Statistical Accounts of Scotland

The Statistical Accounts of Scotland are a series of documentary publications, related in subject matter though published at different times, covering life in Scotland in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The Old (or First) Statistical Account of Scotland was published between 1791 and 1799 by Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster. The New (or Second) Statistical Account of Scotland published under the auspices of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland between 1834 and 1845. These first two Statistical Accounts of Scotland are among the finest European contemporary records of life during the agricultural and industrial revolutions. A Third Statistical Account of Scotland was published between 1951 and 1992.

Attempts at getting an accurate picture of the geography, people and economy of Scotland had been attempted in the 1620s and 1630s, using the network of about 900 ministers of the established Church of Scotland. The time and resources involved, not to mention the troubled times of the Civil Wars, led to limited results.

However, the Geographer Royal for Scotland, Sir Robert Sibbald took this forward between 1684 and the early 1690s. Sir Robert circulated some "General Queries" to parish ministers, but again this was the unsettled time of the Glorious Revolution and, though progress was made, the results provided a very incomplete picture of the nation.

The General Assembly proposed a "Geographical Description of Scotland" and took some action on this between 1720 and 1744, again during troubled times for the country, latterly involving the Jacobite rebellion under Bonnie Prince Charlie. Nonetheless, during 1743, the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Rev Robert Wallace organised the distribution of questionnaires, aimed at finding out how to devise a scheme for the support of the widows and orphans of clergy. This work helped to develop actuarial methods, and explains the involvement of a society for ministers’ widows and orphans in later work. The Rev Alexander Webster produced a population census of Scotland in 1755, based to some extent on Wallace's work.

In 1767, Sir James Denham Steuart suggested a national survey in his "Enquiry into the principles of Œconomy" and this was taken up in 1781 by David Erskine, Earl of Buchan. However, by the time this came to fruition in 1792, it had been overtaken by the work of Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster.

As mentioned above, early attempts at producing an accurate statistical account of Scotland were related to schemes to support the widows and orphans of the clergy. In 1832 the Committee for the Society for the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy, with the blessing of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, took Sir John's work further. It was to be more modern (including maps for each county) and was to draw upon the specialist knowledge of local doctors and schoolmasters. It very self consciously set out not to produce a new statistical account, but a statistical account of a new country – one that the revolutions mentioned above had changed rapidly. It was, however, very much the child of the "Old Statistical Account". Indeed, the Rev Dr John Robertson, the Minister responsible for of the new account for Cambuslang, was the former assistant to the writer of the old account.