Morebattle

The Borders Family History Society has published a booklet of Morebattle monumental inscriptions.

Graham and Emma Maxwell have transcribed and indexed the 1841, 1851 and 1861 census returns for this parish.

A 19th century account of the history of Morebattle parish can be read online.

Rutherfurd's Southern Counties Register and Directory of 1866 lists the following non-conformist churches:

• Free Church
• United Presbyterian Church

Pigot and Co's Commercial Directory of Scotland published in 1837 lists the following non-conformist churches in the parish:

• United Secession

There may have been other non-conformist churches at different times.

According to Rev. William Ewing's Annals of the Free Church of Scotland (published 1914 in Edinburgh) a Free Church congregation was formed here in 1843, worshipping for a time in the open air at Heughhead farmstead before the church was built in 1845. The 1848 membership of this congregation was 128; in 1900 it was 158.

The parish church (Church of Scotland) has registers dating from 1726. These are held in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, and copies on microfilm may be consulted in LDS Family History Centres around the world.

Registers for a number of non-conformist Morebattle churches are available in LDS family history centres around the world. These include the Free Church (christenings for 1847-1854) and the Gateshaw Associated Session (christenings for 1775-1866, 1900-1907; marriages for 1775-1783).

Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths began in Scotland on 1st January 1855. For further details of this see the National Records of Scotland website.

A short article on Morebattle's geography and history was printed in the March 1992 edition of the Borders Family History Society magazine, written by Elspeth Ewan. The society's booklet of monumental inscriptions also contains a short article about the parish.

• Geograph
• Flickr

• Ask for a calculation of the distance from Morebattle to another place.

History of Morebattle and District was published by the S.W.R.I. in 1966, full of information about Morebattle and Linton history, as well as a number of old photos.

In 1999 the Morebattle Millennium Committee produced Kalewater: A Miscellany. Although not strictly a history book (or indeed a guidebook) the compilers hope the book gives an insight into life in the Kale valley in the past and present. Its ISBN is 095376320X.

Rudolf Zai's The phonology of the Morebattle dialect (East Roxburghshire) (277 pages) was published at Lucerne in 1942.

You can see maps centred on OS grid reference NT821221 (Lat/Lon: 55.492765, -2.284425), Morebattle which are provided by:

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)

• All places within the same township/parish shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby townships/parishes shown on an Openstreetmap map.
• Nearby places shown on an Openstreetmap map.

Here are some figures showing the parish's population through time:

• 1755 - 789
• 1801 - 785
• 1811 - 953
• 1821 - 1070
• 1831 - 1055
• 1841 - 1051
• 1861 - 1031
• 1881 - 1003
• 1901 - 779
• 1921 - 774
• 1931 - 719
• 1951 - 680
• 1961 - 596

The Scottish Borders Archive and Local History Centre has an admission register for Mowhaugh Public School covering the years 1873-1943 (reference R/ED/3/30). They also have Mowhaugh Log Book for the years 1923-1945 (reference R/ED/2/65).

In the 1690s a tax was levied by Parliament on every hearth in Scotland. Both landowners and tenants had to pay this tax and are therefore recorded in the records which were kept at the time. A transcript of the hearth tax records for Morebattle parish (NRS reference E69/21/1) is included with the list of monumental inscriptions published by the Borders Family History Society.

Most taxation records are held at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh.