Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
PAROCHIAL, adj., n.
I. adj. Sc. n. combs.: 1. parochial board, -boord, -buird, an elected body set up officially in each parish by the Poor Law Amendment (Scotland) Act of 1845, which was responsible for much of the administration of parish affairs and in particular the Poor Law provisions. Replaced in 1894 by the Parish Council; 2. parochial school, = parish school s.v. Pairish, 1. Hence parochial schoolmaster; 3. parochial visitation, a periodical inspection of the religious affairs of a parish by the Presbytery, in which minister, elders and congregation were separately interrogated on each other's mode of life and religious observances. Parochial visitations were discontinued soon after 1850.1. Sc. 1845 Acts 8 & 9 Vict. c.83 § xvii.:
In every Burghal Parish or Combination of Parishes there shall be a Parochial Board of Managers of the Poor; and the whole Administration of the Laws for the Relief of the Poor shall be under the Direction and Control of such Parochial Board.Sc. 1885 Encycl. Britannica XVIII. 297:
In the great majority . . . of civil parishes the chief governing authority is the parochial board, which in non-burghal parishes is composed of owners of land of £20 annual value and upwards, and representatives of the kirk-session and of the magistrates of any burgh within the parish and of the rate-payers.m.Lth. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick xiii.:
The minister an' session werena to hae a seat ony mair on the Parochial Buird.Sc. 1923 A. A. Cormack Poor Relief 137:
The Parochial Board, representing the owners of property and only the large rate-payers, was always anxious to keep down expenses.2. Sc. 1755 King's College Senatus Min. MSS. (8 Dee.):
How great importance it would be both to the College and the Parish to have a Parochial School.Sc. 1786 Aberdeen Jnl. (18 Sept.):
The parochial school of Fraserburgh in the county of Aberdeen is now vacant, and the patron has resolved to supply the same by competition.Sc. 1816 Statutes, etc. Public Schools Forfar 5:
The Parochial School and the two Schools established and supported by the Magistrates and Council.Sc. 1828 I. J. Simpson Education Abd. (1947) 119:
To encourage active schoolmasters (in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and Moray) and gradually to elevate the literary character of the Parochial Schoolmasters and Schools.Abd. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb ix.:
The parochial school; a sample of that noble institution which is understood to have done so much for the enlightenment of our native country.Sc. 1876 J. Grant Hist. Burgh Schools 100:
The teacher of the burgh and parochial school was invariably session clerk and precentor.Sc. 1918 J. P. Day Public Admin. Highl. 145:
The parochial school system of Scotland may be said to have its legal origin in the Act passed in 1646 for founding schools in every parish.Mry. 1926 J. B. Ritchie Forres 74:
It was held that the Grammar School of Forres had never been a parochial school, as the master would in that case have been elected by the minister and heritors, whereas he had invariably been elected by the Magistrates.3. Sc. 1709 W. Steuart Collections i. xiii. § 1:
Of Parochial Visitations by the Presbytery. Parishes are visited by presbyteries, either occasionally, pro re nata, . . . or ordinarily and in course, whereby every congregational church is visited once a year . . . for by the 16th act of Assembly 1706, presbyterial visitations of parishes are to be frequent.Sc. a.1856 G. Outram Lyrics (1874) 58:
The time he fixes for Parochial visitation, Is aye our dinner-hour.Sc. 1885 A. Edgar Old Church Life 233:
The complaints that were given in to the Presbytery of Ayr at Parochial visitations.
II. n. Used elliptically for parochial board, school(master), etc.Abd. 1901 Weekly Free Press (9 March):
They did their very best to get her tae gang on the “parochial”, but she wad hae nane o't.Bwk. 1912 J. Burleigh Ednam 109:
There is no one to whom Scottish people look back with greater affection or more gratitude than “the old parochial” [schoolmaster].
