History of Kincardineshire-book recommendation?

[jennywren001]

Hi everyone,
I'd really to get a feel of the NE countryside in the 18th and early 19th century.  T.C. Smout is great for Scotland overall but wondered if there is anything more specific for the Kincardinshire area? It might make my 'Jolly' study a bit more interesting if I could put the people in some sort of context.
Thanks
Jen

[Isabel H]

I know of several local history books that focus on the former county town, Stonehaven, but there seem to be few about Kincardineshire as a whole. If you can find a copy try "Highways and Byways Round Kincardine" by Archibald Watt. Also look at Groome' s Gazetteer, and the Statistical Accounts of Scotland, both online.
Lewis Grassic Gibbon' s "A Scots Quair", although fiction, gives a good flavour of this part of Scotland.
As an afterthought, there is also "The Queen' s Scotland: The Eastern Counties" by Nigel Tranter.

[jennywren001]

Thanks Isabel,
I've got Gibbon's trilogy so maybe I'll start with that.  I'm reading a book my Henderson on 'Angus and the Mearns' but it's very rose tinted glasses - I'm sure life was a lot harder than he portrays. I'm familiar with the Statistical Accounts but not Groome's Gazetteer so that's a new one for me. I'll keep an eye out for the other two.
Jen

[Designer Jeans]

Hi

It would have been extremely tough living in Kincardineshire in the 18th and 19th centuries!  It's rural and remote today, let along all those years ago.  According to the blurb in the waiting room at Laurencekirk station there were only 80 or so people living at Laurencekirk in the 1730's and the population didn't increase much until the advent of the railways which gave access to markets further afield.

Try www.laurencekirkab30.co.uk Home/Area Guide/History and Heritage

Valerie

[ev]

This website may be of interest , articles , book extracts etc.  -
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/nescotland/index.html

ev

[jennywren001]

Ev,
You've just started a mystery! Browsing site you mentioned and found this in an old diary entry:

Aug 2, 1814    James Brebner & Robert Ritchie cam hom from french prison

Is this Robert Ritchie (Whitefisher, born abt 1788 living at Gourgon in 1841) who marries Catherine Sherret in 1823 after she's been married to William Jolly in 1811? - I know - lots of Robert Ritchies but it's got to worth a little poke around. Oops getting totally off topic here!
Jen

[Rowana]

Have a look for "Portrait of a parish" which is all about St Cyrus, my birthplace.

[Johnner Kid]

Ev,
You've just started a mystery! Browsing site you mentioned and found this in an old diary entry:

Aug 2, 1814    James Brebner & Robert Ritchie cam hom from french prison

Is this Robert Ritchie (Whitefisher, born abt 1788 living at Gourgon in 1841) who marries Catherine Sherret in 1823 after she's been married to William Jolly in 1811? - I know - lots of Robert Ritchies but it's got to worth a little poke around. Oops getting totally off topic here!
Jen

Gourgon   This has to be fishing village of GOURDON in Bervie Parish which adjoins Benholm Parish.
"..home from French prison .." 
As a bit of speculation I would suggest this is in the Napoleonic Wars period.  Fishermen from Gourdon and Johnshaven were taken off their boats while at sea by Press Gangs to man English ships at this time. The boats returned to their villages manned only by the boys.
If the English ship was later captured by the French the crews were imprisoned and subsequently  exchanged for French.
The Old Statisical Accounts for Benholm and Bervie are two good online sources for getting this sort of data and a general descriptions of the social and economic conditions of the late 1700s in NE Scotland.
Cheers
Sy

[ev]

As a bit of speculation I would suggest this is in the Napoleonic Wars period.

Napoleon abdicated in April 1814 so the men returning in August 1814 would make sense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon


ev