Stent Roll 1633
Transcribed by Gill Paterson & Andrea Morrison
The following is an alphabetical list of people living in Burntisland in 1633, taken from the stent list (taxation roll) of October 1633, which was recorded in the minutes of Burntisland Town Council for that year. It includes additional information about some of the people, but not the sums due from them. The information was extracted from the original records in the National Records of Scotland by Gill Paterson and Andrea Morrison. It is not a comprehensive list of all inhabitants, as poorer people did not pay taxes and as some names were too difficult to transcribe. Images of two of the original pages (with tranions) can be seen here.
Notes on the Stent List by Gill Paterson: The Stent List (also known as the Extent Roll) was a list of better-off householders who were required to pay taxes. On 22 October 1633, 15 men (mostly the Burgh Councillors) were sworn in to oversee the collection of taxes, and a further man (Thomas Murray) was sworn in at the meeting of 30 October as he had been absent from the earlier meeting. The minutes of the 30 October 1633 meeting refer to the General Convention held in Edinburgh in July 1630 and the meeting of the Scottish Parliament in June 1633, and to the granting to the King permission to raise taxes from his subjects in Scotland.
[Transcription of the image on the right, which is the first page of the 30 October 1633 entry.] Penultimo Octobris 1633 |
The Burntisland Town Council minutes of 1633 were a major source in Gill Paterson's research into the Burntisland events of that year. For example, the minutes of 30 October 1633 contained the stent list (taxation roll) which gave us the names of 277 of the town's residents at that time.
The Town Council records are contained in narrow bound books and are not available online. They are written in secretary hand and contain many archaic Scots words. Spelling is haphazard, as is the use of punctuation and capitals. Words are often abbreviated to save space. The Council usually met weekly. This extract is from the record of the meeting at which the stent list was discussed: “The Council meetings were held with strict decorum and regularly weekly. The hours of meeting were unearthly, modelled on the daylight-saving lines.”
To give readers a flavour of the original documents, two images of pages of the minutes are provided below. They are accompanied by Gill's tranions.
The Burntisland Town Council minutes of 1633
[Transcription of the image on the right, which is a specimen page from the stent list. We do not know what the 'x' in front of some names means; nor were we able to transcribe the sums due.] (Left hand column) jone anderson alias [brasone] alexander gib johne arnot jone stedman jone watsone wm andersone walter malcolme wm broun skippar andro barclay adame stevinsone margaret danzeill jone henrysone david bissitt robert schaddo james angus jone [ninckarsie] alexander stanhone andro cregh jone broun younger baxter jone stoddart flesher
(Right hand column) james orrok janet geddie margaret russell jone cusing david gourlay alexander ged agnes broun jone scot younger james huntare rbt huggone james wat elder david marshall david archibald jone [hainisun] jone allane bessie thomsone w(a)m hair alexander finlay |
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