Place:Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland

Watchers
NameKirkcudbrightshire
Alt namesThe Stewartry
Siorrachd Chille Chuithbheirtsource: Wikipedia
TypeTraditional county
Coordinates55°N 4.1°W
Located inScotland     ( - 1975)
See alsoDumfries and Galloway Region, Scotlandregional administration 1975-1996
Dumfries and Galloway, Scotlandunitary Council Area since 1996
Contained Places
Former parish
Corsock
Kirkandrews ( - 1670 )
Kirkchrist ( - 1654 )
Senwick ( - 1670 )
General region
Glenkens ( - 1975 )
Hamlet
Airds of Kells ( - 1975 )
Balmangan ( - 1975 )
Bargrennan ( - 1975 )
Beeswing ( - 1975 )
Borgue (hamlet) ( - 1975 )
Bridge of Dee ( - 1975 )
Burnfoot (Carsphairn) ( - 1975 )
Carsethorn ( - 1975 )
Caulkerbush ( - 1975 )
Colvend ( - 1975 )
Creebridge ( - 1975 )
Crocketford ( - 1975 )
Dundrennan ( - 1975 )
Gelston ( - 1975 )
Glen Trool ( - 1975 )
Kirkandrews ( - 1670 )
Kirkconnell (New Abbey) ( - 1975 )
Kirkconnell (Tongland) ( - 1975 )
Netherlaw ( - 1975 )
Newbridge ( - 1975 )
Port Mary ( - 1975 )
Prestonmill ( - 1975 )
Sandgreen ( - 1975 )
Southwick ( - 1975 )
Whinnieliggate ( - 1975 )
Inhabited place
Auchencairn ( 1856 - 1975 )
Castle Douglas ( - 1975 )
Corsock
Creetown ( - 1975 )
Dalbeattie ( - 1975 )
Gatehouse of Fleet ( - 1975 )
Girthon (village) ( - 1975 )
Haugh of Urr ( - 1975 )
Kippford ( - 1975 )
Kirkbean (village) ( - 1975 )
Kirkcudbright (town) ( - 1975 )
Laurieston ( - 1975 )
Maxwelltown ( 1810 - 1928 )
New Abbey (village) ( - 1975 )
New Galloway ( - 1975 )
Palnackie ( - 1975 )
Rhonehouse ( - 1975 )
Ringford ( - 1975 )
St. John's Town of Dalry ( - 1975 )
Terregles (village) ( - 1975 )
Threave ( - 1975 )
Tongland (village) ( - 1975 )
Twynholm (village) ( - 1975 )
Parish
Anwoth ( 1727 - 1975 )
Auchencairn ( 1856 - 1975 )
Balmaclellan ( 1747 - 1975 )
Balmaghie ( 1768 - 1975 )
Borgue ( 1741 - 1975 )
Buittle ( 1736 - 1975 )
Carsphairn ( - 1975 )
Colvend and Southwick ( - 1975 )
Crossmichael ( 1751 - 1975 )
Dalry ( 1691 - 1975 )
Girthon ( 1699 - 1975 )
Kells ( 1698 - 1975 )
Kelton ( 1717 - 1975 )
Kirkbean ( 1714 - 1975 )
Kirkcudbright ( 1743 - 1975 )
Kirkgunzeon ( 1702 - 1975 )
Kirkmabreck ( 1703 - 1975 )
Kirkpatrick-Durham ( - 1975 )
Kirkpatrick-Irongray ( 1693 - 1975 )
Lochrutton ( 1697 - 1975 )
Minnigaff ( 1694 - 1975 )
New Abbey ( 1691 - 1975 )
Parton ( 1714 - 1975 )
Rerrick ( 1736 - 1975 )
Terregles ( - 1975 )
Tongland ( 1693 - 1975 )
Troqueer ( 1690 - 1975 )
Twynholm ( 1694 - 1975 )
Urr ( 1769 - 1975 )
Suburb
Maxwelltown ( 1810 - 1928 )
Terregles (village) ( - 1975 )
:the text in this section is partly based on an article in Wikipedia

Kirkcudbrightshire or, formally, "the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright" (Siorrachd Chille Chuithbheirt in Gaelic) was a county in the southwest of Scotland until Scottish counties were abolished in 1975. It was then merged with its neighbouring counties of Dumfriesshire and Wigtownshire to become the Dumfries and Galloway Region. In 1996 there was another reorganization of local administration structure in Scotland. This caused very little change in the southwest. The Region is now a unitary authority with the name Dumfries and Galloway Counci Area.

Image:Kirkcudbrightshire2.png

The term "Galloway" is used when Kirkcudbrightshire and its western neighbour Wigtownshire are described together.

The county is called "The Stewartry" (from its formal title, the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright) by its inhabitants and forms the Stewartry committee area of Dumfries and Galloway Council, represented by eight Stewartry councillors. Local administration of the district today is overseen by the Stewartry Area Manager, based in the county town of Kirkcudbright.

Kirkcudbrightshire continues to be used administratively for property registration. References to past censuses, civil registration (or vital statistics records) prior to 1975, and the Old Parish Registers (pre 1855) always quote "Kirkcudbrightshire" in preference to any other title.

