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Archiver > SCT-EDINBURGH > 2001-06 > 0992355826


From: J A Olsen <>
Subject: Re: [EDB] FIREMEN
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 15:23:03 +0000
In-Reply-To: <003301c0f2dd$3773bd00$0100a8c0@sue>


According to mu 1854 almanac the amount of fire insurance duty collected in
Scotland the previous year was 68,658 pounds. Ten years later it was more
than 124000 pounds.

Someone more knowledgeable might correct me but I believe the insurance
companies ran fire engines, and you would have their sign on your office or
house so people knew which one to call and if you were paid up.

Fires must have been very common in the crowded closes of the Old Town and
water supplies were erratic - it took quite a while to arrange adequate
supplies from the Pentland Hills.

I have looked in mid century almanacs starting with 1838 when there was a
Court of Police under which is listed a Master of Fire Engines and Billet
Master, suggesting that there was a public force (paid or not) and that it
was to some extent live-in.

Later in the century the job is simply Master of Fire Engines.

There is a Fire Engine Museum at Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, in one of the
old fire stations. I took the tour a few years ago and was told they used to
practice evacuating buildings using on their families who lived in special
tenements to the rear.


Hope this helps

Judy


> From: "Sue Adamson" <>
> Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 11:15:40 +1000
> To:
> Subject: [EDB] FIREMEN
> Resent-From:
> Resent-Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 19:18:57 -0600
>
> Dear Listers,
>
> l believe that an ancestor of my husbands [ James ADAMSON ]was a fireman in
> Edinburgh c 1850.
>
> Does anyone know if there are any archives available for this profession and
> whether the fire brigade of the time was a paying job or was it voluntary.
>
> Regards
> Sue
>
>
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