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Portpatrick is a very small parish, once called the Black Quarter of the Inch, and till 1628 a part of Inch parish. Tradition once had St. Patrick crossing the channel here in a single stride, or alternatively, having been beheaded, swimming to Ireland with his head in his teeth! The port, formerly Portmontgomery, was for small sailing ships their destination from Donaghadee in Ireland. This 20 mile crossing was the main route for mail, passengers and cattle, especially from 1770 to 1830, being a terminus of the military road built across Galloway from Dumfries to secure the area in 1765. The town was also a western Gretna Green, profitably providing rapid marriage for Irish runaways. Today the massive stone-built harbor with its lighthouse still shelters a few pleasure craft, but it is wide open to severe North Atlantic storms. So the railway came here (1862 - 1950) just in time to see cross- channel steamer services moved to the safer, far more sheltered port of Stranraer.
The Adair family's Dunskey Castle is to the north, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunskey_Castle] ruinous from the 1600s, but with its ghosts it still occupies a spectacular exposed headland above the port. The old parish church tower, still conspicuous in the town, may once have provided a harbor light but was abandoned as a church in 1842. In the kirkyard is the memorial to the loss of the steamer Orion with 50 passengers and crew in 1852. Now, and since about 1900, Portpatrick is a small coastal resort, home to one of the greatest and last Scottish baronial hotels! The hinterland has peat moors, and the woods of Dunskey House and its glen. Portpatrick is notable for the genealogical treasure of "The Urquhart Censuses" of 1832 - 1853, private house-by-house records.
"The 'Old' (1791) and 'New' (1834-45) Statistical Accounts of Scotland provide detailed parish reports - and in the case of the 'New' county reports - for the whole of Scotland, covering a wide spectrum of subjects including agriculture, education, trades, religion and social customs." (EDINA, hosted by Edinburgh University Data Library).
This is a must read, as it contains excellent physical and social descriptions of the parish, Use the link below to access the scanned extracts. You may choose to read county reports which give a more general view of Wigton(Wigtown), or go directly to the pages devoted to your parish of interest.
1855-1875 | C118961 or M118961 |
1719-1820 | C118962 or M118962 |
1754-1790 (+1817+1849) | C118964 or M118964 |
1819-1854 | C118965 or M118965 |
General information on all Wigtownshire census is more fully explained on Wigtownshire Census Records.
The 1851 Census is today available, as a full transcription,
on the Dumfries and Galloway local government's library
system web site, for Dumfries and for the two Galloway
counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbright, and we are
pleased to cite their URL where you can browse it as you
wish. To access the census directly, enter:
http://www.dumgal.gov.uk/historicalindexes/census.aspx
But please do remember that these are transcriptions, and therefore, despite best efforts of the volunteers who worked on them, they are liable to introduced errors. The information should therefore always be backed up by reference to original data, using for example the LDS film of the original census.
This 1851 census has also been indexed by John Roy, by Heads of Households, and we are very happy that we are able to include his invaluable key on these pages. In a rather compact manner, it offers both an index and an overview for those who need a more rapid feel for the location of entire groups of families by surname, for instance. Also, if you intend to use the D&G census you may find it useful to refer to John Roy's index to obtain the page number, as the noted URL reference doesn't give that information..
Census references are by parish number / enumeration district number / page number, for example the first entry of the first district on the Leswalt film will be 891/1/1. The exception to this was in 1851 where the page numbers were abandoned and replaced by 'entry numbers'. Therefore, the first entry in Leswalt will have the same number as other years but the second entry, which will normally be on the same page, will read 891/1/2.
The on-line 1851 census developed by the Friends of the Dumfries Archives does not use parish numbers in the search fields, instead, you need to type in the parish name (be careful with the spelling) if you are narrowing the search down to an individual parish. Once you find a likely candidate for the family you are searching for you can start a new search by typing in the parish name and the reference number in district / household number format That will bring up all of that entry only.
The Rev. Andrew Urquart of the Free Church of Scotland conducted his own census of Portpatrick in 1832 - 1834, 1844, 1846, and 1852. The information is very basic and varies from year to year. They were transcribed and published in a book, a copy of which is in the reference section of the Ewart library in Dumfries. To see an index of those surnames mentioned within the Urquhart census, please [click here]..
Census | |
1841 | 1042847 and 101941 |
1851 | 1042557 and 103775 |
1861 | 103921 |
1871 | 104113 |
1881 | 224063 |
1891 | 220462 |
The Urquhart census of Portpatrick, 1832-1853 | 6035619 |
Church Records | |
Parish Registers (Church of Scotland), 1719 - 1854 | |
Baptisms,1719-1820, Marriages,1720-1819, Burials,1783-1818 |
1068040 Items 3-4 |
Baptisms,1819-1854, Marriages,1819-1854, Neglected Birth Entry,1838 |
1068041 Item 1 Addt'l filming,1951 Vault 102355 |
Parish register transcripts, 1721-1846 | 994027 Item 4 |
Book: Irregular Marriages at Portpatrick, 1759-1826 |
Available through LDS book service |
Church indexes | |
Births/christenings, A-Z, 1720-1854, 2 fiches |
6901694 |
Marriages, A-Z, 1720-1854,1 fiche |
6901695 |
The following volunteers from the Sct. Wigtownshire mailing list have kindly offered to share their resources and time with other researchers. When asking for a lookup please be specific. Provide surname, forename, and other details that would make the lookup easier to perform. Blanket searches for one surname, i.e. "Please supply all Brown information", must be avoided. To view all parish lookups available, please click here.
1841 census/Portpatrick Town only | Phil Reed and Sam Heron |
1841 census, Parish of Portpatrick | Sam Heron |
Urquhart Census 1832-1853 |
Edward H. Thompson |
MIs | Eddie Ronnie |
http://www.stranraer.org/sti_visit/portpatrick.html -
Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, South west Scotland. Includes section on Portpatrick.
http://www.portpatrick.co.uk/index.html -
Portpatrick History
O.P.R.s refer to Old Parish Records which prior to civil registration in 1855 were ledgers in which the parish cleric entered vital information such as marriage, birth/christening, and in some cases deaths. Parish registers were kept only as well as the cleric had time and inclination to do so. In some parishes, within a particular time, the records are exact, precise and a joy to read, in other periods of time, the same parish records could have sporadic, or barely legible, entries. To read more about Old Parish Records, and see image samples, please view Old Parish Records (OPR)for Wigtownshire
Covers period from 1719 to 1846. Birth, Marriages, and some burials. 1845 Statistical Account of Scotland, volume 4, page 142, mentions kirk session records within the parish registers.
The Death Register for Portpatrick has been transcribed.
Click here to read more.
Click here to go straight to the transcription.
Published in 1916, Parish Lists of Wigtownshire and Minnigaff, 1684 contains nominal rolls recorded in 1684 of all persons, male or female, over the age of 12, by parish, and domocile. To read more about this index, and to find a link to the Portpatrick parish roll, [click here].
To view pictures of Portpatrick, please click here.
1751 | 551 |
1791 | 996 |
1831 | 2,239 |
1845 | 1,991 |