Dear all,
I'm a linguist at Leiden University working on lower- and middle-class Scottish English between ca. 1750 and 1900. This is a largely understudied period and demographic in Scottish linguistic history, and we're hoping to get a clearer picture of the linguistic situation through the use of applications for poor relief written to parishes across Scotland. (You can read more about the project here:
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2023/08/digging-for-treasure-in-archives-what-did-spoken-scots-sound-like). While I'm currently making my way through the Scottish archive catalogues, I thought I'd cast my net wider and try to crowdsource any useful leads you may have.
My question therefore is: if you encounter any letters of application—so not just forms with personal details filled out, but long-form letters asking to be added to the poor roll—could you shoot me a message on here, with the archive and reference number where you encountered these materials? If photographing the materials is free in your location, pictures would be very helpful too in ascertaining the usefulness of the documents. Moreover, if you encounter other personal written material (letters, diaries, etc.) those could also be very helpful in getting a better image of what lower- and middle-class writing looked like at the time. Any help is appreciated!
Many thanks in advance, and if you have any questions or comments, or suggestions on where to look/who to contact, let me know!
Best wishes,
Hester Groot
