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A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United Kingdom. Following local government reorganisation in 1975, the title of "royal burgh" remains in use in many towns, but now has little more than ceremonial value.
A poorhouse or workhouse is a government-run facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy.
This article is intended to show a timeline of the history of Glasgow, Scotland, up to the present day.
This article is a timeline of the history of Edinburgh, Scotland, up to the present day. It traces its rise from an early hill fort and later royal residence to the bustling city and capital of Scotland that it is today.
A Satire of the Three Estates, is a satirical morality play in Middle Scots, written by makar Sir David Lyndsay. The complete play was first performed outside in the playing field at Cupar, Fife in June 1552 during the Midsummer holiday, where the action took place under Castle Hill. It was subsequently performed in Edinburgh, also outdoors, in 1554. The full text was first printed in 1602 and extracts were copied into the Bannatyne Manuscript. The Satire is an attack on the Three Estates represented in the Parliament of Scotland – the clergy, lords and burgh representatives, symbolised by the characters Spiritualitie, Temporalitie and Merchant. The clergy come in for the strongest criticism. The work portrays the social tensions present at this pivotal moment in Scottish history.
The Burgh Muir is the historic term for an extensive area of land lying to the south of Edinburgh city centre, upon which much of the southern part of the city now stands following its gradual spread and more especially its rapid expansion in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The name has been retained today in the partly anglicised form Boroughmuir for a much smaller district within Bruntsfield, vaguely defined by the presence of Boroughmuir High School, and, until 2010, Boroughmuirhead post office in its north-west corner.
In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of helping the poor. Alongside ever-changing attitudes towards poverty, many methods have been attempted to answer these questions. Since the early 16th century legislation on poverty enacted by the Parliament of England, poor relief has developed from being little more than a systematic means of punishment into a complex system of government-funded support and protection, especially following the creation in the 1940s of the welfare state.
The Scottish poor laws were the statutes concerning poor relief passed in Scotland between 1579 and 1929. Scotland had a different poor law system to England and the workings of the Scottish laws differed greatly to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 which applied in England and Wales.
Sir Robert Baird (1630–1697) was a Scottish merchant, landowner, and investor in colonial enterprise in the Province of Carolina.
A House of Industry was a workhouse in Dublin, Ireland which existed from its establishment by an act of parliament in 1703, "for the employment and maintaining the poor thereof".
The Bede House in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, is a 17th-century Scottish town house. It was built in 1676 as a residence for Bailie William Logan and his wife Jean Moir of Stoneywood. During the late 18th century, Old Aberdeen Bedesmen moved from their original hospital beside St Machar's Church to the former Logan house in Don Street. In the 19th century the house changed hands. It was first owned by the Burgh of Old Aberdeen, then, by the City of Aberdeen after the merger of the two burghs in 1891. The house was refurbished by the City of Aberdeen Council in 1965. It was divided into two flats or apartments. The flats are now in private ownership. Much of the 17th-century building is in its original form. It is an excellent example of an L-shaped Scottish Town House, built on three floors with an attic. The house is designated as a Category A listed building.
Beggars' badges were badges and other identifying insignia worn by beggars beginning in the early fifteenth century in Great Britain and Ireland. They served two purposes; to identify individual beggars, and to allow beggars to move freely from place to place.
Mitchell's Hospital, Old Aberdeen, in Old Aberdeen, Scotland, was founded by the philanthropist David Mitchell in 1801 as follows: " .. from a regard for the inhabitants of the city of Old Aberdeen and its ancient college and a desire in these severe times to provide lodging, maintenance and clothing for a few aged relicks and maiden daughters of decayed gentlemen merchants or trade burgesses of the said city.. ". See the text of the 1801 Mortification or the conditions of the endowment. The Hospital is owned and managed by the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen City Council and the Cathedral Church of St Machar in Old Aberdeen. The origins of the Hospital are due to various attempts by the Incorporated Trades and Merchants in Old Aberdeen to provide a "care home" for their elderly and infirm members and their "relicks".
Bishop Dunbar's Hospital was founded in 1531 by Bishop Gavin Dunbar, the Elder. The hospital was endowed by a mortification just before his death. Dunbar petitioned the King, James V of Scotland, and the charter, signed on 24 February 1531 records the King’s approval that ‘[Dunbar shall] ... found an hospital near the cathedral church, but outside the cemetery...’ It was also known as St Mary's Hospital. In the mortification, Dunbar's charitable purpose is recorded. Bedesmen were supported by a charitable foundation that emerged from the original church control until the twenty-first century. Bedesmen drew their name from the word "bede" - a prayer. The residents of Dunbar's Hospital said prayers in a cycle of Divine Office. The Bede House, Old Aberdeen was used by the Bedesmen from the hospital from 1789 to the end of the nineteenth century. The only remains of the 1531 building can be seen in a perimeter wall for Seaton Park in Old Aberdeen. The last Bedesman died in 1988. The Managers of the Hospital constituted a Charity, Bishop Dunbar Hospital Trust. The Charity ceased active operation in 2012.
