Books and Borrowing 1750-1830

List of libraries

Inverness Kirk Sessions Library

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inverness-kirk-sessions

Also known as Inverness Presbyterial Library. Located in Inverness. Founded in 1706. Type of library: Institutional. Collection: Moved elsewhere.
Address: 86-88 Church St, Inverness
Visit modern catalogue

This bar chart shows total borrowings by year, for the period 1758-94. Borrowings have been fully transcribed from the sole extant register.

["1758","1759","1760","1761","1762","1763","1764","1765","1766","1767","1768","1769","1770","1771","1772","1773","1774","1775","1776","1777","1778","1779","1780","1781","1782","1783","1784","1785","1786","1787","1788","1789","1790","1791","1792","1793","1794"]
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Library description

Inverness Kirk Session Library was founded as part of Kirkwood’s library initiative, and indeed the collection contained two works by Kirkwood himself. It was founded in Jan 1706, by the gift of books valued at £775 0s 8 d Scots, sent from piously disposed persons in London to the town of Inverness as the beginning of a presbyterial library in that bounds (Inverness Presbyterial Library, catalogue and borrower's register, GB 231 MS 1066). The initial collection was small, but thanks to donations, it gradually increased. It was housed in Dunbar’s Hospital. By 1737 it had 1,232 books and in another 40 years, by 1777, the collection contained 1,593 books.  The books were moved to the Inverness Academy in 1793 due to the poor condition caused by the pupils’ use, but were returned to Dunbar’s Hospital in 1817. Kirk Session Library was one of 17 presbyterial libraries and 48 parochial libraries in the Highlands, but by 1817 it was one of the only General Assembly Libraries still remaining. The library continued until 1907. The collection is now held in Inverness Public Library. The surviving register contains a very small number of circulations spread over a period from 1758 (the most prolific year, with 14 borrowings) to 1794 (4 borrowings), with a number of years in that span in which no borrowings are recorded. An earlier register, covering the years between 1706 and 1746 and thus falling outside the scope of our project, exists for Inverness Presbyterial Library, the name by which the Kirk Session Library was initially known. This, and other manuscripts relating to the library, including catalogues and lists of donations and benefactors, are held in the University of Aberdeen Special Collections (https://www.abdn.ac.uk/collections/)

Borrower description

Borrowers are clergymen, both Church of Scotland and of other denominations.

Holding description

Thomas Pennant visited Inverness Kirk Sessions Library in the second half of the eighteenth century, and described it as ‘a library of 1400 volumes of both antient and modern books’ (Thomas Pennant, A Tour in Scotland, 4th edn (London, 1776), p. 179). The collection was originally theological in nature, but its haphazard growth via donations meant that in fact it contained quite a broad variety of works.

Sources

  • Other: Inverness Kirk Session Library [uncatalogued]: MS Catalogue 1737

Secondary sources

Alexander Mitchell, The Library of Inverness; its origin, constitution, and present condition. Compiled for the information of the Kirk-Session of Inverness by Alexander Mitchell (Inverness, 1901) 

Inverness kirk-session records 1661-1800, edited by Alexander Mitchell (Inverness: Carruthers, 1902), pp 189 - 206

Colin A. McLaren and Margaret A. Stephen, Reports and Surveys of Archives in Northern Scotland, Northern Scotland, 2 (1976 - 1977), 187 - 188

Sources outside the period

University of Aberdeen Special Collections GB 231 MS 1066: Inverness Presbyterial Library catalogue and borrowers' register, 1706 - 1743, containing catalogue of the library's foundation books, and valuation thereof, made by Mr Henderson, stationer, Edinburgh, Jan 1706; details of books gifted to the library, Jan 1706 - 1714; catalogue of books, Dec 1709, arranged alphabetically by author's name; list of library benefactors and their donations, Jan 1706 - Jan 1717, arranged alphabetically by name of benefactor; account of books gifted to the library by Dr James Fraser, Secretary and Register of the Royal Hospital of invalids at Chelsea, 1708 - 1720; and record of loans, c 1712 - 1743 (mostly c 1712 - 1726).

