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From: Jill McKenzie <>
Subject: Re: Fornication - Kirk Sessions
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2000 19:03:58 +0100


In article <009901c01d11$304d5d80$>, Valerie Wotton
<> writes
>Lesley is probably right about it happening during the service but I thought
>these admonitions happened during the meetings of elders (who were
>responsible for the morals of the community). I've seen the minutes of the
>session where my gt-gt-grandfather's brother and his girlfriend were
>admonished in front of the elders. His father was one of the elders and
>that kirk session was the only one his father ever missed. The couple
>married about a month later and a baby was born about a month after that so
>she was obviously pregnant. From the minutes of kirk sessions this sort of
>happening was widespread so I don't know if the couples really felt
>embarrassed or whether it was just some formality before they were allowed
>to get married. However people were also admonished for drunkenness and
>other "sins"
>Valerie
>

As a point of interest I would wonder if events of this type were really
so "widespread" over the population. Right enough, Kirk Session minutes
are full of them - but as Valerie said the policing of parish morality
was one of their roles. They didn't bother to make entries on couples
who married without having been admonished.

Having said this I did see an entry in one particular parish around 1830
where the session decided to discontinue public rebukes as it was not
deterring others. They felt perhaps they may even have been giving
people ideas!

Jill McKenzie
Glasgow, Scotland

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