Sanatory inquiry-towns in Scotland. Report on the sanatory condition and general economy of the town of Tranent, and the neighbouring district in Haddingtonshire / Made to the Poor Law Commissioners.

  • Alison, S. Scott (Somerville Scott), 1813-1877.
Date:
[1841]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sanatory inquiry-towns in Scotland. Report on the sanatory condition and general economy of the town of Tranent, and the neighbouring district in Haddingtonshire / Made to the Poor Law Commissioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Condition of day-labour¬ ers. Fisher popu- lation. Localities in¬ habited by colliers. Amount of collier popu¬ lation. Migratory habits of colliers. easy work on the farm, at which they in general continue till within a short period of their death. When old age overtakes them, it frequently happens that the son succeeds the father in the “ hinding,’’ and the son and parents live together, the son on these occasions supporting the parents, either wholly or in part. The son feels this to be a duty ; and when the parents die, the son gets the furniture of the deceased, where there has been no parish relief, which is generally the case. The parents sometimes go and live with their grown-up children, who in general make a point of maintaining them, and attending to their comforts. The cases of destitution will be mentioned under the general head of destitution. The day-labouring population is less comfortable. These labourers form a considerable proportion of the population. They in general inhabit houses or apartments in villages, are less orderly, less temperate, and less provident than the hinds. They are paid in general by the week. Among them there exists a good deal of disease, and even ab¬ ject poverty, produced in a great measure by want of industry, and also by dissipation. Many farmers find difficulty in getting a sufficient number of labourers, and I have seldom heard of there being want of employment for these people. Along the coast of East Lothian there exists a considerable popula¬ tion engaged in fishing and in seafaring employments. These people, I understand are very improvident, and are considerably addicted to dis¬ sipation. They are generally in want: live in houses, some of which are kept clean, and some in a state of gross filth. Their earn¬ ings, which are occasionally very considerable, are not laid aside, as they might be, for comparative want at other seasons, but are generally spent in the purchase of whiskey. These improvident habits lead to great destitution, and likewise to disease. But there is a source of destitution among these people w'hich is almost wholly independent of their own misconduct. This is, the casualties which are ever and anon occurring at sea among the heads of their families. Boats are constantly being upset, and the fishermen being drowned. It is com¬ mon for a whole boat’s crew to be lost at one time, and there are usually four men in each boat. There are a great many widows residing in Cockenzie, a fishing village in the parish of Tranent, who have lost their husbands by casualties at sea. When the husbands are lost, of course the widows and children sink into still deeper privation than before. I understand it is usual to place these widows on the poor-list of the parish, but of this I am not certain. I rather think the chief assist¬ ance which they receive is a small sum of money, which is generally subscribed by the benevolent people in the neighbourhood after the casualty. I have been told by their clergyman, that the fishermen are very charitable on these and like occasions. The town of Dunbar is chiefly inhabited by a seafaring population, and I have all along understood that the destitution there wras very excessive. The collier population of Haddingtonshire is confined to that quarter of the county which lies to the west of the village of Gladsmuir. It forms the larger portion of the inhabitants of Tranent and Penston, a very considerable portion of the population of Prestonpans and Elphinstone, and forms almost entirely the population of several villages, viz., New¬ town, Makemerry, Huntlaw, Cross Houses, and Cuttle. The number of colliers in Haddingtonshire, including w'ives and children, I should think was about 3000. The collier population is very migratory. In most collieries the colliers are constantly going and coming It is common for them to remain only a few weeks at the same colliery. Some move from colliery
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