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Key Features

The following are the key features associated with the service:

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Quick Search
The quick search allows searching by parish name, county name or free text searching of the Account’s text.
Parish search
Locate a parish by searching by name or choosing from an A-Z list of county and parish names.
County Search
Locate a county by searching by name or choosing from an A-Z list of county and parish names.
County Map
Click on a county to locate county information.
Page Finder Facility
The Accounts may be searched by page and volume number.
Keyword Searching
The search feature allows searching of the complete text for keywords or groups of words. There are three lines of surrounding text that allows the user to judge if the reference is useful to them.
Approximate Searching
Approximate searches of all the text contained in the Accounts. This feature is useful if spelling is unknown or unclear, or variations of a word exist.
Display search results within context
View the scanned images either as a single page or as adjacent pages. It is also possible to view a scanned image and the associated transcript text together.
Browse the volumes as published
Browse the volumes in the order in which the parish and county reports were published.

Browse

Browse/view the scanned pages and transcribed text.

Print

Print a page using a printer friendly option or download whole parishes as a PDF.

Bookmark

Bookmark a parish
It is possible to bookmark a parish and return directly to it at a later date.
Bookmark a citation
It is possible to bookmark a page citation. This means the page is accessible from the user's browser without the need to log on to the Statistical Accounts and re-run a search.

Edit

Copy and Paste
It is possible to copy and paste text from transcribed text pages into other software packages.

Link from each parish to the Gazetteer for Scotland

The Gazetteer for Scotland is a vast geographical encyclopaedia, featuring details of towns, villages, bens and glens from the Scottish Borders to the Northern Isles. The first comprehensive gazetteer produced for Scotland since 1885, it includes tourist attractions, industries and historical sites, together with histories of family names and clans, biographies of famous Scots and descriptions of historical events associated with Scotland. The network of connections between all of these entries makes this gazetteer unique. Visitors will also find included the text of Groome's 19th Century Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland in the entries to provide a historical perspective.

Related Resources

Census for the Parish of Stow, 1801
The Stow parish census of 1801 is one of the few local returns to survive from the date when the official census of Great Britain was inaugurated. It is therefore a small but significant piece of Scottish demographic history. It is also a unique source which perfectly complements the description of the parish to be found in the First or 'Old' Statistical Account.
The Statistical Account and the Stages of Society: An Introduction to Sir John Sinclair's Specimens of Statistical Reports (1793), by Richard B. Sher
An introduction (2005) to Sir John Sinclair's Specimens (1793) by Richard B. Sher, Distinguished Professor of History at New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, Newark.
Sir John Sinclair. Specimens of Statistical Reports. London, 1793.
Through his Specimens of Statistical Reports published in London in 1793, Sir John Sinclair hoped to procure a Statistical Account of England on which he intended that the English clergy and the Board of Agriculture should co-operate. In the Specimens he selected individual parishes from the First Statistical Account of Scotland to illustrate the progress of human society from the pastoral state to that of luxury. The work was also translated into French as Prospectus d'un ouvrage intitul: Analyse de l'tat politique d'Ecosse, d'aprs les rapports des ministres de chaque paroisse.
Sir John Sinclair. Analysis of the Statistical Account of Scotland, 1826
Sir John Sinclair's Analysis of the Statistical Account, published in 1826, gives an account of his purpose in embarking upon the endeavour of collating reports from each parish in Scotland and publishing them as the First Statistical Account; and assesses the information that has been derived from his statistical enquiries, covering a wide range of topics, e.g. the longevity of the people of Scotland; the diseases of Scotland; the present state of the population of Scotland; the productive classes; and the commerce of Scotland.
Transcript of the Sir John Sinclair's questions to ministers, 25th May 1790.
On 25 May 1790 Sir John Sinclair sent the Church of Scotland parish ministers in the 938 parishes across Scotland a total of 160 questions or 'queries' , along with a further six additional questions or 'addenda', to answer. The questions were arranged under the following main headings: Questions respecting the Geography and Natural History of the Parish (1-40); Questions respecting the Population of the Parish(41-100); Questions relating to the Productions of the Parish(101-116); and Miscellaneous Questions(117-160); and a further Addenda (6). Sir John believed that his well-ordered collection of facts derived from the answers would form a 'quantum of happiness' of the whole of Scotland and also be a 'means of improvement'.
Manuscript reports (with annotated transcripts) from individual Parishes.
The original manuscripts of answers to Sir John Sinclair's questions contain significantly more text than appears in the printed Statistical Accounts. By comparing the manuscript and printed versions, it is possible to learn about Sir John's editing technique, and to obtain more information about individual parishes than is available from the printed accounts. More manuscript accounts will be added as they come to light.
Index of Compilers of Reports within the Statistical Accounts
This Index of Compilers lists the names of the persons responsible for compiling the accounts of parishes that form the First and Second Statistical Accounts of Scotland. Most of the accounts in the First Account were compiled by ministers of the Church of Scotland, with a small number by schoolmasters and heritors (i.e. landowners). In the Second Account, many of the reports were still compiled by ministers, but a higher number were by contributors such as schoolmasters, lawyers, doctors, heritors and other interested parties. In both Accounts, a small number of reports were anonymous.

Forthcoming Resources

Index of Maps within the Statistical Accounts
There are five maps in the First Account, and thirty-one in the Second, making a total of thirty-six in all. This online Index of Maps gives a full description of each map and its location in the printed sets of the Accounts examined and provides a direct link to the online version of the map. No binding instructions for the incorporation of maps in the Accounts have yet come to light. Maps may be placed differently in surviving sets of the printed Statistical Accounts and many sets are incomplete. The sets examined are in Edinburgh University Library, Edinburgh Central Library, National Library of Scotland Map Library and Glasgow University Library. Little is yet known about how the maps in the First Account came to be included. The maps in the Second Account were earlier issued together in atlas form by Blackwood in 1838 as Blackwood's Atlas of Scotland. Individual county maps were available at 1s each. In 1839, Lizars (the engraver) added more roads to the original plates; and in 1853 a second edition.