Series 1 > Diary of the Reverend John Mill, minister of the parishes of Dunrossness Sandwick and Cunningsburgh in Shetland, 1740-1803. With selections from local records and original documents relating to the district

INTRODUCTION
Iv
and the Church records, confined to matters of purely ecclesi¬
astical concern, are almost barren of incidents of general interest
or importance. They may be said merely to chronicle the
services of each successive Sunday, and the actings of the
Session as a petty police and morals judicatory, supposed to
be clothed with a certain sanction of divinity inherited from
bygone times.
The unending burden of the record, here as elsewhere in
Church Records of the period, is the old story of moral delin¬
quency, which occupies alike the time of the Session and the
pen of the Clerk, ad nauseam. Offenders, individually or in
couples, are ever and anon presented, charged with the ‘ heinous
crime,’ which is often admitted, often stoutly denied, and con¬
demned to undergo discipline as accords. To be ‘ rebuked and
exhorted to unfeigned repentance, and to make public satis¬
faction for the scandal, commum forma] was the fate, with
varying degrees of severity, of these too numerous frail ones of
both sexes. To stand before the congregation for twenty-six
Sabbaths was the penal judgment in ordinary cases; in cases
of obstinacy, or lapses for a second or third time, the judgment
was sometimes extended to appearance in public for a whole
year, with infliction of a fine suitable to the gravity of the
case, after which the delinquents were ‘rebuked for the last
time and dismissed from discipline.’ The fine was sometimes
10s. sterling, sometimes 15s., and occasionally as much as £1%
Scots, i.e. about <£1 sterling. There were instances in which
the fine was remitted on account of poverty.
Antenuptial impropriety, though a constant subject of dis¬
cipline, was treated as less heinous. Parties were at times
dismissed from discipline after three, four, up to nine, appear¬
ances before the congregation.
On one occasion an alleged premature birth, caused
apparently by the mother’s having fallen from a horse,
became matter of suspicion and inquiry. The parties were