Sir John Sinclair, the county surveys
and the collection and dissemination
of knowledge
Heather Holmes
Sir John Sinclair
General view of the agriculture of ‘x’
The Pyramid of Statistical Inquiries
1.
The Code of Agriculture
In one volume
2
The General Report of Scotland
In 3 vols (and 2 appendixes)
3.
The county surveys of Great Britain
Containing 85 Districts
4.
The Statistical Account of Scotland.
Containing 938 Parishes
The ‘original’ surveys
Publication of the Scottish surveys
Year
No. surveys
published
Surveys
1793
2
Ayr, Midlothian
1794
22
Aberdeen, Angus, Argyll and western Inverness-shire, Banff,
Berwick, Clydesdale, Dumbarton, Dumfries, East Lothian,
Elgin or Moray lying between the Spey and the Findhorn, Fife,
Galloway, Hebrides, Nairn and the east coast of Invernessshire and part of Elgin and Forres, Carse of Gowrie, Southern
districts of Perth, Central Highlands, Renfrew, Roxburgh,
Selkirk, Tweedale, West Lothian
1795
3
Clackmannan, Kincardine, Northern counties and Islands,
1796
1 (+
appendix to
MLO)
Stirling, Midlothian (private appendix)
1797
1
Kinross
Subject areas in the ‘original’ surveys
No. Subject
No. Subject
No. Subject
1. Soil and climate
13. Seed time and harvest
25. Price of provisions
2. Land ownership
14. Inclosures
26. State of roads
3. Occupation of land
15. Advantages from inclosing land
27. State of farm houses and offices
4. Land use
16. Size and nature of inclosures
28. Nature of leases
5. Grass cultivation; species
of stock; status of breeds
17. Impact on inclosure on
population
29. Extent of commerce or manufactures
in the district
6. Watering of land
18. Common fields
30. Practices in the district applicable to
other districts
7. Types of grains cultivated
19. Difference in rent common
fields/inclosure
31. Societies for the improvement of
agriculture
8. Rotation of crops
20. Extent of waste lands
32. Spirit of improvement and its
excitement
9. Fallowing
21. Wage rates; price of labour;
work hours
33. Improvements to be undertaken in
livestock or husbandry
10. Use of manures
22. Draining of land
34. Obstacles to improvement
11. Ploughs, carts and other
implements
23. Paring and burning
35. The most active farmers who could
correspond with the Board of Agriculture
12. Use of oxen and horses
24. Woodlands
The quarto format
The ‘corrected’ or ‘revised’ surveys
Differences in geographical scope of
the ‘original’ and the ‘revised’ surveys
Changes in
geographical area
‘original’ and ‘revised’ surveys
Same survey area
Aberdeen, Angus, Ayrshire, Banffshire,Berwickshire,
Clackmannan, Dumbarton, Dumfries, East Lothian, Kinross,
Moray, Fife, Galloway, Hebrides, Mearns, Clydesdale,
Midlothian, Tweedale, Renfrew, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Stirling,
West Lothian
Counties and parts of a Argyll and the Western Coasts of Inverness - (Argyll)
county brought within a Nairn and Eastern part of Inverness - (Nairn)
survey area
Monteath and Strathern in Perthshire, Interior districts in
the Highlands and Carse of Gowrie - (Perth)
A group of counties
given their own survey
Northern counties - (Ross-shire, Sutherland, Caithness,
Orkney Isles, Shetland Isles)
New survey
Bute
Surveyors of both the ‘original’ and
‘reprinted’ surveys
Surveyor
Scottish Survey
Surveyor
English Survey
James Naismith
Clydesdale
(Lanarkshire)
John Bailey and
George Culley
Cumberland,
Northumberland,
Westmoreland
George Robertson
Midlothian
John Boys
Kent
James Trotter
West Lothian
John Holt
Lancaster
James Robertson
Pt of Perthshire
Nathaniel Kent
Norfolk
Robert Lowe
Nottingham
John Billingsley
Somerset
William Pitt
Stafford
Arthur Young
Suffolk
Thomas Davis
Wiltshire
John Tuke
North Riding of Yorkshire
Messrs Rennie,
Shirreff& Broun
West Riding of Yorkshire
Plan of the ‘revised’ reports
Chapter
number
Chapter heading
Chapter
number
Chapter heading
Preliminary observations
10.
