Kirx-Session Recorps or IroncraAy, 1691-1700. 139 
the collection was for the poor of the parish. They usually 
received at the distribution of funds £1 Scots a-piece. I can 
discover no hard and fast rule regulating either the allowance 
or its distribution. 
Poor strangers received also from the funds of the church, 
if fortified with a testimonial from their own parish. Testi- 
monials, too, were required for servants who came into the parish. 
“On April 26, 1695, the session, finding that several scan- 
dalous and irregular persons use to come from other parishes 
into this, without any testimonials of their behaviour under the 
minister's hand from whose parishes they come, did and hereby 
does appoint that no person shall be reset as a servant in this 
parish without a testimonial, and intimation hereof be made the 
next Lord’s Day by the minister from the pulpit.’’ 
This may seem to us rather inquisitorial, but let us not forget 
that news travelled slowly in those days, and this was a protection 
for honest and quiet people against rogues and vagabonds. Dr 
King Hewison, of Rothesay, regards this as an anticipation of a 
very useful modern Act of Parliament—the Aliens Act. 
Many of the poor distressed strangers who applied for help 
from the session were from Ireland. It was natural they should 
come from a “ distressful country.’’ It is pleasing to note that 
though in the 17th and 18th centuries England regarded itself 
as a dumping ground for needy Scots, at least one Englishman 
received alms from the people of Irongray. 
The session, too, paid for the education of poor children. 
“A poor scholar,’? an ambiguous phrase, occurs  fre- 
quently in our records. The Presbytery enacted that 
18s were to be paid out of our poor’s money every quarter to 
maintain two bursars at the college for the session. Another 
entry tells us that the session spent 2s sterling for a Bible for a 
poor man. Sometimes a special collection was ordered for a 
parishioner. 
“May 31, 1695—This day John Huntar, cotter in Meikle 
Beoch, gave a petition wherein he showed that his wife having 
brought forth twins and not being able to nurse them both, he 
therefore craved help from the session.’’ 
The session granted him a day’s collection every quarter 
while the children were a-nursing. It is pleasant to note the 
