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Symbols and meanings in the Communicants List of 1749.
The Communicants list is a list of persons attending the Parish Church of Dunrossness in 1749. This list was compiled by the minister, John Mill.
In the actual written list, there are a number of symbols alongside each person. Unfortunately, I do not have a photocopy of the written list, so it is not possible to show actual details. However, the symbols are described here for the benefit of future researchers.
.1 Letter 'X' before name.
Most names in the first of the 3 columns are preceded by an 'X'.
In Cunnisburgh virtually no one in columns 2 and 3 has an 'X' preceding their name'
In Dunrossness about 20% in column 2 have 'X' preceding their name, but virtually no one in column 3 has an 'X'
2 Letter '+' (or 'X') after the name
Many persons have a '+' (or 'X') after their name. This '+' has dots inserted in the quarters of the '+'. I will refer to these quarters (going clockwise) as NE, SE, SW and NW.
These '+' will be entered into the database at a later date. This will enable an accurate analysis to be made. At this time the percentages quoted have been guessed at.
In Dunrossness about 70% of persons in Column 1 have a '+' after their name.
In column 2 this drops to about 20%. In column 3 the percentage drops to maybe 10%.
In Dunrossness the '+' usually has a single dot present in the NE quarter.
In Cunningsburgh and Sandwick the situation is similar in terms of percentages but different in terms of the number of dots. Many '+' have 3 dots (NE, NW, SW), some have 2 dots (NE and SW) and some have one dot in the NE quarter.
The 4 quarters in the '+' might refer to the 4 quarter periods in the Church calendar (i.e. Lady's Day, Midsummer Day, Michaelmas day, and Christmas).
The dots might refer to whether the Parish dues had been paid by the Parishioners. Some of the people might have been exempt. However, on checking the 19 widows present in the list, about 15 have a '+' present. It would be expected that widows might not be expected to pay Parish rates due to hardship. On this basis, it may be that the dots signify satisfactory attendance at the church for the quarter concerned. If this is the case the system fell into disuse very quickly.
3 Letter S following a name
In Cunningsburgh
74% of Females have letter S
66% of Males have letter S
0% of Males have letter R (the letter R is peculiar to men in Sandwick)
66% of Males have letter S or R
In Sandwick
64% of Females have letter S
49% of Males have letter S
21% of Males have letter R (the letter R is peculiar to men in Sandwick)
70% of Males have letter S or R
In Dunrossness
43% of females have letter S
50% of Males have letter S
0% of Males have letter R (the letter R is peculiar to men in Sandwick)
50% of Males have letter S or R
Of those who seem to be married (mostly post 1749)
59% of Females have letter S
60% of Males have letter S
On this basis the younger members of the community seem to have a higher proportion of the letter S.
The meaning of the letter S is unsure. It does not seem to occur with age since some elderly persons do not have the letter S. In particular, only about 50% of widows, who must be assumed to be over about 25, have the letter 'S'.
It is possible that it means 'subscriber', someone who is paying into Church Funds.
The 'S' is not directly related to persons with a '+'. Thus these two major symbols seem to be unrelated.
4 'Eldr' or 'R' alongside a name
It is assumed that 'Eldr' refers to the person being an Elder of the Church. It only occurs in Dunrossness, where there are 21 persons with this appendage. All of them are male. (There are two males with the status of 'Eldr' in Cunnisburgh, but in this case it seems to be used to distinguish between 2 persons of different ages).
The appendage 'R' only occurs in Cunnisburgh. It may represent an Elder since there are only 26, all of whom are males.
In 'The Diary of Rev. Mills' it is stated that when Elders were reappointed in 1768 there were 28 for Dunrossness Parish. Thus it would not be unreasonable to think that the numbers of Elders mentioned above would be of the correct order of magnitude.
5 'Eld', 'Sen', 'W', 'Jun' and 'Youn' alongside a name
There are 6 persons with 'Eld' (2 of whom are females) and it is thought that this means an elder person.
There are 6 persons labelled with forms of 'Senior'.
There are 18 persons with abbreviations that seen to mean 'Younger' (5 are female) and 2 labelled as 'Junior'
There are 19 persons, all female, with the appendage 'w' or 'widow'.
6 Other symbols alongside name
There are 16 persons with other symbols, namely, 'o' and sometimes 'lg'. The meaning is unknown.