if you haven’t been here yourself they have helped all of you delve into your family’s past.

Thank you West Register House!

Report and State of the Kelso Dispensary

When I was in the National archives the other day I came across some leaflets entitled Report and State of The Kelso Dispensary. I found it useful to help me understand the daily running of the dispensary. Here is a transcription of the front page of the leaflet:

Report and State

of

The Kelso Dispensary

77th Year of the Institution

The Physicians and Surgeons connected with the Institution attend the Dispensary every Sunday before Divine Service, and every Friday form nine to eleven o’clock, to give their advice, and to direct the Apothecary of the Dispensary (who also attends on these days), to dispense such Medicines as are proper for the Patients recommended. In cases of acute, and occasionally in chronic disease, when Patients cannot be brought to the Dispensary, the Surgeons of the Institution are allowed, at the recommendation of a Subscriber, to visit them in the country at the expense of the Charity, in terms of the following rule of the Institution, viz., “That no one be visited in the country who can be brought by any conveyance to the Dispensary without personal hazard; that when in cases of sickness or accident it becomes necessary for the Surgeons to visit a Patient in the country, the visit shall not be repeated at the Surgeon’s discretion for a longer period than till the first ordinary Meeting of Physicians, Surgeons, and other Office-bearers; at which Meeting it shall be incumbent on the Visiting Surgeon to report the case, and after consultation it will be in the power of he Meeting either to order a continuation of visits for a limited time, or a notification to be made to the Patient that he must be brought to the Dispensary in Kelso–it being always kept in view that the expense of these visits, to be borne by the Institution shall not exceed triple the sum subscribed by the recommender.” Patients in the town of Kelso may be visited in their own homes by the Apothecary to the Institution, upon an order from the Physicians or Surgeons to do so. All recommendatory letters to be addressed, “To the Apothecary of the Kelso Dispensary,” who is appointed to deliver the same to the Surgeons in rotation.

No Patient will be visited in the country at the expense of the Institution, unless a visit is solicited by a Subscriber, or ordered by the Physicians. The other regulations under which the dispensary is managed, and the rules by which proper objects of charity are recommended are entitled to the benefit of the Institution, will be furnished by the secretary. 

There is a record kept of the Patients, their ages, diseases, the event of their case, the names id the Subscribers, and the parishes to which they belong. There have been 715 admitted for the year from the 1st October 1853, to the 1st October, 1854.

BATHS

There is one Bath kept exclusively for the Patients of the Dispensary; another, handsomely fitted up with marble for the accommodation of the Public. Baths may be had at one hour’s notice, on application to the Housekeeper, for payment of 1s. Hot Bath, and 6d. Cold and Shower Bath, which sums go toward the support of the Charity.

© Kelso dispensary data - Crown copyright. National Archives of Scotland reference HH71/5.

© Transcription — Copyright Graham Maxwell Ancestry 2011.

Kelso Dispensary Year One PDF

Well I have another treat for everybody today: a full transcription of year one of the Kelso Dispensary patient records is online and FREE. These records are fantastic! They can link families back to the early 1700’s and beyond in some cases, as well as giving some colour to your family tree. What was your ancestor really like? See, for example Agnes Fairbairn of Smailholm, born about 1747 recorded in the register with a case of Hystericks. Alternatively you could be related to Christian Burn who had Flatulent Pains!

From a more genealogical point of view, there are also some dates of death recorded which may well not be recorded elsewhere. A bit of Google searching may be necessary for identify some of the archaic names for diseases.

I hope you find this register as fascinating as we have, once we finish the first volume we’ll make it available in our bookshop. We’re not sure on the cost yet but we’ll keep you all informed.

Here’s the link in full: http://www.maxwellancestry.com/ancestry/resources/kelsodisp1.pdf

Txt spk 4u from 1777

Don’t worry I’ve not gone crazy, well no more than usual. I have started work on transcribing the Kelso Dispensary records which we told you about a few months ago. They are very neat but full of abbreviations and it struck me that despite the slightly highbrow opinion that shortening words to squeeze more into a text message is a terrible thing to do, the same kind of thing was done two centuries ago, and ultimately for the same reason.

Stop and think for a moment, you are running an institution back in 1777, paper is expensive, you need to record certain information; how will you organize your page? The later records, post industrialisation, have one page dedicated to each patient. Back in 1777, however paper was much more expensive, and these records cram about 24 people to each page with almost the same amount of information included. They have managed to do this by not wasting space on the pages just as their modern counterparts don’t waste text messages.

There is less blank space but also many abbreviations: for example: Tho – Thomas, Recov^d – recovered and Ap^r  – April. So next time you receive a message from a text abbreviation user don’t be so quick to complain but remind yourselves that they are following in the footsteps of your frugal ancestors.

The Kelso Dispensary

I was looking at the records of the Kelso Dispensary (held by the National Archives of Scotland) the other day. These are fascinating records and an amazing number of people seem to have gone through their doors. The Kelso Dispensary was founded in 1777 and people from all over the Scottish Borders and Northumberland were treated there and for quite a surprising number of different diseases. There are a number of records remaining; the most interesting being the admission registers. The earliest of these (commencing in 1777) gives the name, parish, date of admission, age, disease and “event” of their cases. As time goes on more details are recorded, and a page per person allowed for more details, having said that as with many records they exact details vary from person to person. The “event” of their cases column generally tells us whether a person was cured, relieved or died, as these are pre-1855 this could be another source of death records when other records do not exist.

Accounts books also survive which could give an insight into an ancestor’s financial circumstances, however most of the funds seem to have come from a few wealthy patrons and not the individual patients.

I’m not sure whether these will be records we will transcribe or index at the moment, however we can easily look at them on an individual basis if you are interested.

Research in Edinburgh  

Kelso Relief Church Baptisms 1813-1819 - £6.99

This book contains baptisms found in the volumes of the Kirk Session records of the Relief Church Congregation of Kelso, Roxburghshire, for the period 1813-1819. These records are held by the National Archives of Scotland in Edinburgh.

These entries are separate from and supplement the Church of Scotland Old Parish Registers kept by the General Register Office (Scotland) at New Register House in Edinburgh, and it is believed they have not been transcribed or indexed before. Many entries in this register are not to be found in the Old Parish Registers.

We have included all the baptism entries from the register that survive. A later, or “new” register is referred to on the last page of this register, but its present whereabouts, if it has survived, is unknown.

Buy your copy now!

1851 census for Kells now online

We have been making great progress with www.maxwellancestry.com. Various new records are now online and more will be coming shortly as well as new books, some of which will be ready in the next day or two.

The big census update is 1851 Kells, Kirkcudbrightshire; this is now in the database and also available from our bookshop. We have also added more household links, general notes and prison links to the database.

Regarding the prison indexing project, Graham has now indexed the second Jedburgh volume and is proof-reading it now so it should be on sale within a couple of weeks. He has now also started work on the next Scottish Borders prison, which is Kelso. Although various links will appear in the census database from now this is not by any means a search of the prison registers themselves. In fact less than 1% of the prison entries have any link with the census records at present. Therefore if your ancestors are from the Borders area it is best to check in the actual prison index. If you do not already have a copy they are available from our bookshop.

The mapping is also continuing, Hawick and Wilton parishes are next, these may take some time though! Big towns always seem to slow up the census mapping project!

I’ll let you know when the new Jedburgh prison book is ready.