St Cuthberts Poor House.....

[Bertha]

Does anyone know if there are any records at National Archives or anywhere else in Edinburgh for St Cuthberts Poor House in 1866.
I think I have found the death cerficate for my 3x gr grandmother Margaret Ross there. The only info is her name, the fact she was a widow and her age. The age is about right and my Margaret had been widowed 10yrs by then. If it is, looks like I have another thick wall to chisel through!
Irony is I was born in that very same place (its now the Western General) 52 yrs ago this week.
Regards
Bertha

[LesleyB]

Hi Bertha
Sorry to say, as far as I'm aware, having contacted the archives in Edinburgh myself a while ago, no poorhouse records for Edinburgh survive...they were incinerated, I believe . Great, huh?? Especially when we can see what we might have had when looking at the magnificent Glasgow records.

Best wishes and commiserations...
Lesley

[AndrewP]

Hi Bertha,

Some information regarding St Cuthberts Poorhouse can be found on the following webpage. That page suggest that records are kept in the City Archives in the City Chambers, but like Lesley has said, I believe that these records may have been disposed of or destroyed.

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/ ... erts.shtml

The poorhouse at Craigleith (now part of the Western General Hospital) was opened in 1868. The previous one was on a site approximately where the Caledonian Hotel now stands according to that webpage. I would place it a little south of there, nearer where the Sheraton Hotel now stands - see the 1853 Ordnance Survey map of the area.

http://www.nls.uk/digitallibrary/map/to ... _1_sw.html
click on sheet 34 and zoom in on that to see the poorhouse location.

It may be too late and little consolation, but there was an article in the newspaper a few days ago saying that an archivist from NAS will be working with the City Archivists to try and sort out their archives and improve their storage, plus making them more accessible. These archives were the ones in the City Chambers and others moved out to a storage facility in Murrayburn Road. We shall have to wait some time to see what the results of that are.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

[LesleyB]

Hi Andrew & Bertha
It was South Leith Poorhouse I enquired about, but I did get the impression from the reply that all Edinbugh poorhouse records were destroyed...however it certainly wouldn't do any harm asking the City Archives about St Cuthberts specifically, just in case.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Bertha]

Thanks Andrew & Lesley.
Ah it would seem from reading that Craigleith and St Cuthberts were one & the same but the lady I referred to going by the dates will have died in the earlier Poor House.
Coincidence still as my daughter works at the Sheraton Spa!
Bertha

[Merlot]

Bertha,

I enquired about records for St. Cuthberts Poorhouse and was told that they had been destroyed. Thought I might have found the death there of Finlay McMillan, foiled again

Cheers,
Merlot

[Bertha]

Thanks for that Merlot. Could be a waste of time then. Now I may never know if it was my Margaret Ross,
Bertha

[DavidWW]

Bertha,

I enquired about records for St. Cuthberts Poorhouse and was told that they had been destroyed. Thought I might have found the death there of Finlay McMillan, foiled again

Cheers,
Merlot

That fits with what I was told by the Glasgow City archivist (who rescued the Glasgow records from a basement in the City Chambers shortly before they were about to be destroyed ) many years ago, to the effect that the Edinburgh poor relief records had been incinerated ...........

David

[LesleyB]

Hi David
The note I jotted down at the time of my 'phone conversation with the archivist in Edinburgh City Archives about 2 years ago says:

Archivist says they were deliberately destroyed in the 60s, around 1966-67, he thinks as a kind of "social work"reaction - if the poor records were destroyed then you could claim there had been no poor.

Apart from the remains of the poorhouses then and the maps which clearly show them as having been there..... and the census records which have longs lists of those who were inmates....

Bertha - as far as I'm aware Craigleith Hospital and Poorhouse was not the same institution as either South Leith or North Leith Poorhouse.
...And just as an interesting historical note: Anne Gladstone, wife of Rev. Walter Goalen, (and 1st cousin to WE Gladstone PM) laid the foundation stone of the North Leith Poorhouse according to reports in the Scotsman and the will of Rev. Walter Goalen in which he leaves the little mallet used for the ceremony to one of his children.

Best wishes
Lesley

[DavidWW]

Hi David
The note I jotted down at the time of my 'phone conversation with the archivist in Edinburgh City Archives about 2 years ago says:

Archivist says they were deliberately destroyed in the 60s, around 1966-67, he thinks as a kind of "social work"reaction - if the poor records were destroyed then you could claim there had been no poor.

....snipped .............Lesley

Hmmm..... thanks for that sad, very politically correct, insight !

David