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Aberdeen Theological Library

Location: Aberdeen
Foundation date: 1700
Type of library: Institutional
Number of library registers: 7
Number of books: 360
Number of borrowers: 278
Number of library records: 3333

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Advocates Library

Also known as Advocates' Library

Location: Edinburgh
Foundation date: 1682
Type of library: Institutional
Number of library registers: 54
Number of books: 5899
Number of borrowers: 932
Number of library records: 11812

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Chambers' Circulating Library

Also known as Robert Chambers' Circulating Library

Location: Edinburgh
Foundation date: 1828
Type of library: Other
Number of library registers: 1
Number of books: 919
Number of borrowers: 311
Number of library records: 7319

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Craigston Castle Library

Location: Craigston
Foundation date: 1604
Type of library: Other
Number of library registers: 1
Number of books: 396
Number of borrowers: 189
Number of library records: 684

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Dumfries Presbytery Library

Location: Dumfries
Foundation date: c.1706
Type of library: Other
Number of library registers: 1
Number of books: 636
Number of borrowers: 249
Number of library records: 3475

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Edinburgh University Library

Also known as University of Edinburgh Library

Location: Edinburgh
Foundation date: 1582
Type of library: Institutional
Number of library registers: 36
Number of books: 2339
Number of borrowers: 2069
Number of library records: 14638

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Glasgow University Library

Also known as University of Glasgow Library

Location: Glasgow
Foundation date: 1451
Type of library: Institutional
Number of library registers: 8
Number of books: 3476
Number of borrowers: 1013
Number of library records: 15372

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Haddington Library

Also known as John Gray Library

Location: Haddington
Foundation date: 1717
Type of library: Other
Number of library registers: 2
Number of books: 462
Number of borrowers: 743
Number of library records: 5187

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Hunterian Museum Library

Location: Glasgow
Foundation date: 1807
Type of library: Institutional
Number of library registers: 1
Number of books: 244
Number of borrowers: 42
Number of library records: 368

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Innerpeffray Library

Also known as The Library of Innerpeffray

Location: Innerpeffray
Foundation date: 1680
Type of library: Other
Number of library registers: 1
Number of books: 793
Number of borrowers: 1182
Number of library records: 5393

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Inverness Kirk Sessions Library

Also known as Inverness Presbyterial Library

Location: Inverness
Foundation date: 1706
Type of library: Institutional
Number of library registers: 1
Number of books: 38
Number of borrowers: 20
Number of library records: 61

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Leighton Library

Also known as Bibliotheca Leightoniana
Leightonian Library
Library of Dunblane

Location: Dunblane
Foundation date: 1688
Type of library: Subscription
Number of library registers: 5
Number of books: 809
Number of borrowers: 306
Number of library records: 6737

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Orkney Library

Also known as Kirkwall Library, Orkney Subscription Library

Location: Kirkwall
Foundation date: 1683
Type of library: Subscription
Number of library registers: 4
Number of books: 236
Number of borrowers: 127
Number of library records: 1636

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Royal High School of Edinburgh

Also known as High School of Edinburgh

Location: Edinburgh
Foundation date: 1658
Type of library: Institutional
Number of library registers: 5
Number of books: 1966
Number of borrowers: 2410
Number of library records: 19968

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Selkirk Library

Also known as Selkirk Subscription Library

Location: Selkirk
Foundation date: 1772
Type of library: Subscription
Number of library registers: 2
Number of books: 832
Number of borrowers: 179
Number of library records: 11812

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St Andrews University Library

Location: St Andrews
Foundation date: 1612
Type of library: Institutional
Number of library registers: 25
Number of books: 7560
Number of borrowers: 673
Number of library records: 21578

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Wigtown Subscription Library

Location: Wigtown
Foundation date: 1795
Type of library: Subscription
Number of library registers: 4
Number of books: 345
Number of borrowers: 103
Number of library records: 6230

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