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.