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From 1845 to 1930, parishes formed part of the local government system of Scotland: having parochial boards from 1845 to 1894, and parish councils from 1894 until 1930.

The parishes, which had their origins in the ecclesiastical parishes of the Church of Scotland, often overlapped county boundaries, largely because they reflected earlier territorial divisions.

In the early 1860s, many parishes which were physically detached from their county were re-allocated to the county by which they were surrounded; some border parishes were transferred to neighbouring counties. This affects the indexing of such things as birth, marriage, and death registrations and other records indexed by county.

In 1891, there were further substantial changes to the areas of many parishes, as the boundary commission appointed under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 eliminated many anomalies, and assigned divided parishes to a single county.

Parishes have had no direct administrative function since 1930. In that year, all parishes and parts of parishes outside burghs, (technically known as landward), were grouped into districts with elected district councils. These districts were abolished in 1975, and the new local authorities established in that year often cut across parish boundaries.

In 1996, there was a further reorganisation of Scottish local government, and a number of civil parishes lie in two or more council areas.

Civil parishes are still used for some statistical purposes, and separate census figures are published for them. As their areas have been largely unchanged since the nineteenth century this allows for comparison of population figures over an extended period of time.

There have been many variations in the spelling of some parish names over the historical period. In this list the names as used in the reports of the General Register Office for Scotland for the 2002 census are used. Where there are two parishes with the same name, the council area in which it is now included is appended.

Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1845
16.
 * Parochial Boards of any One or more adjoining Parishes could apply to Board of Supervision to form a combination.
 * Parishes adjacant to existing combination could apply to BoS to join combination.

17. 19.
 * In every Burghal Parish or Combination of (burghal) Parishes there shall be a Parochial Board of Managers of the Poor
 * Powers and Authorities hitherto exercised by or vested in the Magistrates of Burghs in that Behalf, or any other Body or Persons administering or entitled to administer the Laws for the Relief of the Poor in any Burgh or Burghal Parish
 * Following resolution to raise the Funds requisite for the Relief of the Poor by Assessment, the Parochial Board of such Parish or Combination shall be constituted and chosen as follows:
 * such Number of Managers, not being more than Thirty, as Board of Supervision may from Time to Time fix
 * Qualification by the Ownership or Occupancy of Lands and Heritages of a certain annual Value within the Parish or Combination as the said BoS may from Time to Time fix
 * such Qualification being in no Case fixed at a higher annual Value than Fifty Pounds, to be ascertained in manner herein-**Magistrates of the Burgh shall nominate Four Persons to be Members of the Parochial Board
 * Kirk Session of each Parish shall nominate not exceeding Four Members of such Kirk Session to be Members of the Parochial Board
 * Where there shall be in any such Parish Two or more Kirk Sessions the Members of such several Kirk Sessions shall meet together and nominate not exceeding Four of their Number to be Members of the Parochial Board.
 * Owners of Lands and Heritages the annual Value of which shall be under Twenty Pounds shall have each One Vote
 * Owners of Lands and Heritages the annual Value of which shall be Twenty Pounds but under Forty Pounds, Two Votes
 * Owners of Lands and Heritages the annual Value of which shall be Forty Pounds but under Sixty Pounds, Three Votes
 * Owners of Lands and Heritages the annual Value of which shall be Sixty Pounds but under One hundred Pounds, Four Votes
 * Owners of Lands and Heritages the annual Value of which shall be One hundred Pounds but under Five hundred Pounds, Five Votes
 * Owners of Lands and Heritages the annual Value of which shall be Five hundred Pounds and upwards, Six Votes

20.
 * Board of Supervision could divide any Burghal Parish or Combination into Wards or Divisions

21.
 * In every Parish not being a Burghal Parish, and not being Part of any Combination as aforesaid, there shall be in like Manner a Parochial Board for the Management of the Poor of such Parish
 * Powers and Authorities hitherto exercised by or vested in the Heritors and Kirk Session, or in the Heritors, Kirk Session, and Magistrates, or any other Body or Persons administering or entitled to administer the Laws for the Relief of the Poor in such Parish, by virtue of any Law or Usage
 * constituted as follows:
 * Owners of Lands and Heritages of the yearly Value of Twenty Pounds and upwards
 * Provost and Bailies of any Royal Burgh, if any, in such Parish
 * Kirk Session of such Parish
 * Number of elected Members as shall be fixed by the Board of Supervision
 * no Provost or Bailie or Elder of the Kirk Session shall, as such, be a Member of such Parochial Board unless he is assessed for the Poor
 * Not more than Six Members of the Kirk Session shall, as such, be Members of such Parochial Board

