Place:Berwickshire, Scotland

Watchers
NameBerwickshire
Alt namesBerwicksource: Getty Vocabulary Program
Siorrachd Bhearaigsource: Wikipedia
Duns-shiresource: wikipedia (19th century)
TypeTraditional county
Coordinates55.76°N 2.44°W
Located inScotland     (1889 - 1975)
See alsoBorders, Scotlandregional authority 1975-1996
Scottish Borders, Scotlandunitary council area since 1996
Contained Places
Hamlet
Birgham ( - 1975 )
Burnmouth ( - 1975 )
Dryburgh ( - 1975 )
Grantshouse ( - 1975 )
Lamberton ( - 1975 )
Leitholm ( - 1975 )
Polwarth (hamlet) ( - 1975 )
Simprim (hamlet) ( - 1975 )
Inhabited place
Coldingham (village) ( - 1975 )
Coldstream (town) ( - 1975 )
Duns (village) ( - 1975 )
Earlston (village) ( - 1975 )
Eyemouth (town) ( - 1975 )
Greenlaw (town) ( - 1975 )
Hume (village) ( - 1975 )
Lauder (village) ( - 1975 )
Reston ( - 1975 )
St. Abbs ( - 1975 )
Swinton (village) ( - 1975 )
Parish
Abbey St. Bathans ( 1715 - 1975 )
Ayton ( 1743 - 1975 )
Bunkle and Preston ( 1704 - 1975 )
Channelkirk ( 1651 - 1975 )
Chirnside ( 1660 - 1975 )
Cockburnspath ( 1642 - 1975 )
Coldingham ( 1690 - 1975 )
Coldstream ( 1690 - 1975 )
Cranshaws ( 1731 - 1975 )
Duns ( 1615 - 1975 )
Earlston ( 1711 - 1975 )
Eccles ( 1697 - 1975 )
Edrom ( 1721 - 1975 )
Eyemouth ( 1710 - 1975 )
Fogo ( 1660 - 1975 )
Foulden ( 1682 - 1975 )
Gordon ( 1652 - 1975 )
Greenlaw ( 1699 - 1975 )
Hutton ( 1700 - 1975 )
Ladykirk ( 1697 - 1975 )
Langton ( 1728 - 1975 )
Lauder ( 1677 - 1975 )
Legerwood ( 1689 - 1975 )
Longformacus ( - 1974 )
Mertoun ( 1729 - 1975 )
Mordington ( 1721 - 1975 )
Nenthorn ( 1702 - 1975 )
Polwarth ( 1652 - 1975 )
Swinton ( - 1975 )
Westruther ( 1657 - 1975 )
Whitsome ( - 1975 )

Description based on Scottish Places article on Berwickshire.

A former county of southeast Scotland, Berwickshire had an area of 461 sq. miles (1193km2) and was bounded to the north by East Lothian, to the east by the North Sea, to the southeast by England, to the south and southwest by Roxburghshire and to the west by Midlothian, extending southwards from the Lammermuir Hills to the lower course of the River Tweed which still forms the border with England. Tributaries of the Tweed, which provided Berwickshire with its principal rivers, include the Leader, Blackadder and Whiteadder.
Its county town was Duns, with other significant settlements including Coldstream, Coldingham, the fishing port of Eyemouth, Greenlaw and Lauder. In 1974 it was incorporated into the short-lived Borders Region as Berwickshire District which was replaced by Scottish Borders Council Area in the local government reorganisation of 1996.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Berwickshire. especially the section "History--County".

image:Berwickshire parishes4png.png

Research Tips

  • official civil (from 1855) and parish registers (from when first produced) for births, marriages and deaths for all of Scotland
  • original census images for all years available (1841-1911).
  • collections of wills and testaments and
  • property tax listings
  • an extensive collection of local maps
  • kirk session records for individual parishes (added in 2021 and not yet complete).

This site is extremely easy to use. There are charges for parish register entries, collections of wills, and census listings (the 1881 census is free to view, also on Ancestry and FindMyPast). The charges are reasonable and payable by online transfer. Viewing the kirk session records is free, but a charge will be made for a copy.

  • The National Library of Scotland have an online map collection of historic and modern day maps which can zoom in on a specific farmhouse or street in a town. Their collection also includes London and some counties of southeast England.
  • Gazetteer for Scotland contains an article for each parish from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by F. H. Groome, (published 1882-4) and short details about each parish today including names of small settlements within a parish.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki explains a great many legal terms only found in Scotland and provides a gazetteer for genealogists for each parish across the county. It reviews the availablility of parish registers.
  • GENUKI Scotland which provides for each Scottish parish (indexed by county), amongst other data, complete quotations from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) by Samuel Lewis, John Bartholomew's A Gazetteer of the British Isles (1877), and possibly other gazetteers from individual counties and regions. It is worth reviewing one of its county pages to see what is available online or in print from local archive providers. Each county page has a "Where in ---shire is .... ? section--very helpful in pinpointing the small places below parish level.
  • A list of Burial Grounds in Scotland is now available on the website of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.
  • The Statistical Accounts of Scotland Online provides access to digitised and fully searchable versions of both the Old Statistical Account (1791-99) and the New Statistical Account (1834-45). These uniquely rich and detailed parish reports, usually written by local Church of Scotland ministers, detail social conditions in Scotland and are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Scottish history.
  • GENUKI has a list of references for Berwickshire. Some of these may be superseded by more modern material.
  • The Borders Family History Society provides a page of facts and publications for each of the parishes in its area. They have a lot of material. On each parish page is a map of the local area taken from either the Ordnance Survey Quarter-inch to the mile, Scotland, 1921-1923 series or the Ordnance Survey One-inch to the mile, Popular edition, Scotland, 1920-1930 series. These maps are not visible immediately upon opening a page, but worthwhile scrolling down to find.


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Berwickshire. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.