Pawns delivered?

[rossm]

Hello everyone,

Came across an unusual one tonight whilst transcribing some of my older OPRs. This is from the Register of Marriages for Markinch in 1755

John SIMSON & Janet SIMSON both in this Parish having consign'd pledges gave up their names for proclamation in order to marriage June 21st. Pawns Deliver'd Apr 23 1756.

At first I read the last bit as 'Banns delivered', and didn't think much about it, but then I realised that 5 out of 11 entries on the same page had the same phrase added after them, and realised it definitely says 'Pawns delivered'.

Anybody come across this before? My only thought might be that they couldn't pay the fee for the proclamation and pawned something in lieu until a later date.

And then, on very simiar note, the very next record I went to transcribe is this (this time the Wemyss Register for 1753)

Thomas CROMBIE, Mason in Methil & Margaret WILKIE there were contracted in order to marriage this 15 Decem'r 1753.

Witnesses David Wilkie elder & Da Wilkie yo'r consigning Dollars

This time it's the 'consigning dollars' (or is it dollans?) bit I've never seen before. Again, one other entry on the same page uses the same phrase, and in the margin for both entries there's a note which says 'Returned'. Again, have they left something in lieu of payment and had it returned later?

All wild theories welcomed

Ross

[AndrewP]

Hi Ross,

I had never seen these phrases before. Googling the "pawns delivered" phrase gives many results (most look to be irrelevant to this context). One that is of this context leads to a transcription of the marriage registers of Edinburgh Parish from the same era.

http://www.mocavo.com/The-Register-of-M ... 902087/484

The Chambers English Dictionary has under its definitions for pawn "the state of being pledged", or "to give in pledge; to pledge".

The entries in the Markinch register that have "pawns delivered" also are preceded by "having consigned pledges". Others on the page "gave their names for proclamation in order to marriage". So as I read it, some gave their names, others pledged their names and later fulfilled their pledges (presumably by giving their names, or possibly by paying the dues [although that is conjecture on my part]).

As for the consigning dollars, the only offering I have is again from Chambers English Dictionary, which has various monetary definitions for dollar, but one that looks to be a possibility is "5 shillings (old slang)". I cannot say whether or not that is the meaning intended in the Wymess register.

All the best,

AndrewP

[johnniegarve]

I think that's right, money was put up which was redeemable on the marriage taking place, sometimes a cautioner (pro' caytioner) pledged the sum. This was presumably to prevent frivolous statements of intent which never came to fruition.

Johnnie.

[paddyscar]

No reference to either term in Dictionary of the Scots Language

Frances

[AndrewP]

No reference to either term in Dictionary of the Scots Language

That's why I like my Chambers English Dictionary. It has a lot of dialect based words as well as the standard words. Chambers were an Edinburgh Company (I am not sure where they are based these days). I am guessing that their Scots origin leads to a good amount of Scottish terminology to be found on their pages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ch ... publisher)

All the best,

AndrewP

[WilmaM]

I have a Chambers Scots Dictionary

Dollar - a five shilling piece

various entries for pawn but

Pawnd noun a pledge, security. verb to pledge

[rossm]

Hi,

Thanks to everyone who has replied. It does sound as if I was thinking of it the wrong way round, and that the pawn was a financial pledge to guarantee the marriage. What's interesting to me now is that the dates marking the return of the pledge always seem to occur between 8 to 10 months after the marriage contract. I'm beginning to wonder if this coincides with the birth of the first child, or whether this was just a standard period to wait. I'll need to do a little more digging on this.

On the subject of the Dollars, I was transcribing yet more OPR marriage records from the Parish of Wemyss and found that in 1710 and 1735 the coinage mentioned for the pledge is two Crowns. On doing more digging to find out what a Crown was worth in those days I found this on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_%28British_coin%29

So, a Scottish Dollar was indeed equivalent to 5 English Shillings (or 60 Scots Shillings) and was replaced by the British Crown after the Union in 1707. Quite why they've gone back to referring to Dollars by the time of the 1753 register seems a bit archaic, but I guess the older coins might still have been in circulation even by then.

I think the lesson I've learnt these past few weeks is that even if you've got the details of births and marriages from transcriptions such as familysearch, if you can afford it it's always worthwhile tracking down the original version to see for yourself if there is any extra detail. It does occasionally add a bit of extra colour to proceedings.

Ross