Edinburgh - General Session
In Edinburgh at the Reformation the burgh church was the Collegiate Church of St Giles', but there were other nearby churches that would later be subsumed within the burgh. In 1584 the Town Council resolved to divide the burgh ecclesiastically into four quarters, each having its own church. This took effect in 1598. The division was: St Giles', serving the South-East; New for the North-West; Upper Tolbooth for the South-West; and Trinity College for the North-East. A further division of Edinburgh was made by the town council in 1641 to establish the following parochial areas: West St Giles (later Tolbooth) - North-West; High or East St Giles - North; Trinity College - North-East; Tron - South-East; Old or Middle St Giles - South; Greyfriars - South-West.The General Sessions of Edinburgh convened on a regular basis, mostly with the city magistrates, to consider matters of general concern. As there was technically one parish of the burgh Edinburgh there was one General Kirk Session.Records available
- Login to view Roll (1701-1721), minutes (1700-1724), Edinburgh weather report (1815-1820), and list of treasurers (1648-1754)
- Login to view Minutes, 1574-1575
- Login to view Minutes (1648-1699)
- Login to view Lists of enrolled poor (1672-1684); List of deacons with their collections (1672-1684); Names of those to be proclaimed or depositing pledges (1672-1678). [photocopy]
Records not in Virtual Volumes
Several record sets (indexed by personal name and in other ways) allow searching or sorting results by place name, street name, parish, county, burgh or district. Read our guide on searching by place.
Search maps and plans.
Search statutory registers of birth, marriage, death, civil partnership, divorce and dissolution.
Search census returns.
Search church registers of baptisms, marriages and burials.
Search valuation rolls.
Search legal records, including wills and testaments.
Search Highland and Island Emigration Society records.
Search the image library.
Records on ScotlandsPlaces
On the ScotlandsPlaces website, National Records of Scotland makes available records arranged by county, parish, burgh and city, including:
- Ordnance Survey Name Books
- Seventeenth century hearth tax and poll tax rolls
- Land tax, servants' tax, window tax, horse tax, and other assessed tax rolls