Hospitals in medieval Scotland can be dated back to the 12th century. From c. 1144 to about 1650 many hospitals, bedehouses and maisons Dieu were built in Scotland.
Several Aberdeen trades hospitals were built by the merchants and trades associations of Aberdeen from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Traditionally hospitals had been built by the church.
Across the United Kingdom, many services such as hospitals and schools depend on private or corporate donation. In the sixteenth century,(before 1560 in Scotland) the Church and the nobility were the only source of such support. By the nineteenth century, government and local authorities had taken over this responsibility. Poor Laws in the nineteenth century provided a more secure form of help for the poor and gradually the use of mortifications declined. Sometimes a hospital, Bedehouse, or care home was given money directly to further its purposes. The City of Aberdeen like many across Scotland, and in the rest of the United Kingdom, administers charitable trusts to benefit its residents. Some of these date back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In general these mortifications were endowed to benefit Guildry members, the poor, medical, educational, cultural, arts and heritage purposes individuals and groups. Recently the City Council has re-organised these charities together with OSCR. Some of the charities have been wound up with residual funds allocated to other charities with similar purposes in Aberdeen.
The Scottish poorhouse, occasionally referred to as a workhouse, provided accommodation for the destitute and poor in Scotland. The term poorhouse was almost invariably used to describe the institutions in that country, as unlike the regime in their workhouse counterparts in neighbouring England and Wales, residents were not usually required to labour in return for their upkeep.
The Town's Hospital was a poorhouse in Glasgow, Scotland, founded in 1731. It occupied a site at the Old Green on Great Clyde Street, at the junction of present-day Ropework Lane. The hospital was managed by the Lord Provost and 48 directors, 12 of whom were elected by the town council. Of the remainder, 12 represented the Church of Scotland's General Session, 12 the merchant's guild and 12 the producer's guild. A year after its opening the Town's Hospital accommodated 61 old people and 90 children.
References
- ↑ See George A. Mackay, and Ninian Macwhannell, Management and Construction of Poorhouses and Almshouses : Containing Model Plans of a Poorhouse and of Almshouses Designed by Ninian Macwhannell, F.R.I.B.A., I.A., Glasgow, and Specimen Plans of Existing Poorhouse Buildings by Different Architects (Edinburgh: W. Green & Sons, 1908), pp. xii, 10, 267 p., 19 leaves of plates.; for details of Glasgow Poorhouses.
- ↑ See William Kennedy, Annals of Aberdeen, from the Reign of King William the Lion, to the End of the Year 1818 (London: [s.n.], 1818), pp. 2 Vols; V1 - pp257-258; and, Aberdeen (Scotland). Burgh Council., John Stuart, and Scottish Burgh Records Society., Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen. 1625-1642 (Edinburgh: Printed for the Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1871) pp 106-111.
- ↑ “breadcloath” = wide or broad cloth.
- ↑ details are on pp 106 to 111 in Kennedy op cit.
- ↑ See E. Patricia Dennison, David Ditchburn, and Michael Lynch, Aberdeen before 1800 : A New History (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2002), pp. xxviii, 515 p., [32] p. of plates; p 64
- ↑ See http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Edinburgh/ for a summary of Edinburgh Poorhouses; and http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Glasgow/ for Glasgow. Aberdeen Poorhouses are listed in http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Aberdeen/
- ↑ See House of correction
- ↑ Nineteenth century social reformers often refer back to this period in putting forward arguments for a fair and Christian approach to care for the poor. See, G. W. Quinby, The Gallows, the Prison, and the Poor-House a Plea for Humanity : Showing the Demands of Christianity in Behalf of the Criminal and Perishing Classes (Cincinnati: G.W. Quinby, 1856), pp326 .
- ↑ " …is a coarse twill or plain-woven fabric woven with a linen warp and a woollen weft...." See Linsey-woolsey
- ↑ see Alexander Walker, The History of the Workhouse or Poor's Hospital of Aberdeen from 1739 to 1818, Its Boys' Hospital from 1818 to 1852, Girls' Hospital from 1828 to 1852 and Its Boys' and Girls' Hospitals from 1752 to 1885 (Aberdeen: J. & J. P. Edmond & Spark, 1885), pp 60; p 8 – 9; also, ‘’’Aberdeen before 1800 : a new history’’’, Dennison et al, op cit. pp 67-69
- ↑ See Aberdeen Council Records, Leger Book of the Poor Hospital for details.
- ↑ See Walker, 1885, op cit. for details of the Boys Hospital and the Girl’s Hospital dating from the 1740s to the 1880s.
- ↑ See also http://www.workhouses.org.uk/poorlaws/1845intro.shtml
- ↑ See Bishop Dunbar's Hospital
- ↑ See Mitchell's Hospital Old Aberdeen
- ↑ See http://www.seventradesofaberdeen.co.uk/charitynews/ Archived 4 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine