August 29th 1843

A Royal Commission for the Poor

Each kirk was enjoined to “provide for the poor within itself.”  By the poor was meant “the widows and the fatherless, the aged, impotent or lamed who neither can nor may travail for their sustenation.” 

Because it was run by magistrates in the burghs and Kirk sessions in the country areas, there was little uniformity in the help provided to the destitute. There was also no help provided for the able bodied poor, and with the coming of the Industrial Revolution, large numbers of people, particularly in the towns, found themselves out of work through no fault of their own.

Matters finally came to a head in 1843 with acute depression in the towns and disastrous potato harvests in the country. A Royal Commission was appointed to investigate the conditions of the poor throughout the country. Their investigations in Meigle showed a reasonably satisfactory state of affairs but there were rather more problems in Newtyle.

From Meigle
1. John Martin, aged eighty nine. Was tailor. Has 8s per month. Session pays his rent. December ent country house. Wife and fourteen children. Youngest a soldier aged eighteen. December ent furniture, eight day clock. Said he had no complaints to make. When he has any wants he is supplied.

2. Betty Petrie, widow, above eighty. Has 7s per month, and a person is paid to attend her. December ent bed, and enough furniture. Plenty of coals in a corner. Bad floor but house warm. She is unable to go out. Says her attendant is doing well for her. She, the attendant is the mother of a large family, and the elder of the district pays her more liberally on that account.

3. Thomas Isles, aged eighty. Bed-ridden. Has 6s per month. Rent paid for him. Common country house, warm enough, but not neatly kept. Has a wife and one child, who does for herself. No appearance of want in the house. Eight day clock, good fire and plenty of potatoes.

4. Margaret Lundie, widow, aged seventy five. Has two daughters at service. She is a pauper belonging to Coupar Angus. Has 5s per month. Rent 10s per annum. Her daughters assist her. She gathers dung. Mrs Murray of Simprim gives her £1 in the year. Says 'She is as happy as they that have mair gear. She sees things that they can’t see.'

From Newtyle
1. Mary Percy. A pauper belonging to Alyth, residing in Newtyle. Not at home but house very dirty.

2. Agnes Stewart, in the village of Newtyle. Has five or six illegitimate children. Has occasioned aid from session. House good but dirty and ill kept. Session have put her boy to school. A daughter who lives with her weaves, and she winds her pirns, and they make 4s 9d between them. The father of her children never assists them. Has a son in Dundee who does not assist her. Her boy at home makes 5s a fortnight by weaving which he gives to his mother.

3. Colin Brown. A shoemaker. A bad character in the village of Newtyle. Has been twice in jail lately. While he was there the Session gave his family 2s per week, and Mrs Watson gave them 21/2 pecks of meal in the week. She gives them coals and clothes. His rent is £2. He can gain 8s per week at his trade as a shoemaker, but he is a determined blackguard and will never do any good.

4. Rachel Fergusson, widow. Youngest child five or six years old. She was left with ten of them. She will not have any assistance from the parish. She has a very clean house, and two clean beds and has brought her children very well up. Mr Watson, to whom her husband was shepherd, allowed her to keep her house and a little bit of garden ground and her cow’s grass, and with that assistance she has brought her family very well up.