Statistical Accounts

There are two Statistical Accounts of Scotland: the first from the 1790s and the second covering the 1830s and 1840s.

The first Statistical Account was instigated by the Caithness MP and lay member of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Sir John Sinclair. The work was undertaken by the clergy of the Church of Scotland between 1791 and 1799.

Following a set of 160 questions the parish ministers set about describing the agriculture, antiquities, industrial productions, population and natural history of Scotland. Their work is supplemented by much social comment from the ministers and provides the first comprehensive social history of Scotland.

The New Statistical Account was commissioned by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland at the suggestion of the Sons and Daughters of the Clergy. The account was compiled and published, again by the local clergy, between 1834 and 1845.

Although a third Statistical Account was compiled and published between 1951 and 1992 it is the original and the New Statistical Account that provide such rich social commentary for the social historian in Scotland. They provide a heartfelt, first-hand record of the lives people led in Scotland at those times.