Que: Changing Religion in Scotland

[Boongie Pam]

Anyone know how likely it is that members of a family would swap and change religion in Scotland.

It is a particular gap in my knowledge and I'm having difficulty finding baptisms for a family and I'm stuck as where to go now.

The pattern of religion is as follows...

Isabella Lind (mother) - baptised at parish church (Church of Scotland) West Calder 1802
Thomas Aitken (father) - baptised at parish church (Church of Scotland) Kirknewton 1803

Marriage proclaimed at Kirknewton 15 Jul 1828
"These certify that Thomas Aitken and Isabella Lind both of this parish are regularly proclaimed in order to marriage and no objections offered. Alex Shand." At the parish church (Church of Scotland)

No baptisms can be found for any of the children - the family lived in the same property for 3 census. First child was born ~1830 the last ~ 1851.

George Aitken
William Aitken - married Church of Scotland after banns
Elizabeth Aitken - married Church of Scotland after banns
Jane Aitken -  married Church of Scotland after banns
Thomas Aitken - married 1. Church of Scotland after banns 2. After Publication according to the forms of the Unitarian church
James Aitken
Isabella Aitken
Margaret Aitken - Banns according to the forms of the United Presbyterian Church
Robert Aitken - 1. After Banns Free Church of Scotland 2. After Banns United Presbyterian Church
Mary Aitken

Where there is no detail I have no marriage.

My question is trying to understand these different religions to try and work out why there are no baptisms for ANY of these children in the Kirknewton OPR these records appear well kept and no obvious gaps.

Thomas Aitken's father George is not from Midlothian and I'm trying to rake over any detail to try to find where he is from.

Appreciate and thoughts on religion in Scotland.  It maybe the case that all the above children grew up and married under their spouses religion?  Other aspects are that this is the only family in my tree where the women did not have illegitimate family.

Thanks,
Pam

[Little Nell]

Pam,

Have you ever looked at this site:

http://website.lineone.net/~davghalgh/churchhistorytext.html

It may help.

Himself's ancestors came from various parts of Scotland and included one prominent minister (Rev Robert Hunter), a follower of James Morison a minister in the United Secession Church (established after a split in the 1820s I think), who became a leading light on the Evangelical Union Church.  This was established in the 1840s about the same time the disruption affected the Church of Scotland.    By the time the Rev Robert died in 1901 it had united with other presbyterian groups to become the United Free Church.

I have found siblings marrying in different churches within months of each other, all having been baptised in the Church of Scotland: United Presbyterian (1876), Free Church of Scotland (1877), Evangelical Union (1878) and then United Free Church (1915).

I think half the problem is not that the people necessarily changed religion,  I think the churches split, amalgamated and maybe split again before joining another group in order to keep the congregations alive.  The names changed with amazing speed but maybe they worshipped in the same building!

Nell

[JAP]

As Nell says!!

Though I find those entries (Thomas and Robert) which have Banns being proclaimed in two different churches interesting.

I take it that you are saying that the family lived in the Kirknewton area during the time of the births of their children?  It might be interesting to see whether the Kirknewton OPR normally recorded baptisms of children from other churches (often, in my experience, these have disapproving comments like 'baptized by a Seceder').  And are there any surviving records of churches other than the established Church of Scotland for the area?

Good luck,

JAP

[Boongie Pam]

Thanks Nell I had seen the site - I posted it resources lol 

But the heathen that I am could see how the church seemed to change but wondered how that effected families.  As you say the time span was rapid and buildings may not of changed etc.

JAP - I wasn't quite clear in my post sorry Thomas and Robert both married twice not 2 banns for 1 marriage.  Thomas was widowed and Robert's 1st wife did a runner and he applied for divorce, odd for such an early date and an Ag Lab.  This is one of the small details that made me think they took their moral self quite seriously in that he went through the proper channels to divorce.

I've scoured the Kirknewton, West Calder, Mid Calder OPR and others for these children - nothing.

There is no comment from any cleric as to whether any baptisms were performed outside the articles of the Church of Scotland.

Because of the varied marriages I've tried to find records for alternate churches, to no avail.

Another researcher who has posted on the web but won't reply to my emails has assigned a baptism from Newton to one of the children - this is wholly incorrect but heyho I know where I am!

The building they lived in belonged to Thomas' mother's family the Scotts so they are a long established presence in the parish and marriages are there to be tripped over.

I am plain baffled and can become quite boring 

Pam
 

[Little Nell]

Thinking a bit more about it, I wonder if there wasn't an element of "following the preacher."  James Morison was a minister of the United Secession Church in Kilmarnock, but was ejected for his views.  However, the congregation stood by him and they kept possession of the building and it became a church of the Morisonian or Evangelical Union Church.

These 19th century Scottish ministers must have been a very charismatic lot.

Nell

[Boongie Pam]

I think I need to continue searching for alternative church records to solve this little quodlibet.

Thanks for your help and thoughts on the matter.  Of all the things I don't know on my family tree this one drives me to despair the most and yet I know so much about the family!  In fact there about 6 fellow researchers I know of all independantly at the same point.  Heyho.

P

[RJ_Paton]

I have several instances like yours around that period where the family have followed the churches as they split (re split and rejoined etc) My understanding of this period is that many of the church buildings were not owned by any central body but were, by and large, the property of the congregation (this was a very different situation to that in England) ...... the Scottish Churches could be looked upon more as being similar to a modern day franchise operation

There was actually a case quite recently involving a split in the Free Church which ended up in the High Court as the congregations fought over the property

This is the link to that story http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/3525604.stm

[Tutu Bonnie]

Pam: 
Better late than never?   Had a similar problem with my West Calder Lind lines -- they just disappeared from the OPR records in the same period you are struggling with.  Some -- but not all -- popped up in the Associate Session records, I believe at Kirknewton.  Some earlier records suggest the family had Covenanter sympathies.  Another clue is in the West Calder OPRs circa 1800 -- several Lind siblings/cousins are listed together, out of sequence, I think at the end of the 1800 pages.  No baptismal dates for the children, several children of same parents listed consecutively.  So the minister was keeping a tally of the children in the parish who had not been baptised in his church.    I suspect the Howison women who married Linds were part of the Aitken family through their mother, but have no proof for that view.    Good luck!  Tutu Bonnie

[Boongie Pam]

Hey Bonnie!

Hope you are well. Late is NEVER too late 

I'm still where I was with this family.  Traced a lot of siblings forward but still stuck.

Thanks for the leads.  I'll try to get to the library to trawl the fiche for the Linds you mention.

I've looked at the Kirk Sessions and the Free Sessionminutes in West Calder - but only briefly and couldn't find anyone.

I guess that is part of the fun!