Woods and plantations
1.
Geographical state and
circumstances
11.
Wastes
2.
State of property
12.
Improvements
3.
Buildings
13.
Live stock
4.
Mode of occupation
14.
Rural economy
5.
Implements
15.
Political economy, as
connected with or affecting
agriculture
6.
Inclosing – fences - gates
16.
Obstacles to improvement
7.
Arable land
17.
Miscellaneous observations
8.
Grass
Conclusion
9.
Gardens and orchards
Appendix
The octavo format
Publication of the ‘original’ surveys
Year
No. Scottish
surveys
published
No. English
surveys
published
No. Welsh surveys
published
Total no. surveys
published
1793
2
5
0
7
1794
22
42
12
76
1795
3
2
0
5
1796
1 (+ appendix
to MLO)
2
1
4
1797
1
0
0
1
Total
29
51
13
93
Publication of ‘revised’ surveys (1)
Year
No. Scottish
surveys
No. English surveys
No. Welsh
surveys
Total no.
surveys
1795
1
1
0
2
1796
0
3
0
3
1797
0
5
0
5
1798
3
2 (+2ndedn)(+3rdedn)
0
5 (+ edns)
1799
1
2
0
3
1800
1
1 (+ edn)
0
2 (+ edn)
1801
0
0
0
0
1802
1
0
0
1
1803
0
1
0
1
1804
0
1 (+3rdedn) (2nd
survey)
0
1 (+ edn) (2nd
survey)
1805
1 (+2ndedn)
1 (+2ndedn)(+3rdedn)
0
2 (+ edns)
Publication of ‘revised’ surveys (2)
Year
No. Scottish
surveys
No. English surveys
No. Welsh
surveys
Total no. surveys
1806
0 (+2ndedn)
0
0
0 (+ edns)
1807
0
2 (+2ndedn)
0
2 (+ edns)
1808
1
4 (+2ndedn), (+2ndedn)
0
5 (+ edns)
1809
1
6
0
7
1810
4
4
1
9
1811
5
5 (+ 1 vol in 3 vols, 1811, 0
1815, 1817)
10 (+ edns)
1812
6
3
0
9
1813
1 (+2ndedn)
0
0
1 (+ edns)
1814
3
0
1
4
1815
0
2 (+ vol 2) (2nd survey)
0
2 (+ vol 2) (2nd survey)
1816
1
0
0
1
1817
0
0 (+ vol 3)
0
0 (+ vol 3)
Publication of ‘revised’ Scottish surveys
Year
No. surveys
Surveys
1795
1
Midlothian
1798
3
Argyll, Clydesdale, Roxburgh and Selkirk
1799
1
Perth
1800
1
Fife
1802
1
Peebles
1805
1 (+2ndedn)
East Lothian, Argyll (2ndedn)
1806
0 (+2ndedn)
Clydesdale (2ndedn)
1808
1
Inverness
1809
1
Berwick
1810
4
Galloway, Hebrides, Kincardine, Ross & Cromarty
1811
5
Aberdeen, Ayr, Dumbarton, Moray and Nairn, West Lothian
1812
6
Banff, Caithness, Dumfriesshire, Renfrew, Stirling, Sutherland
1813
2 (+2ndedn)
Angus, Perth (2ndedn), Shetland Islands
1814
3
Clackmannan, Kinross, Orkney Islands
1816
1
Bute
Price of the revised Scottish surveys -1st
edns
Price of survey Survey
4s
Clydesdale (1798)
5s
East Lothian (1805)
6s
Argyll (1798), Fife (1800), Midlothian (1795), Perth (1799), Roxburgh
and Selkirk (1798)
7s
Peebles (1802)
9s
Dumbarton (1811), Galloway (1810), Ross and Cromarty (1810), West
Lothian (1811)
10s 6d
Banff (1812), Kincardine (1810), Orkney and Shetland Islands (1814),
Renfrew (1812)
12s
Berwick (1809), Sutherland (1812)
14s
Inverness (1808), Moray and Nairn (1811)
15s
Aberdeen (1811), Caithness (1812)
18s
Ayrshire (1811), Dumfries (1812)
L1 1 0
Hebrides (1810)
