Register General requesting evidence for births that occurred before 1854?

[genealogyem]

were retrospective birth registrations a common request?

Other than the Register of Neglected Entries, I have never come across anything like this before.

Where did they go when they left Scotland? Could they have been sponsored by some sort of England-based organisation or employer who required evidence that they were squeaky clean, but failed to understand that civil registration only started in 1855 in Scotland? But even if that were the case, why was it necessary to go to court to get the Registrar General to 'register' the births using information in a source held by the very same Registrar General? All very strange.

I did have a look in the NRS online catalogue but found nothing. It might be necessary to find and search the records of Dundee Sheriff court.

Take GR2's advice; ask SP.

Based on my research, David and Elizabeth left Scotland in October 1871. Though I dont know the exact reason for them leaving, the most likely reason is the economic state of the William Denoon Young Company. David had been elected commissioner for them in 1870. Upon leaving the country, the company published a notice in Edinburgh Gazette seeking to find a replacement. After this I am slightly uncertain of their movement but believe that I found them in the 1881 census living in Northamptonshire. I also found an 1883 Leicestershire obituary that I believe is David.

David jr settled in the greater London area. He married Mary Fraser in Chelsea in 1868, and spent many years around the Battersea area. He died rather suddenly in Poplar in 1889, leaving his wife widowed with 6 children ranging from 15 years to 1 month old.

I dont know much about his younger brother James. I believe that he too settled in the greater London area but have not been able to find definitive proof that the person I found is him.

[still_looking]

In the following:
Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1860   23 & 24 Vict. c. 85
6 August 1860

There is explicit reference to Petitioning the Registrar-General by warrant viz.

"Register of Neglected Entries.    
II. It shall be competent for any Person on Payment of a Fee of Five Shillings to register in a Book to be kept for the Purpose in the General Registry Office, to be called "The Register of Neglected Entries," any Birth, Death, or Marriage which shall have taken place in Scotland between the Thirty-first Day of December One thousand eight hundred and the First Day of January One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five: Provided always, that in order to such Registration there shall be produced to the Registrar General a Warrant to that Effect by the Sheriff of the County in which such Birth, Death, or Marriage occurred, to be granted upon a Petition, of which Intimation, by Advertisement or otherwise, shall be made as such Sheriff may direct, and after due Inquiry, and hearing any Parties having Interest who may appear to oppose such Petition, and which Warrant, and all written Documents produced to such Sheriff, together with his Notes, which such Sheriff is hereby required to take, of all parole Evidence adduced before him, shall be transmitted to the Registrar General, and shall be retained among the Records of his Office: Provided also, that a Copy of the Entry of any neglected Birth, Death, or Marriage which occurred subsequent to the Year One thousand eight hundred and nineteen shall be made and transmitted from the General Registry Office to the Registrar of the Parish or District in which such neglected Birth, Death, or Marriage occurred, and shall by him be recorded in such Form and Manner as the Registrar General may direct."

This act has been superseded but presumably the same mechanism of petition exists in later revisions i.e. not just for the period mentioned above.

Searching the National Records of Scotland catalogue returns three such petitions raised via the Court of Sessions all at more recent dates than 1868.

S_L

[Mabel Bagshawe]

Is this your James?

James Sword, full age, moulder
Father: David Sword, moulder

Mary Ann Paxton,
Father: Jacob Paxton, labourer

Marriage    12 Jan 1879,  St. Wilfrid, Wilford,  Nottinghamshire,

I'm not doing very well with any further info. There's no Sword births with mmn Paxton  registered in England and Wales and Jacob Paxton isn;t obvious either