What question did this study set out to answer?

To examine the nature of poor relief in Abernethy and Kincardine during the mid-eighteenth century and its alignment with national trends.

May 8, 2026

Poor Relief in Abernethy and Kincardine before 1745

Key Points

To examine the nature of poor relief in Abernethy and Kincardine during the mid-eighteenth century and its alignment with national trends.
Analyzed minutes of the Kirk Session of Abernethy and Kincardine from the mid-eighteenth century.
Investigated poor relief policies adopted during the winter crisis of 1740.
Compared local practices with national studies of church-based poor relief.
Found that poor relief was inconsistent and not particularly substantial in Abernethy and Kincardine.
Noted different approaches to relief by elders in Abernethy compared to Kincardine during harsh winter conditions.
Demonstrated that church governance from the Revolutionary settlement of 1690 influenced local practices by the 1740s.

Abstract

The article is a case study of poor relief in the mid-eighteenth century as recorded in the minutes of the Kirk Session of Abernethy and Kincardine, a rural Church of Scotland parish within Strathspey in the central Highlands. Legally this was a single parish with one minister and kirk session, but worship was held in both churches; the two buildings and burial grounds retained the hinterlands of their former parish boundaries. Collections for and distributions to the poor were also administered separately. Different policies adopted during the crisis of the hard winter of 1740 between the elders meeting at Abernethy and those at Kincardine evidence both the authority of the elders vis-à-vis the minister and their responsiveness to community opinion. Though noting the limitations to available relief, the article demonstrates that the procedures in place in Abernethy and Kincardine were those described in national studies of this period. It thus contributes to but does not wholly agree with a trend in contemporary historiography to look more favourably on the effectiveness of the church-based Scottish system of poor relief. Assistance to the poor in Abernethy and Kincardine was neither particularly substantial nor particularly regular. This ‘history-from-below’ study of rural parochial care also demonstrates that the kirk governance of the Revolutionary settlement of 1690 was embedded in this parish of Highland Strathspey by the 1740s.

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Poor Relief in Abernethy and Kincardine before 1745

Key Points

Abstract

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