Birnes Surname Ancestry ResultsOur indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'birnes'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 2 records (displaying 1 to 2): Buy all | | | Get all 2 records to view, to save and print for £12.00 |
These sample scans are from the original record. You will get scans of the full pages or articles where the surname you searched for has been found. Your web browser may prevent the sample windows from opening; in this case please change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows from this site. Scottish litigants, rebels and cautioners
(1585-1592)
The Privy Council of Scotland exercised a superior judicial authority in the kingdom, and consequently received and dealt with a constant stream of petitions, as well as dealing with the internal security of the state. This register of the council from 1 August 1585 to 31 July 1592, in the reign of king James VI, was edited by David Masson, and published under the direction of the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland in 1881. Some of the individuals mentioned are the complainants, those of whom they complained, and the sureties on both sides: at this period, some of the complainants are alleging serious attacks, often of a feuding nature. Many of the bonds entered into by the cautioners are promises to keep the peace towards such enemies. Failure to answer to the council when summoned was a serious contempt, leading to being denounced a rebel, with serious consequences. But 'horning' was also used in the pursuit of debts: there was no imprisonment for debt in Scotland, but a creditor could have an obstinate debtor ordered, in the sovereign's name, to pay what was due, failing which, the debtor could be put to the horn, denounced as a rebel, and imprisoned as a rebel. The main text (to page 774) is from the Acta Secreti Concilii, containing the minutes of the Privy Council, with intermixed Acta Proper (political edicts), Decreta (judicial decisions), Acta Cautionis (acts of caution) and Bands (registration of bonds). After that are printed some miscellaneous Privy Council documents from the same years: additional acts of caution (775-778); ordinances and acts anent the Borders and the North (779-814); and miscellaneous privy council papers (815-834). The sources most productive of names, the Acta Cautionis and Registration of Bands, are also the most repetitive in form, and are not transcribed verbatim and literatim: nevertheless, one of the editor's rules was for 'All proper names and names of places occurring in the originals to be preserved in the abstracts without exception, and in the exact original spelling.'
BIRNES. Cost: £4.00.  | Sample scan, click to enlarge
|  British merchant seamen
(1835-1840)
At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen's Registration Bill. Under this act a large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships' crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and the original register was abandoned after less than two years: the system was then restarted in this form, with a systematic attempt to attribute the seamen's (ticket) numbers, and to record successive voyages. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (S = seaman, &c.); and the name and official number of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all. The system was still very cumbersome, because the names were amassed merely under the first two letters of surname; an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. During 1840 this series of ledgers was abandoned, and a new set started with names grouped together by surname. BT 112/6BIRNES. Cost: £8.00. | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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