Edinburgh, London and Dublin
booksellers
Edinburgh
London
Dublin
A. Constable& Co.
Faulder& Son, Bond Street
John Archer
W. Creech
J. Harding, St James’s Street
M. Keene
T. Bryce & Co.
J. Asperne, Cornhill
SilvesterDoig
Black, Parry and Kingsbury, Leadenhall
Street
John Ballantyne& Co.
Richard Phillips, Bridge Street
Andrew Stirling
Cadell& Davies, Strand
Reyolds, Oxford Street
G. & W. Nicoll, Pall-Mall
G. & J. Robinson, Paternoster Row
Robinson &Wilkie, Paternoster Row
Sherwood, Neely & Jones, Paternoster
Row
Regional and local centres of
distributionand sale
Book
Centre
Glasgow
Surveys
published
1795-1804
Argyll,
Roxburgh and
Selkirk
Perth
Aberdeen
Surveys published between 1805-11
1805-8 1810-11
Argyll, Clydesdale, East
Lothian, Inverness
Ayr, Dumbarton,
Kincardine, Moray and
Nairn
Inverness, Nairn and
Moray
Roxburgh and
Selkirk
Surveys published
1812-16
Argyll, Clydesdale,
East Lothian, Inverness
Dundee
Inverness
Inverness
Inverness
Bute, Moray and Nairn,
Renfrew, Roxburgh and
Selkirk
Inverness
Kincardine, Moray and
Nairn,
Kincardine, Moray and
Nairn,Roxburgh and Selkirk
Moray and Nairn
Moray and Nairn, Ross
and Cromarty
Stirling
Ayr
Ayr
Ayr
Banff, Caithness, Inverness,
Moray and Nairn, Ross and
Cromarty, Sutherland
Paisley
Renfrew
Greenock
Renfrew
Phases in the distribution of the
Scottish ‘revised’ surveys
Period
Character of distribution
1795-1804
•Use of key bookselling centres.
• The surveys were primarily sold by booksellers in London, Edinburgh
and Dublin.
• Only in exceptional cases were surveys sold by regional or local
booksellers.
1805-11
•Development and use of a more extensive network of booksellers.
• The surveys were sold by booksellers in London, Edinburgh and Dublin.
• The surveys weredistributed by a larger number of booksellers in
regional and local centres.
1812-16
•Use of two broad patterns of bookselling networks.
• Some surveys that were published for the first time were only sold by
(a smaller number of) booksellers in London, Edinburgh and Dublin.
• Some surveys were sold by booksellers in London, Edinburgh and
Dublin and were also sold in regional and local centres.
Distribution of the subscribers to
the ‘revised’ Peebles survey
Subscribers
Analysis
Geographical
location
• Towns and villages and other places in Peebleshire
• Farms and estates in Peebleshire
•Neighbouring counties (egLanarkshire, Midlothian, Edinburgh, East
Lothian)
• Counties farther afield in other parts of Scotland (egClackmannan,
Fife, Perth, Inverness, Elgin, Ayr, Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Dumfries)
• Outside Scotland (specific locations in England, Wales and Ireland)
Social and occupational groups of
subscribers to the ‘revised’ Peebles
survey
Groups
Analysis
Social and
occupational groups
• Landed classes and landowners
• Farmers
• Members of Parliament
• Honorary members of the Board of Agriculture
• Surveyors to the Board of Agriculture
• Agricultural writers
• Educationalists (university, college, parish school)
• Professions (law, medicine, education, military, ministry)
• Others associated with agriculture (saddler, land surveyor)
• Public officials (provosts, sheriffs, collectors of taxes)
• Other occupational groups (merchant, accountant, banker,
insurance-broker)
Thank you!