1843 Poor Law Commission

Extracts from "Poor Law inquiry (Scotland.) Appendix, part III. Containing minutes of evidence taken in the synods of Angus and Mearns, Perth and Stirling, Fife, Glasgow and Ayr, Galloway, Dumfries, Merse and Teviotdale, Lothian and Tweeddale. "

Notes of Cases of Paupers visited at Kirkintilloch, Friday, 23rd November 1843.

NB. All the paupers on the roll receive a cart of coals at winter.

1. Widow Elizabeth Thomson, aged about seventy-five. Allowance 1s. 6d. a month. Rent 30s. a year. She lives alone, and is not able to work at all, being generally confined. She has received during the last year, extra relief of about 5s. She is helped a little by ladies of the town. Room dirty. Furniture, three chairs, one table, one bed, two chests, and crockery.

2. Margaret Thompson, aged above seventy. Allowance 7d. a week. Rent 25s. a year. She winds pirns, by which she earns 1s 3d. a week. She gets a cart of coals in winter from the united associate synod church in the town (Mr Marshall’s.) She lives alone. She has two married sons, weavers, residing in the town, - one of whom pays half her rent. Furniture, one bed, three chairs, one table, and a very old chest of drawers.

3. Jane Monteith, aged about sixty. Allowance 1s. 6d. a week. Rent 30s. a year. She clips muslin shawls, by which she earns 1s. 3d. a week, when in full employment. She has been unwell lately. She has a great niece, aged eight, living with her. This niece is the daughter of another pauper. The old woman is helped by an heritor in the neighbourhood. Room not clean. Furniture, one bed, one table, one chest, three chairs, an old cupboard.

4. James Wilson, aged about sixty. Allowance 7d. a week.  Rent 30s. a year. The allowance just pays the rent. He is not able to work, but is not in bad health. He maintains himself by begging.

5. Mary Fergus, aged forty-three. Allowance 2s. 6d. a week. Rent 30s. a year. She has been confined to the house fourteen years, and cannot work at all. The room was remarkably clean. Furniture, one bed, four chairs, one small chest of drawers, neat crockery. Her room is washed by her neighbours in turns, who are very kind to her. She has a brother in the town who is a weaver. He is married, with a large family. Her clothes are washed by the family.

6. Janet Dunn, aged seventy. Allowance 2s. 6d. a week, for which she is boarded with Isabella Baird, aged fifty-seven; a widow with one child living with her. The widow tambours muslin. The old man has been confined to bed a twelvemonth. Room, with poor furniture, but very clean. Widow Baird helps to clean Mary Fergus’ room. (See previous case)

7. Widow Clark, aged sixty. Allowance 9d. a week. Rent 7d. a. week. She has a son and daughter, with their three children, living with her. The son is a weaver, and the wife clips muslin.  Room dirty. Furniture very scanty.

8. Janet Wilson, aged seventy-six. Allowance 8d. a week. Rent 6d. a week. She has weak eyes, and is very deaf. She maintains herself by begging. She has a sister living with her, somewhat younger, who tambours muslin, by which, she earns 1s. 3d. a week, when in full employment. Room tolerably clean, with decent furniture.

9. Mary Kinnibrough, aged fifty. Allowance 6d. a week, which goes for rent, .She is weak in mind, and is a regular beggar. She does not like remaining in the house. She lives with a woman, aged forty-nine, who works at clipping muslin, and has four grandchildren living with her, of whom two are almost entirely dependent upon her. Room very poorly furnished. Mary Kinnibrough sleeps on a shake-down. The only furniture is one bed, two old chairs, and two stools.

10. William Pollock, aged seventy-five, and his wife, aged fifty-two. Allowance 1s. 6d. a week. Rent. 7d. a week. The old man is almost entirely blind. The wife knits stockings, and sometimes keeps ledgers. He receives 6s. or 8s. of extra relief during the year. Room very dirty.

11. Colin M’Conochie, aged eighty-seven. A blind old man. A regular beggar. He has been frequently in Kirkintulloch [sic], upwards of two years, selling matches or begging. He has received an occasional relief of 6d. from Kirkintulloch. He lodges with William Pollock (see previous case), and pays 1s. a week for lodging. He had a stroke of the palsy last week. It is uncertain whether his settlement is in Kirkintulloch or Glasgow.

12. Ann Monteith, aged seventy-three. Allowance 1s. a week. Rent 6d. a week. She is now unable to work. She lives alone; but she is helped by her neighbours. She has two daughters in the town, each of whom is married to a tailor, and has a large family. She lives in a very small garret, tolerably furnished, but dirty.

13. Mary Jarvie, aged upwards of forty. A deaf and dumb woman. Allowance 1s. 6d. a week. She lives rent free, with two sisters. She tambours muslin, by which she earns 9d. a week. Her two sisters are grown up, and unmarried, and either go out washing occasionally, or work muslin. Rent £1 12s. a year. Room tolerably furnished, but dirty.

14. Widow Ure, aged seventy-eight. Allowance 1s. a week. Rent 1s. a week. She keeps two lodgers, from whom she receives 1s. 6d. a week. She likewise receives extra relief of about 10s. a year. She cannot work at all. Room not very clean. Furniture, three beds, three chairs, one table, one press and crockery.

15. Margaret Skirving, aged about forty. Allowance 6d. a week, which is paid for her lodging. She is silly in mind and is a regular beggar. She is supplied by the kirk session with bed-clothes and body-clothes. She is lodged with H. Edmonstone, a weaver, aged seventy, who has a wife and a child. One room, dirty, and with poor furniture for the most part; but it contained a large old press and chest of drawers.

16. Widow Morrieson, aged forty. Allowance 1s. a week. Rent £4.  She has seven children between seventeen and four years of age. She herself clips muslin, by which, when in full employment, she earns 2s. 6d. a week. Her eldest child, aged seventeen, earns on an average 4s. 6d. or 5s. a week. Two boys, aged fifteen and thirteen, are apprentices to a weaver, and their joint net earnings a week are about 4s. a week. The four younger children do not work at all. One of them lives with Jane Monteith. (See case 3.) Room decently furnished, with clock, two chests of drawers, &c.

17. Janet Monteith, aged upwards of seventy. Allowance 1s.a week. She lives with her daughter, Widow Morrieson. (See No. 16.) She is blind, and totally unable to work.

18. Matthew Anderson, aged fifty-seven. Allowance 1s. a week. Rent 32s. a year. He himself is a weaver by trade; but he is unwell, and does not work. It is supposed by the parish that he can work more than he does. He has three children living with him. The eldest, aged sixteen, is a weaver, and pays 2s. a week to his father for rent. The second is a girl, aged thirteen. She is employed at weaving, and earns 2s. 6d.,a week. The third, a boy aged eight, is dressed in rags, and does not go to school. Room dirty, and poorly furnished. There was a bed on the floor, but no bedstead.

19. Peter M‘Farlane, aged six, and Martha Gray, aged nine. Boarded for 1s. 8d. a week, with Widow Christian Reid, aged about fifty. The latter keeps a weaving shop of four looms. The children are clothed by the session, and both of them go to school. Room poorly furnished, and dirty. The children looked healthy, but dirty.

20. Widow Muirhead, aged thirty-two. Allowance 1s. a week. Rent 1s. a week. She has two children, aged ten and four years respectively. She keeps a millwright`s baby for 2s. 6d. a week, and gets 10d. a week for cleaning the parish school. She likewise receives a boll of meal a year from Miss Gartshore’s charity. She lives in the same room with a widow, aged sixty, who maintains herself by washing.