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Scotland |  |
Buteshire Parishes |
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Information related to all of Buteshire |
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Contents |
"BUTESHIRE. The Islands of Bute, Arran, Great and Little Cumbray (or Cumbrae), Holy Isle, Pladda, and Inch-Marnoch, compose this shire, which comprises 225 square miles of land, or 143,997 acres.
Though far separated from the properly denominated Western Islands, those of Bute statistically constitute a portion of the Hebrides. ... The climate of Buteshire is eminently salubrious - neither
mists nor noxious fogs, so prevalent in the east of Scotland, infest it; snow rarely lies on the hills, and the only qualification to its general genial character is a liability to severe and sudden
rains. ... The number of inhabited houses in the shire is 2,433; the parliamentary constituency for 1876-7 being 1,195. According to the returns presented to Government in 1871 the population of the
shire was 16,996."
[From Slater's Directory of Scotland, with Topographical and Postal Information, Volume II, 1878]
"BUTESHIRE, insular county in Firth of Clyde. It comprises the islands of Bute, Arran, Big Cumbray, Little Cumbray, Holy Isle, Inchmarnock, and Pladda, and has an area of 225 square miles. Real
property in 1880-81, £115,991. Pop. in 1871, 16,997; in 1881, 17,666. The only towns are Rothesay and Millport, and the only village with more than 500 inhabitants is Port Bannatyne. The
county, inclusive of Rothesay burgh, sends one member to Parliament."
[From The Gazetteer of Scotland by Rev. John Wilson, published by W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh, 1882]
To link to a parish map of Buteshire with links to parish pages, please click here.
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Cumbraes - # 552 |
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Archives and Libraries |
See Argyll and Bute Council Local Collections for the library in Dunoon which holds most published information on the history of the area, and Argyll and Bute Council - History and Heritage for local history and museums.
Information on national archives and links to lists of local archives and libraries can be found on our Scotland Archives and Libraries page.
General advice on census records and indexes can be found on our Scotland Census page.
FreeCen for Bute has an index to the 1841 census for the county, and some 1851 records, and welcomes more transcribers for this project providing free access to 19th century census indexes.
The FreeCEN Project for Buteshire has already transcribed the 1841 census for the county and made it publicly available, and they are now transcribing the 1851 census.
For information on records for a particular parish, please see that parish's page (where available). General advice on parish registers throughout Scotland can be found on our Scotland Church Records page.
Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths began in Scotland on 1st January 1855. For details of these records and indexes to them, see our GRO tutorial and our Scotland Civil Registration page.
Wayne McKirdy has compiled an Analytical Index to the Statutory Registers of Death for Bute over the years 1855-1875. This is available on a pay-per-view site McKirdy Index. The index includes most details given in the registers for ALL deaths in that period. He tells us the microfiche are available from New Zealand Society of Genealogists, see NZSG : Microfiche Sales - Church Records, and from Aberdeen and N.E. Scotland FHS. The Index is a genealogical finding aid designed to make identification of the names in the Scottish Death Registers (1855-1875) easier for genealogists. It lists the names of the deceased, their spouses and parents, the names of informants, and all occupations where shown. 1855 also lists the names of the children of the deceased, and their respective ages. All spouses' names are cross-referenced and each entry shows the Register entry number, Parish/District and the LDS film number. The first column on the database is titled "Person" as well as an entry for the person who died, there are entries for others mentioned - mother, father, spouse, informant.
Records of testaments, inventories etc. are held at the National Archives of Scotland.
Bute researchers may be interested in the Bute WorldGenWeb Page.
There is also an electronic mailing list for those with an interest in this county. To subscribe to ButeshireGenWeb-L or to its digest form ButeshireGenWeb-D, send an email message to either ButeshireGenWeb-L-request@rootsweb.com or ButeshireGenWeb-D-request@rootsweb.com. Leave the subject field blank and put "subscribe" in the body of the message omitting the quotation marks. To post to both ButeshireGenWeb-L and ButeshireGenWeb-D, messages should be sent to ButeshireGenWeb-L@rootsweb.com. Messages will appear in both lists.
The Scotland Surnames List maintained by Graham Jaunay includes Bute
Bute Sons and Daughters describes itself: "Set up by Bute Enterprises, a local community based organisation, the Sons & Daughters project aims to develop Bute's genealogy strands, not only in terms of family histories but also our local heritage. Within these pages we have compiled some interesting articles, facts and anecdotes gathered from various sources on the island, including members of Bute's population." The project is based at The Isle of Bute Discovery Centre, Victoria Street, Rothesay, Isle of Bute PA20 0AH .
Family history societies covering Bute include:
See also the full GENUKI listing of Scottish family history societies.
For a social and economic record of the parishes of Buteshire, together with masses of statistical material, see Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, which was compiled in the 1790s. Follow-up works to this were the New Statistical Account (also known as the Second Statistical Account) which was prepared in the 1830s and 1840s; and more recently the Third Statistical Account which has been prepared since the Second World War.
Thanks to a joint venture between the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh the First and Second Statistical Accounts can now be accessed on-line by selecting the following link - The Statistical Accounts of Scotland, 1791-1799 and 1845.
These records give a fascinating glimpse into our ancestors' daily lives. The local Church of Scotland ministers were asked to describe their parishes, for example, what the land was like; what crops were grown; what the predominant language spoken in the parish was; the health of the parishioners etc. Please bear in mind that some ministers had better descriptive powers than others. Nevertheless, you will learn a great deal about their lives. There are no individual names mentioned unless they were major landowners. So this is not a document to search for names.
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This county is maintained by **Job vacancy**.
Page produced by Louise Smith.
Last updated: 22 Jan 2006 - David Hawgood
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