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Channelkirk

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"CHANNELKIRK, a parish in the north-west corner of Berwickshire,- bounded by Edinburghshire, Haddingtonshire, and the parish of Lauder, and containing the head-streams of Leader Water ... The Girthgate, or road by which the monks travelled from Melrose to Edinburgh, passes through the western border of the parish; and on this road, a few miles due west of the church, are the ruins of an old building commonly called Restlaw Ha', at which, tradition says, the monks and pilgrims used to stop for refreshment." From the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by John Marius Wilson, 1868.

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Cemeteries

The Borders Family History Society has published a booklet of monumental inscriptions for Channelkirk and Legerwood.

Nigel Hardie has transcribed and published parish of Channelkirk deaths for 1730-1841.

Pre-1855 inscriptions for the parish are contained in the Scottish Genealogy Society's volume of Berwickshire Monumental Inscriptions (Pre-1855).

A supplementary list of inscriptions dated after this period is held in the Scottish Genealogy Society's library in Edinburgh and may be consulted there.

Presbyterian / Unitarian
New Channelkirk, Church of Scotland
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Census

Graham and Emma Maxwell have transcribed and indexed the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census returns for this parish.

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Church Records

The parish church (Church of Scotland) has registers dating from 1651. Old Parish Registers (before 1855) are held in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, and copies on microfilm may be consulted in local libraries and in LDS Family History Centres around the world. Later parish registers (after 1855) are often held in the National Records of Scotland as are any records of non-conformist churches in the area (often unfilmed and unindexed, and only available there).

The parish registers available worldwide on microfilm include kirk session minutes (with gaps) for the years 1650-1734 (in part 729/1). More information on kirk sessions and their records can be found in the Church Records section of the Berwickshire page.

An article based on the Channelkirk parish registers was published in the Scottish Genealogy Society's Scottish Genealogist, Vol. XIX, No. 1, pp.5-7 (March 1972). Written by D.C. Cargill it describes the condition and content of the parish registers kept between 1650 and 1819.

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Civil Registration

Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths began in Scotland on 1st January 1855. For further details of this see the National Records of Scotland website.

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Description & Travel

You can see pictures of Channelkirk which are provided by:

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Gazetteers

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History

See History of Channelkirk by Rev. Archibald Allan (691 pages), published at Edinburgh in 1900. The book is listed in the LDS Family History Library catalogue in microfilm format, so is hopefully available worldwide in LDS family history centres.

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Maps

The National Records of Scotland holds the following as part of its collection of maps and plans:

  • 1833: Plan of Kings Inch enlarged from a plan of the Estate of Channelkirk. Scale 1:800. Size 50x72cm. Grid (map) reference NT4557. NRS reference RHP.3906

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference NT474551 (Lat/Lon: 55.786784, -2.840084), Channelkirk which are provided by:

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Population

Here are some figures showing the parish's population through time:

  • 1755 - 531
  • 1801 - 640
  • 1811 - 707
  • 1821 - 730
  • 1831 - 841
  • 1861 - 641