Lynn Campbell, Lecturer and Programme lead for the BA (Hons) in Culture and Heritage at the UHI Institute for Northern Studies, is diving deep into 18th-century Orkney for her PhD research.
By examining kirk session minutes from four different parishes, including Rousay and Egilsay between 1733 and 1747, she’s uncovering fascinating insights into the daily lives and unique challenges faced by the resilient communities of these remote Scottish islands.
Lynn has meticulously examined 147 handwritten pages of session minutes from the parish, spanning from September 1733 to January 1747, along with census data and cash book entries. A total of 325 individual names were uncovered, with many appearing multiple times. Remarkably, 141 sessions took place on the island of Egilsay, while 149 were held on the neighbouring island of Rousay.
The written accounts from the sessions offer a fascinating glimpse into the challenging lives of ordinary people in 18th-century Orkney. In the 1744 entry, we meet Christian Ritch, a woman whose story reveals both her personal struggles and society’s harsh view of illegitimacy at the time. It’s devastating to recognise how her specific circumstances, her husband’s absence due to military service, and possible lack of income, were overlooked.
This highlights not only the resilience of individuals like Christian but also invites us to reflect on how far we’ve come in understanding and compassion today.
Delated that Christian Rich a Caithness woman was with child and she being present and interrogate acknowledged that she was with child and being earnestly exhorted to declare the truth as to the father of it she answered that Sir James Steuart of Burray was the father of the child and that it was begotten in the Panhouse of Flotta a fortnight before Hallowmass last she likewise declared that she had a husband called John Christian who went to the military four years ago but knows not whether he be in life….
NRS, CH2/1101/1, 81v, 29 April 1744
Feature image: Egilsay Kirk. Wiki Commons, Robert Beharie
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