Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

FORFARSHIRE
spinning, weaving, and bleaching of linen are carried
on in various other quarters, but chiefly for manufac-
turers in these towns. Manufactures of leather, gloves,
soap, candles, hand cards, machinery, confectionery,
and other articles also are carried on in considerable
magnitude, but only or chiefly in the large towns, prin-
cipally Dundee, Arbroath, and" Montrose, and are noticed
in our articles on these places. The railways of the
county embrace the Dundee and Perth, whioh runs a
few miles along the coast to Dundee; the Dundee and
Arbroath ; the Arbroath and Montrose, along the coast to
Montrose ; the Montrose and Bervie, going along the
coast into Kincardineshire; the Tay Bridge connections
at Dundee; and the connections and branches to Forfar,
Brechin, Kirriemuir, etc. (See Caledonian Railway
and North British Railway.)
Forfarshire, with a constituency of 12 154 in 1896,
returns one member to parliament; Dundee returns
two members; and Montrose, Arbroath, Brechin, and
Forfar, forming with Bervie the Montrose Burghs, re-
turn one. Other towns are Kirriemuir, Broughty
Ferry, and Carnoustie; and the principal villages are
Auehmithie, Barnhill, Claverhouse, Downfield, Edzell,
Ferryden, Friockheim, Glamis, Hillside, Letham, Moni-
fieth, Newtyle, and Northmuir. Mansions, all noticed
separately, are Airlie Castle, Cortachy Castle, Ethie
Castle, Glamis Castle, Kinnaird Castle, Brechin Castle,
Auldbar Castle, Panmure House, Invermark Lodge,
Caraldston Castle, Rossie, Duntrune, Ochterlony, Hos-
pitalfield, Stracathro, Bandirran, Lindertis, Linlathen,
Baldovan, Invergowrie, Baldowrie, etc. A great pro-
portion of the lauded property of the county at the
beginning of the 18th century was held by the Lyons,
the Maules, the Douglases, the Ogilvies, the Carnegies,
and a few other ancient families; but much of the large
estates, after the introduction of manufactures and trade,
underwent subdivision, and passed into other hands.
Not one-third of 40 barons recorded by Edward in 1676
as proprietors in the county are now represented by their
descendants, and a portion of even the few ancient
families who continue to be proprietors are now non-
resident. So rapidly has landed property in many
parishes passed from hand to hand, that the average
term of possession by one. family does not exceed 40 years.
The county is governed by a lord-lieutenant, a vice-
lieutenant, 28 deputy-lieutenants, and 231 justices of
the peace. It forms a sheriffdom, with resident sheriffs-
substitute at Dundee, and Forfar and Arbroath, courts
being held at Dundee on Wednesday and Friday, at
Forfar on Thursday, and at Arbroath on Wednesday
throughout the session. A sheriff small-debt court is
also held at Forfar on Thursday, at Dundee on Tuesday,
and at Arbroath on Wednesday. Small debt courts are
held at Montrose on the third Friday, at Brechin on the
third Tuesday, and at Kirriemuir on the third Monday
during session. The County Council is composed of 60
members, for as many electoral divisions, and 4 others
(including the lord-lieutenant) in virtue of section 109
of the Act. The elected members comprise representa-
tives from the following four districts: — Dundee district,
with 13 representatives; Forfar district, 14; Brechin dis-
trict, 12; Arbroath district, 11. The Council is divided
into the following committees: — Standing Joint Com-
mittee (composed of county councillors and commis-
sioners of supply), committees for each of the above four
districts (composed of county councillors and represen-
tatives of the parochial board), Executive Committee of
Local Authority (including 8 non-councillors), Finance
Committee, Public Measures and Parliamentary Bills
Committee, Justice of Peace Committee, Valuation
Committee, County Road Board, Property Committee,
and Dundee Asylum Board. There is a burgh police
force in Arbroath (18 men), Breehin (8), Broughty Ferry
(9), Dundee (180), Forfar (9), and Montrose (12); the
remaining police in the county comprise 47 men, under
a chief constable, whose yearly pay is £308. The num-
ber of registered poor in the year ending 26 Sept. 1894
■was 4062; of their dependants, 1664. The expenditure
was £70,023. The number of pauper lunatics was 941,
FORFARSHIRE
their cost of maintenance being £24,564. The percentage
of illegitimate births was 11'6 in 1871, 9'9 in 18S0 9°2
in 1892, and 8-9 in 1894.