Kirkcudbrightshire is bounded on the north and north-west by Ayrshire, on the west and southwest by Wigtownshire, on the south and southeast by the Irish Sea and the Solway Firth, and on the east and northeast by Dumfriesshire. It included the small islands of Hestan and Little Ross. It had an area of 897.6 sq. miles (2,323km2).

Today the economy is dependent on agriculture and tourism. The land is hilly and in parts mountainous. Rainfall is higher than the British average. As a result the county is better suited to growing grass than grain crops. Galloway cattle, a beef breed, is native to the region.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Early history

The country west of the Nith was originally peopled by a tribe of Celts called Novantae, who long retained their independence.

After Gnaeus Julius Agricola's invasion in 79 AD, the country nominally formed part of the Roman province of Britannia, but the evidence is against there ever having been a prolonged effective Roman occupation. There was a Roman temporary marching camp at Shawhead, Irongray Parish.

After the retreat of the Romans, the fate of the Novantae is unknown. By the 6th century, Galloway was part of the Brythonic kingdom of Strathclyde.

During the ninth century, the region was part of the Kingdom of Northumbria. A hoard that has been attributed to either a Northumbrian metal-worker, or a Viking campaigner, was deposited near Talnotrie c.875-900.

11th, 12th, and 13th centuries

During the next two hundred years the country had no rest from Danish and Saxon incursions and the continual lawlessness of the Scandinavian rovers.

When Malcolm Canmore defeated and slew Macbeth in 1057 he married the dead king's relative Ingibiorg, a Pictish princess, (the view that there were Picts in Galloway in historical times can not be wholly rejected) an event which marked the beginning of the decay of Norse influence. The Galloway chiefs hesitated for a time whether to throw in their lot with the Northumbrians or with Malcolm; but language, race and the situation of their country at length induced them to become lieges of the Scottish king.

14th and 15th centuries

In 1308 the district was cleared of the English and brought under allegiance to the king, when the lordship of Galloway was given to Edward Bruce.

In 1372 Archibald the Grim, a natural son of Sir James Douglas "the Good", became Lord of Galloway and received in perpetual fee the Crown lands between the Nith and the Cree. He appointed a steward to collect his revenues and administer justice, and thus arose the designation of the "Stewartry of Kirkcudbright".

In 1455 Threave Castle, the most important fortress in Galloway, which Archibald the Grim had built on the Dee immediately to the west of the modern town of Castle Douglas, was reduced and converted into a royal keep.

16th and 17th centuries

As the Douglases went down the Maxwells rose, and the debatable land on the south-east of Dumfriesshire was for generations the scene of strife and raid, not only between the two nations but also among the leading families, of whom the Maxwells, Johnstones and Armstrongs were always conspicuous. After the Battle of Solway Moss (1542) the shires of Kirkcudbright and Dumfries fell under English rule for a short period. The treaty of Norham (24 March 1550) established a truce between the nations for ten years; and in 1552, the Wardens of the Marches consenting, the debatable land ceased to be matter for debate, the parish of Canonbie being annexed to Dumfriesshire, that of Kirkandrews to Cumberland.

18th century

McCulloch and Gordon families were of Cardoness Castle, Anwoth Parish and Rev. Rutherford was minister of Anwoth.

After the union (1707) things mended slowly but surely, curious evidence of growing commercial prosperity being the enormous extent to which smuggling was carried on. No coast could serve the "free traders" better than the shores of Kirkcudbright, and the contraband trade flourished until the 19th century. The Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 elicited small sympathy from the inhabitants of the shire. In the 1760s a military road was constructed from Bridge of Sark, near Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway to Portpatrick by Major William Caulfeild.

19th century

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 established a uniform system of county councils in Scotland and realigned the boundaries of many of Scotland's counties. Subsequently, Kirkcudbright County Council was created in 1890. Kirkcudbright was based at County Buildings, 121 and 123 High Street, Kirkcudbright.

The county council was abolished and replaced by the new Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council in 1975.

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.

Notes for Kirkcudbrightshire

  • The Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society website may point to material of interest to the general researcher. Amongst their publications are indexes for the 1841 census. These are prepared as small booklets, one for each parish, and are alphabetically indexed transcriptions. Obtainable from the D & G FHS, address at website.
  • The FreeCen Project has a searchable (not browsable) transcription of the whole of Kirkcudbrightshire online for the 1841 census.
  • The Stewartry of Kirkcudbright Monumental Inscriptions pre-1855 by Alison Mitchell, published by the Scottish Genealogical Society. A series of 7 small volumes of transcriptions of gravestones from all the cemeteries in the former county. Obtainable from the Scottish Genealogical Society, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 2JL.
  • The Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society has expanded the availability of monumental inscriptions by publishing further surveys of the cemeteries and graveyards in the county.
  • A Historical Index of the People and Places of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbrught. A resource containing a variety of information to assist people interested in places in the Stewartry (or County) of Kirkcudbright including places and placenames, historical articles, newspaper marriage and death notices.
  • More publications and websites dealing with individual parishes may be listed in the Research Tips for the parishes concerned.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Kirkcudbrightshire. 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.