Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

BANFFSHIRE
731 ; each from 50 to 100 acres, 518 ; each ahove 100
acres, 463 ; rents range from 5s. to 50s. per acre.
The manufactures are of comparatively small amount,
and chiefly for home consumption. The manufacture
of linen yarn and linen cloth was at one time very con-
siderahle in Banff, Cullen, Keith, and Portsoy ; and
that of stocking-thread, for export to Nottingham and
Leicester, was extensively carried on at Banff and Port-
soy ; but these manufactures dwindled away into either
insignificance or extinction, and have not been followed
by any others of similar character or of equal import-
ance. Foundry-work, tanning, rope-making, and some
other industries employ a good many hands. Nine
distilleries were at work in 1871 ; and two or three
others had then been relinquished. Salmon fishing in
the Spey and in the Deveron is conducted on yearly
rentals of about £50,000. Herring fishing and deep-
sea fishing, as indicated in our statistics of the Banff
and Buckie fishery districts, are very productive, and
employ large numbers of persons. Commerce is carried
on from Banff, Macduff, Gardenstown, Portsoy, Cullen,
Buckie, and Port-Gordon. The railways are the main
line of the Great North of Scotland system, along
Strathisla, past Keith ; a branch from that line coming
from Inveramsay and going to Macduff ; another branch
from it at Grange, with two forks to respectively Banff
and Portsoy ; another from Keith, past Dufftown, to
the Craigellachie Junction : and another is (1S81) pro-
jected from Portsoy to Cullen, Buckie, and Port-Gordon.
The royal burghs are Banff and Cullen ; police burghs
are Macduff and Dufftown ; and other towns and chief
villages are Buckie, Keith, Portsoy, Aberchirder, Port-
knockie, Gardenstown, Charlestown of Aberlour, Port-
Gordon, Portessie, Findochty, Whitehills, Fetterangus,
Fordyce, Newmills, and Tomintoul. The principal man-
sions are Gordon Castle, Duff House, Eden House, Rothie-
may House, Auchintoul, Cullen House, Forglen, Arndilly,
Letterfourie, Edingight, Troup House, Mayen House,
Mountblairy House, Auchlunkart, Cairnfield House,
Drummuir Castle, Park House, Kininvie House, Aber-
lour House, Lesmurdie, Netherdale, Cobairdy, Dun-
lugas House, Ballindalloch Castle, Carnousie, Glassaugh,
Orton, and Blairshinnoch. According to Miscellaneous
Statistics of the United Kingdom (1879), 405,501 acres,
with total gross estimated rental of £227,025, were
divided among 4025 landowners ; one holding 159,592
acres (rental, £23,842), one 72,032 (£36,380), one
48,946 (£34,268), three together 38,121 (£20,481), four
29,824 (£19,390), fourteen 44,S06 (£30,064), three 5229
(£4456), five 3395 (£2839), twelve 3550 (£13,099), etc.
The county is governed (1881) by a lord-lieutenant,
a vice-lieutenant, 33 deputy-lieutenants, a sheriff, a
sheriff-substitute, 2 honorary sheriff-substitutes, and
271 magistrates. The sheriff court is held at Banff in
two sessions, from 1 May till 31 July, and from 1 Oct.
till March, and the court days are every Wednesday
for ordinary business, and Thursday for proofs. Sheriff
small debt courts are held at Banff ever Tuesday during
session, and once in winter, twice in summer, vacation ;
at Buckie, Keith, and Dufftown, every three months ;
and at Tomintoul, twice a year. The police force, in
1880, exclusive of that in Banff burgh, comprised 23
men, and the salary of the chief constable was £200.
The number of persons tried at the instance of the police
in 1879 was 252 ; of those convicted, 251 ; of those not
dealt with, 141 ; and of those committed for trial, 0.
Thecommittals for crime, in the yearly average of 1841-45,
were 29 ; of 1846-50, 16 ; of 1S51-55, 21 ; of 1856-60,
23 ; 1861-65, 22 ; of 1864-68, 21 ; of 1869-73, 32 ; of
1870-74, 29 ; of 1875-79, 18. A small prison at Keith
was discontinued in 1871, and another at Banff in
1878, this latter being legalised in 1880 for the deten-
tion of prisoners only for 14 days, and Elgin being
otherwise the Banffshire prison. The annual value of
real property, assessed at £88,942 in 1S15, was £116,968
in 1843, and £239,298 in 1881, including £14,711 for
railways. The county, exclusive of the burghs, returns
a member (always a Liberal since 1837) to parliament ;
its constituency was 2646 in 1881. Pop. (1801) 37,216,
124
BANGOTJR
(1821) 43,663, (1841) 49,679, (1861) 59,215, (1871)
62,023, (1881) 62,731, of whom 32,948 were females.