The Boundary Commissioners in 1S91 effected a con-
siderable readjustment of the boundaries between For-
farshire and Perthshire. The Foffarty, Broughty Castle,
and Balbeuchly detached parts of the Perthshire parish
of Caputh — of 283, J, and 285 acres respectively—
were transferred to Forfarshire, to the parishes of Kin-
nettles, Monifieth, and Auchterhouse respectively. The
parish of Fowlis-Easter, which was wholly in Perthshire,
but for ecclesiastical and educational purposes was joined
to the Forfarshire parish of Lundie, has been altogether
transferred to the county of Forfar; and Liff, Benvie,
and Invergowrie parish, partly in both counties, was
also placed wholly in Forfarshire. Alyth and Coupar-
Angus parishes, however, which were likewise partly in
both counties, have been placed wholly in Perthshire;
and the Bandirran detached portion of the Forfarshire
parish of Kettins (containing 335 acres) was also trans-
ferred to Perthshire (to the parish of Collace). No change
has been made on the boundary between the counties of
Forfar and Kincardine, the Kincardineshire part of the
Forfarshire parish of Edzell having been transferred to
the Kincardineshire parish of Fettercairn — Edzell thus
being restricted to the Forfarshire portion. There has,
however, been considerable readjustment of the bound-
aries of the interior parishes of Forfarshire, for which
see the separate articles. The registration county, divided
into 54 districts, had 280,098 inhabitants in 1891.
Although eleventh in size of the thirty-three Scotch
counties, Forfar ranks as eighth in respect of rental roll,
its valuation, exclusive of railways and burghs, being
(1856) £370,519, (1866) £462,138, (1876) £554,407,
(1886) £522,952, (1896) £507,419, plus £63,350 for rail-
ways, and £219,605 for the five parliamentary burghs.
Total (1896), £790,374. In point of population it stands
fourth, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Lanark shires alone
surpassing it. Pop. (1801) 99,053, (1861) 204,425, (1891)
277,735, of whom 125,414 were males and 152,321
females. In 1891 the number of persons to each square
mile was 317.
The county is divided into 55 civil parishes. There
are 31 quoad sacra parishes, and these with the civil go
to make up the presbyteries of Forfar, Brechin, and
Arbroath, and partly to form those of Dundee and Meigle
— all of them included in the synod of Angus and Mearns.
The Free Church has similar divisions, with 66 charges
within Forfarshire ; and the United Presbyterian Church,
in its presbyteries of Arbroath and Dundee, has 33 For-
farshire charges. The Scottish Episcopal Church has
18 churches; the Roman Catholic, 9; and other places
of worship are — 1 English Episcopal, 6 Evangelical
Union, 9 Congregational, 4 Wesleyan, 8 Baptist, 1
Unitarian, and 5 United Original Seceders. In the year
ending Sept. 1894 there were 208 schools (174 public),
which, with accommodation for 53,687 children, had
49,418 on the rolls, and an average attendance of 40,296.
Their staff consisted of 631 certificated, 171 assistant,
and 241 pupil teachers.
The territory now constituting Forfarshire belonged
to the Caledonian tribe of the Vernicomes. It formed,
till the time of Kenneth II., a part of Southern Pic-
tavia; and from 935 and earlier to 1242 was included
in the old Celtic mormaership or earldom of Angus.
Its civil history possesses hardly a distinctive feature;
and, excepting a few facts which properly belong to
the history of its principal towns, Brechin, Arbroath,
Dundee, Forfar, and Montrose, and to its castles, as
Finhaven, Edzell, and Airlie, it is blended in the
general history of the counties N of the Forth. The
chief immigrant barons, at the period of the Anglo-
Saxon colonization, whose descendants continued to
figure most conspicuously in the county, were the
Lyons, the Maules, and the Carnegies. Sir John
Lyon, a gentleman of Norman extraction, having mar-
ried a daughter of King Robert II., obtained, among
other grants, the castle and lands of Glamis, and was
the founder of the noble family of Barons Glamis
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