EDINA newsline
June 2008: Volume 13 Issue 2
The Specimens of Statistical Reports pamphlet is one of two new resources now available online through the Statistical Accounts for Scotland service. Sir John Sinclair MP, who instigated the first Statistical Accounts of Scotland, published the Specimens of Statistical Reports in 1793. Presenting selected parishes from the Statistical Accounts of Scotland to illustrate the stages of society for mankind as a whole, he dedicated his pamphlet to William Pitt, aimed at procuring a statistical account of England. Only a few of the original pamphlets are still in existence.
An index to the 1801 census return for the Parish of Stow has also been added to the service. This complements the digitised images and transcript of the census return for this Borders village.
The two Statistical Accounts of Scotland provide important source material for historians across a critical 40-50 year period during agricultural and industrial revolutions in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Accounts describe topics such as topography, climate, population, agriculture, schools and morals at an individual parish level.