| Description | Aberdeen City Parish Council minutes, 1895 - 1930 (CA/1/11/1-12), index to minutes, 1895 - 1930 (CA/1/16/13-14) and list of poor in receipt of relief on the 15th May 1922 (CA/1/16/15).
The minutes include weekly lists of poor placed on the Outdoor Roll (i.e. those receiving payments rather than those placed in the Poorhouse) by the Supply/Relief Committee. These lists record the individual's name, age, residence, state, dependants and weekly allowance.
No equivalent details are recorded for those placed in the poorhouses. The Parish Council's West and East Poorhouse Committees' minutes record deaths taking place in the poorhouses (individual's name, age, settlement, cause of death) up until they are replaced by the Poorhouses committee in May 1897.
The minutes also tend to include more information about individual cases for orphans/children or "lunatics"/"mental patients", which were dealt with by a special committee. These are generally not included in the indexes at the start of the volume, so it is a case of trawling through the minutes for that committee.
Details of unemployment cases also seem to be recorded from late 1921 but these do not give individual names, just a reference number and a set of initials.
From the adoption of old age pensions in 1909, there are entries for the Inspector's "Recoveries" relating to these various payments for people's care: old age pensions, army pensions, navy pensions and other sources. These list the individual's name and, in some instances, the institution they are residing in (this isn't specified for Old Age pensions and in these cases it isn't clear if the individuals are receiving indoor or outdoor relief). All the cases aside those for old age pensions are listed by the individual's name in the indexes for the volume (under the heading Advances Recovered).
See St Nicholas Parochial Board minutes 1884 - 1895 for minutes of predecessor body (CA/1/15).
Architect's plans for Parish Council offices, Union Terrace, Aberdeen are listed under the reference DD1920/41.
Aberdeen Central Library Local Studies Department hold a "List of paupers St Nicholas Parish 1846" - shelved at Lo 362.5 SA2 |
| Administrative History | In 1895 the City Parish Council was formed, replacing the St Nicholas Parochial Board (see CA/1/15) under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict., c.58). The new paarish councils acquired a few additional functions, including the power to acquire buildings for public offices, ground for recreational purposes and the administration of rights of way. They could also take over the administration of some parish trusts. Parish councils were abolished by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 (19 & 20 Geo. V, c.25), which transferred their functions to the county councils, district councils and town councils.
The boundaries of Aberdeen City Parish Council expanded beyond the limits of St Nicholas Parish to encompass area within the City municipal boundaries as defined in 1891 (i.e. areas formerly in Old Machar, Peterculter and Nigg Parishes). The new authority was known as the United Parish or the City of Aberdeen Parish Council. The City Parish Council took over responsibility for all those whose settlement lay in the transferred area, and for the poorhouse in St Machar Place. |