Introduction
Heritors were a parish body, usually made up of landowners,
who were responsible for the upkeep of the parish
church and manse, and the payment of the minister's
stipend. They had responsibility for maintaining the
parish school and paying for a schoolmaster. In addition
to this, they were expected to make provision for
the poor.
Meetings of Kilsyth Heritors took
place at Kilsyth Church where parish matters were
discussed and decisions made concerning necessary
expenditure. However, in addition to this expenditure,
it was not unusual for some of the heritors to provide
additional money to those in the parish most in need.
For example, Rev. William Burns, minister, in 1841
mentions the "private beneficence" of the
main landowner, Sir Archibald Edmonstone of Duntreath,
and goes on to say, "The principal heritor now
generally resides in the parish, though he has been
two years absent in England: and the residence of
such a landlord is a mighty blessing to the poor."
(1)
(1) From the New Statistical
Account of Scotland, vol. 8
Contents
Click on the links in the 'contents' field to take
you to a particular year in the volume. Alternatively,
start at page
1 and work your way through the volume. Please
note that these images are large (approx 150-200k)
and may take some time to download.
TOP
|
