Does anybody know anything about the Associate Synod (the Burgher half of the Secession Church) in Selkirk, and specifically whether baptisms of dissenter families were recorded in the parish registers of the established church or wa there a separate register?
I know that Dr. George Lawson was the professor of divinity at the Divinity Hall (training college for ministers) in Selkirk from about 1782 till his death in 1820. The Statistical Accounts of Scotland for 1791-99 state, ‘There is in Selkirk, a meeting of Burgher Seceders, the only one in the country.’
The census of Selkirk conducted in 1817 recorded Dr. Lawson in Water Row with five others. They were presumably his wife and children, yet there are no baptisms in the OPRs.
Justin
It wasn't unkown for members of dissenting congregations to have an entry also made in the established church register, more so, in my experience, in the border counties compared to elsewhere.
See also the article in the August edition of the UK Your Family Tree.
It's near certain that this congregation kept their own register, but whether that has survived is a moot point.
Try a look at the LDS Catalogue, and also the on-line catalogue of the National Archives of Scotland, but just because there isn't an entry doesn't mean that the register hasn't survived, perhaps in private hands.
NAS have an ongoing project to list all such known register and kirk session material, established, secession, and non-conformist. This will be part of their listing of all douments linked to a place, i.e. the main index will be by place, then will follow a listing of known material and its location. Timescale is a year or three away.........
ibi
PS
A brief history of the presbyterian church in Scotland..........
And it is brief !!, - it takes a book to go into full detail.
Between the Reformation in 1559/60 and 1690 the control of the church changed hands on several occasions between the presbyterians and episcopalians
On the final and permanent restoration of presbyterianism in Scotland in 1690, the Episcopalians and the Cameronians (aka the Reformed Presbyterian Church - most of whom joined the Free Kirk in 1876) both chose to remain outside the Established Church of Scotland.
In 1733 the First Secession Church (aka "Associate Presbytery") broke away from the Established Church of Scotland.
In 1820 parts of subsequent schisms of the First Secession Church joined together as the United Secession Church ....... put that on one side for the moment
In 1761, the second major breakaway from the Established Church of Scotland was the Relief Church.
In 1847, the United Secession and Relief Churches came together to form the United Presbyterian Church, often referred to by the shorthand "UP".
Put that on one side for the moment
In 1843 there was the third major, and largest secession from the Established Church of Scotland resulting in the Free Church or Kirk of Scotland (properly and originally referred to as the Free Protesting Church of Scotland).
In 1900 the Free Church, except for the Free Presbyterians who'd broken away in 1892, and approx 150 Highland congregations whose chose to remain outside, united with the United Presbyterian Church to form the United Free Church.
In 1929 the United Free Church, all but those who remained outside as the United Free Continuing Church, rejoined the "Auld Kirk", i.e. the Established Church of Scotland
The SP OPR index is essentially an index of the Established Church records only.
The IGI contains a number of non-established church records, where LDS have been given access to the records.
For the sake of completeness, of the other two major schisms from the First Secession Church, one - the Burghers Auld Lichts rejoined the Auld Kirk in 1839, and most of the others - the Anti-Burgher Auld Lichts - joined the Free Kirk in 1852, with remainder continuing as the Original Secession Church, - there were approx 3,000 members in 1960.
There were also many, many other small secessions where a congregation or part thereof differed on a point of interpretation to the point where they went off and started their own congregation, sometimes linked to another secession church, but sometimes not.
The whole situation is also littered with a succession of "bear traps" in the sense of the day-to-day name used for a particular congregation differing from its full, formal name, e.g. "The Lifters" who had several congregations in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, -
See
http://website.lineone.net/~davghalgh/churchhistory.html for a chart of the above, with due acknowedgement to this website.
ibi