Old Names from the 1600s in Orkney.

March 2007 by Scorrie.

Members of Family History Societies, and others, spend great energy and time in researching back and back, and back again as each new find leads to the next question, always wondering if there is just more rich gem around the corner. We all know of the OPR, the MF, the Census records of which my earliest is of Strathhalladale of 1811, the Registration of Births Marriages and Deaths from 1855 onwards. Yet there are many other sources where information may be gleaned.
Admittedly on a personal note, my earliest ones are in Orkney and are centred in the 1600s on wills and “testamentars”, marriage contracts, old sales or purchases registered in the Court Books of Orkney. Sasine began in 1619 so there are many transactions from then on provided your forebears bought or sold a house or tenement in Kirkwall, or bought or sold land in the County. Attached to these transactions were names of witnesses and of Notarys Public. There are old tombstones which in Kirkwall are perforce in St Magnus Cathedral. And it is there that my research began as the first old Tombstone I saw was shown me by my father and was of Marjory Pottinger, wife of Thomas Dischingtoune, who died 1st Feb. 1669, tho it was long years after seeing it before I began looking.
Her marriage contract with Thomas Dischingtoune in 1664 had the names of them both of course but also the names of Thomas father John Dischingtoune, Maister of the Grammer School of Kirkwall, and his spouse Elinoer Leivingstone. Marjory was the youngest daughter of John Pottinger and Nicola Craigie his spouse. John Pottinger died in Febr. 1660 before she married. Her elder brother Magnus obligated himself to pay the dowry of 500 merks Scots to Thomas, while Marjory got lands at Wasbuster and the Bu’ of Hoy from her parents-in-law. The marriage contract was witnessed by William Pottinger, Marjorie’s younger brother, Andrew Corner, N.P., George and John Spence .
Others of that Pottinger family also appear in various other marriages with their attendant witnesses. These are but names but like a maze, which it is, they can at times provide a link to others. And there are so many other Orkney families and documents to search through in the most impressive new Kirkwall Library and Archives.
Wills and Testaments are another rich source. Earliest I found was Edward Pottinger in Deerness who at his death owed money to Magnus Ske in land dewties, to John Pottinger in landmaillis [rent paid in crop], to Magnus Smith, servant, his fie or wages, to James Ritchie landmailis. More interesting was the Testament of Edward Pottinger of Hobbister who died April 1641, tombstone in St Magnus. At the time of his obviously untimely death he was building a new ship in the Oyse, now the Peerie Sea, but then the well sheltered harbour of Kirkwall. These Orkney built ships crossed the North Sea to Bergen and sailed as far as Danzig in the Baltic. The timber to build them had to be imported, mostly from Norway.
Edward would have needed skilled men to build them, so the list of whom he owed money to at his death reads well. Names were John Achinbell, John Couper, Magnus Good, George Pulwart, carpentars, Hew Seatter, smyth, Thomas Johnston and Oliver Omand, mariners, Katharine Forbes and Margaret Work, servant women. Edward was also a money lender so the extended list of his will contained a massive list of names either to whom he owed money or who owed him. Edward’s tale is a story on its own but for this article a few of the more interesting entries were sums owed by Mitchel Scollay, burgess in Bergen in Norway £72.15.00d Scots, William Manner in Ipswich in England £70 Scots – eventually written off by John Pottinger, Edward’s nephew and executor, and a great number of the landowners of Orkney, and their named wives also, who had borrowed money from Edward. John Pottinger in his later 1660 testament was owed £104 Scots by the Laird of Bornholm, an island in the Baltic pertaining to Sweden.

The Toun Council Minutes of Kirkwall from 1669 to 1700, which I transcribed, contained a multitude of names. There were the sederunts of each Council meeting. A teacher came, Mr John Shilps, late schoolmaster in Week in Caithnes, appointed to the office of ane master of the gram'er school in Kirkwall. A packman came from Caithness to the Lammas Market in early August. There was a Hollander from the Nederlands called Richard Van Ostain, a merchant who became a burgess of Kirkwall. There were the Officers and Sarjeants of the two Militia companies, below serjeant there were no names. There were many references to named persons for various reasons. Captain Seaton from Bruntesand had a comission from Charles 11nd to transport vagabonds and other beggars to the Plantations.
Quote .
21 Nor. 1679 “Item the sd Day Jon Baird produceit ane commission grantit by the Lords of Privie Counsall to and in favor of Captaine Jon Seaton in Bruntesand for transporting of sturdie & idle beggars and vagabounds to his Majesties plantations in America, daittit ye 19 July 1679. In ansr yrunto it is ordained that each bailyie of ye sd burt call for the assistance of ye counsellars & deacons wthin yr seall precincts & take ane roll of such persones wthin yr rexine bounds , make report yrof till this day eight dayis, the qch Comission is ordained to be transumpit under the clerks hand & to be annexed neirto.

3rd Dec. 1679. Item In obedience to the act of Counsall grantit In favor of Captaine Jon Seaton daittit the 19 July last, the Magistrats having caused apprehend Mart Corner, Mart Patersone, as persones formerlie dischargeit out of ye sd town for yr misdeameanor, Merjorie Bigland, Mart Skae & Jaes Edisone, youngest; qa are thought meet to be sent alongst wth ye sd Capt Seaton becaus they are found giltie of thift & ye rest of ye articles contained in the sd act, qrof they are accordinglie convicted by the Magistrats & counsall, & therfor incarcerat in ye tolbuith of ye sd burgh.

So where did the electricity pioneer Thomas Edisone in the USA come from??

The Old Parish Records of Orkney yielded about 110 names of Cromwell’s soldiers christening infants and marrying. The marriages were sometimes to locals but sometimes to a sister of a soldier so they apparently came North with their brothers. Some names stayed on in Orkney and there are people there today who have a name which came in 1652 from South and stayed on. These names ran until 1663 so Cromwell’s men were really the Britsh Army and still in being after Charles 2nd came to the throne in 1660. There were Orkney men in that army detachment as well as Southerners, and they were usually indentified by some being called “Englishe soldier”.
Sasine records from 1619 are a rich source, houses adjacent to a particular dwelling or tenement had their named neighbours specified “bounded on the North, South, East and West”. Hossack in his monumetal work “Kirkwall in the Orkneys” referred to many, as well as maps with an index. And in maps we can again find many names. The ones I have copies of are mostly in Caithness, obviously. Earliest is about 1758. On these maps the names of people rather than addresses of farms take precedence. They were often drawn before huge clearances and the making of large farms took place, so are a rich source. I have ones of quite a number of places, but not of all of Caithness. They were used to a great extent in the Division of Commons going on from the 1820s to the 1860s, if not more. Some took over 20 years to resolve, and written records of them are still with us, also kept in Edinburgh. I have a copy of the division of the Reay Commonty which stretched from Isauld to the Forss River. Old Estate maps are still around, there again we find many names of people. Stroma has a good one, with names of some of my maternal forebears.
So there is no lack of material, the lack is TIME.