Houses (1881) 12,565 inhabited, 606 vacant, 72 building.
The registration county takes in parts of Keith and
Inveraven parishes from Elginshire ; gives off parts of
Bellie and Rothes parishes to Elginshire, of Cairney,
Gartly, Glass, New Machar, and Old Deer parishes to
Aberdeenshire ; comprises 23 entire parishes ; and had,
in 1881, a population of 59,777. AU the parishes are
assessed for the poor. The number of registered poor,
in the year ending 14 May 1880, was 1582 ; of depend-
ants on these, 793 ; of casual poor, 312 ; of dependants
on these, 239. The receipts for the poor, in that year,
were £16,540, 2s. 6d. ; and the expenditure was £16,997,
19s. 8d. The percentage of illegitimate births was
16-4 in 1872, 15 '3 in 1873, 17 '4 in 1S79.
The civil county is divided politically into 19 quoad
civilia parishes, and parts of 11 others, and divided
ecclesiastically into 21 old and 7 quoad sacra parishes,
with parts of others, and 2 chapelries. Of these 28
parishes 11 are in the presbytery of Fordyce and synod
of Aberdeen, 6 in the presbytery of Strathbogie and
synod of Moray, and the rest are distributed among the
presbyteries of Aberlour, Turriff, Deer, and Alford. The
United Presbyterians have a presbytery of Banffshire,
whose 10 churches had 1324 members in 1879. In the
year ending 30 Sept. 1880 the county had 91 schools
(74 of them public), which, with accommodation for
14,619 scholars, had 11,594 on the registers, and 8553
in average attendance, whilst the certificated, assistant,
and pupil teachers numbered 126, S, and 24.
The territory now constituting Banffshire belonged
anciently to the Caledonian Vacomagi, who had towns
near Boharm aud at Burghead. Numerous cairns,
standing stones, and other relics of the ancient Cale-
donians are in various parts. It has been thought that
a Roman road traversed the northern main body of the
county, and that Roman stations were formed at Desk-
ford and on or near the site of Gordon Castle. The
Danes made repeated descents on the territory, suffered,
according to tradition, great defeats at Rathven and
Mortlach, and have left some vestiges. The chief his-
toric event, however, with which this county is certainly
connected, was the battle of Glenlivet (1594). Mediaeval
castles, either fairly entire, or represented only by
smaU remains, are at Balvenie, Auchindoun, Findlater,
Boharm, and Banff. An ancient church, claiming to
have been once a cathedral, is in Mortlach ; and an-
other old church, with old historic associations, in Gamrie.
See papers on ' The Agriculture of Aberdeen and Banff
Shires,' by Jas. Black and Jn. Milne, in Trans. Highl.
and Ag. Soc. for 1870 and 1871 ; G. J. AValker's Royal
Commission Report on the same (1881) ; Jos. Robertson's
Collections for a History of the Shires of Aberdeen and
Banff (5 vols., Spalding Club, 1847-69); Sam. Smiles'
Life of a Scotch Naturalist (1876) ; and J. G. Phillips'
Wanderings in the Highlands of Banff and Aberdeen
Shires (1881).
Banffshire Railway, a railway in Banffshire, from the
Grange station of the Great North of Scotland main line,
164 miles north-eastward to Banff, with a branch of 3j
miles from Tillynaught to Portsoy. Authorised in 1857,
on a capital of £90,000 in £10 shares and £30,000 on
loan, it was opened in August 1859. An extension, 14|
miles long, to Port-Gordon was authorised in 1863, but
was not carried into execution, and was formally aban-
doned in 1867. The railway, from its opening, was
worked by the Great North of Scotland, with which it
was amalgamated in 1867.
Bangholm Junction, a brief branch of the Caledonian
railway system in the north-western vicinity of Edin-
burgh, connecting the Caledonian system with the Leith
branch of the North British. It is only J mile long,
and was authorised in 1865, on a capital of £15,300 in
shares and £5000 on loan.
Bangour, an estate in Ecclesmachan parish, Linlith-
gowshire, in the western vicinity of Uphall. It belonged
for many generations to the Hamiltons, and gave desig-
nation to the distinguished Scottish poet William HainU-