30.
 * Every Parochial Board shall be bound to hold at least Two General Meetings in every Year, one on the First Tuesday of February, or as soon thereafter as may be, and the other on the First Tuesday of August, or as soon thereafter as may be

31.
 * Chairman to be elected annually

60.
 * Where Parish or Combination of Parishes contains more than Five thousand Inhabitants, it shall be lawful for the Parochial Board to build a Poorhouse for such Parish or Combination, or of altering or enlarging any existing Poorhouse, subject to approval of BoS

61.
 * two contiguous parishes could jointly build a poorhouse

Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1854
8.
 * A Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages shall be elected in manner herein-after provided by the Parochial Board of each Parish

10.
 * If it shall at any Time appear to the Sheriff that it is desirable that any Parish should be divided, or that Two or more Parishes or Portions of Parishes should be united into One District, the Sheriff may divide such Parish or unite such Parishes or Portions of Parishes into One or more Districts as he shall think fit, and each such District shall be held to be and be a separate Parish for the Purposes of this Act; and the Sheriff shall fix the distinctive Name by which each such District shall be called for the Purposes of this Act

Burial Grounds (Scotland) Act 1855

 * Became responsible for providing burial grounds

Nuisances Removal (Scotland) Act 1856
The following Bodies shall respectively be the Local Authority to execute this Act in the Districts hereunder stated in Scotland:


 * In Places within the Jurisdiction of any Town Council, and not subject to the Jurisdiction of Police Commissioners or Trustees as after mentioned, the Town Council, or in Places within the Jurisdiction of Police Commissioners or Trustees exercising the Functions of Police Commissioners under any General or Local Act, the Police Commissioners or Trustees, except as herein-after provided:


 * In any Parish or Part thereof over which the Jurisdiction of a Town Council or of Police Commissioners does not extend, the Parochial Board of such Parish.

Poor Law (Scotland) (No. 1) Act 1861
Allowed to apply to BoS for dissolution of combination.

Vaccination (Scotland) Act 1863

 * To provide vaccinators

Public Libraries Act (Scotland) 1867

 * Could adopt act and appoint committee: to purchase Books, Newspapers, Reviews, Magazines, and other Periodicals, Statuary, Pictures, Engravings, Maps, and Specimens of Art and Science, for the Establishment, Increase, and Use of such Libraries, Art Galleries, and Museums, and to do all things necessary for keeping the same in a proper State of Preservation and Repair; and such Committee, subject as aforesaid, shall manage, regulate, and control such Libraries, Art Galleries, and Museums

Public Health (Scotland) Act 1867
these powers transferred to district committes by LG(S)A 1889

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894
8.
 * A council, in this Act referred to as a parish council, shall be established in every parish.

9.
 * The parish council shall consist of a chairman and councillors, and the number of councillors, including the chairman, shall be such (and in the case of a parish partly landward and partly burghal in such proportion for the landward and the burghal parts respectively) as may from time to time, with the approval of the Board, be fixed:—
 * In the case of landward parishes, not including any part of the area of a police burgh, by the county council;
 * In the case of burghal parishes, by the town council;
 * In the case of parishes wholly within a police burgh, by the burgh commissioners; and
 * In the case of parishes partly landward and partly burghal, or including the area or part of the area of a police burgh or burghs, by the county council and town council or councils or burgh commissioners jointly. In such case, failing agreement, the number shall be such and in such proportion as may be fixed by the Board.
 * In fixing the number of parish councillors, and the proportion for the landward and burghal parts respectively in parishes partly landward and partly burghal, regard shall be had to the powers and duties of the parish council under this Act, and to the population, and special wants and circumstances, of the parish, and to the division of the parish into parish wards, if it is so divided.
 * The number of parish councillors for any parish shall be not fewer than five nor more than thirty-one.

13
 * The landward part and the burghal part of a parish partly landward and partly burghal shall respectively be parish wards, or shall respectively be divided into two or more parish wards, of the parish.
 * A police burgh or any part thereof, so far as within a parish, shall be a parish ward, or shall be divided into two or more parish wards, of the parish.
 * A county council electoral division (exclusive of any police burgh or part of a police burgh comprised therein), so far as within a parish, shall be a parish ward, or shall be divided into two or more parish wards, of the parish.
 * A county council, on being satisfied after due local inquiry, that within the county, exclusive of any police burgh, different portions of the population of any landward parish, or of any landward part of a parish partly landward and partly burghal, are so situated or have such interests as to make it desirable that they should be separately represented on the parish council, may from time to time resolve and, by order under their seal, determine that such parish, or landward part of a parish, be divided, subject to the provisions of this section, into such and so many parish wards as they may deem expedient, and shall in such order designate each parish ward, and define its boundaries, and shall thereafter by order assign the number of parish councillors to be elected by the parish electors therein.
 * The town council of a burgh or burgh commissioners of a police burgh may, if they think fit, from time to time resolve, and by order under their seal determine that any parish or part of a parish within the burgh or police burgh be divided into such and so many parish wards as they may deem expedient, and shall, in making such division, have due regard to the existing division (if any) of the burgh or police burgh into municipal wards, and shall in such order designate each parish ward and define its boundaries, and shall thereafter by order assign the number of parish councillors to be elected by the parish electors therein.

14.


 * With respect to the second and subsequent elections of parish councillors for a landward parish, or for the landward part of a parish partly landward and partly burghal, the following provisions shall, except within parishes or parts of parishes co-extensive with police burghs or parts of police burghs, have effect:—
 * The election of such parish councillors shall take place in every third year, beginning with the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, on the same day and, as nearly as may be, in the same manner, in the same places, and with the same returning and presiding officers and clerks, as the election of county councillors for the county in which such parish or part of a parish, as the case may be, is situated, or if there is a contested election for parish councillors, but there is no contested election for county councillors in the county council electoral division or divisions corresponding to such parish or part of a parish, as the case may be, as if there were a contested election for county councillors in such electoral division or divisions.
 * From and after such second election, the term of office of such parish councillors shall be three years, and in every third year the whole number of such parish councillors shall go out of office, and their places shall be filled by election.

15.

With respect to the second and subsequent elections of parish councillors for a burghal parish, or for the burghal part of a parish partly landward and partly burghal, the following provisions shall have effect:—


 * The election of such parish councillors shall take place in every third year, beginning with the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, on the same day and, as nearly as may be, in the same manner, in the same places, and with the same returning and presiding officers and clerks, as the election of town councillors for such burgh, or if there is a contested

21.
 * On and after the fifteenth day of May in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, all enactments regulating the constitution and election of parochial boards shall be repealed, and the parochial board of any parish shall continue to hold office only until the said day, and no longer; and on and after such day, every reference in any Act of Parliament, scheme, deed, or instrument to a parochial board constituted under the law in force at the passing of this Act, shall be read and construed as referring to a parish council constituted under this Act.

23.
 * In this Part of this Act the expression parish council does not include the parish council of a burghal parish.
 * For the purpose of exercising and performing the powers and duties conferred and imposed by this Part of this Act, in the case of a parish which—
 * is partly landward and partly burghal; or
 * comprises a police burgh or part of a police burgh,
 * there shall be a committee of the parish council, in this Act referred to as the landward committee, which shall in every case consist of the whole number of parish councillors for such parish, excepting only the councillors representing the burghal part of the parish, or such police burgh, or part of a police burgh; and, in the case of such parishes, the powers (except the power to raise money by rate or loan) and duties conferred and imposed on a parish council by this Part of this Act, shall be exercised and performed by the landward committee
 * A landward committee may exercise and perform their powers and duties under this Part of this Act without reference to and without the approval of the parish council. The provisions of sub-sections two, three, five, and six of section nineteen of this Act shall apply to a landward committee with the substitution of the expression ‘landward committee’ for ‘parish council’ occurring therein.
 * Where the population of the landward part of a parish partly landward and partly burghal, exclusive of any police burgh or part of a police burgh comprised therein, does not exceed one hundred, a landward committee, as provided for in sub-section two of this section, shall not be constituted unless and until the Board shall so order on the application of not fewer than five parish electors residing within such landward part.