What Qualifications required to be Town Clerk in 1730's

[Forfarian]

Scouse Boy is right. The Town Clerk is not an elected position. These days the equivalent official is probably the Chief Executive of the council. Almost all the 18th century Town Clerks I have come across were indeed lawyers/solicitors/writers, and most of the current CEs of local authorities I've encountered also had a legal background.

[ScouseBoy]

Scouse Boy is right. The Town Clerk is not an elected position. These days the equivalent official is probably the Chief Executive of the council. Almost all the 18th century Town Clerks I have come across were indeed lawyers/solicitors/writers, and most of the current CEs of local authorities I've encountered also had a legal background.

In recent years though, there is a tendency for the Town Clerk to be the chief legal officer of the council,  sometimes the Town Clerk has been re-named as the County Solicitor.

[patval]

From what I can gather they were not paid a great deal for their services at that time either...... must have been more for prestige than payment.....

Thanks for all the help you are a knowledgeable lot......., I think I can consider Hugh to have been a writer..... May help in finding his parents although Dornoch records are very poor in the early 1700's.....

kind regards Patricia... 

[Skoosh]

as it says of the prospective candidates, "they are both in the writing business", in Scotland a "writer" is a lawyer!  see WS, a Writer to the Signet      Skoosh.

[patval]

Thats right Skoosh but it says 2 candidates were writers Donald Ross and William Sutherland... of Hugh Macdonald it just says 'there is a son of Macdonald likewise who lives etc..... are we to assume being 'likewise' he is also a writer?

Another puzzlement is the fact that Hugh snr 'made demission of the office in favour of his son a week or two before his death'.
 
One of  the Gilchrist letters says:
Letter of 17-3-1756 (extract):

Hugh McDonald our sheriff clerk died on 11th current.  I find his son is applying for that office… I understand likewise that William Sutherland of Sciberscross our sheriff substitute relies on Forse’s interest with you and the other commissioners for procuring him that office and that he has secured credit for the purchase of it.

then later

Letter of 24-3-1756 (extract):

Mr Baillie at Ardmore informs me that Hugh McDonald’s son succeeds his father as sheriff clerk of Sutherland.  His father made demission of the office in favour of his son a week or two before his death.

Can we also assume that this post would appear to go to the highest bidder?  And yet  Hugh snr resigned on his deathbed passing on this post to his son?

 

[Skoosh]

Pat, commissioners are presumably the commissioners of supply for the county, Forse, a laird (there are two Forse's).  The army required both influence & cash to fill an officers place in a regiment, some more fashionable than others. It must also have applied with civil posts.     Skoosh.

[domestic goddess]

Hi patval 

Did you ever get any response to your question posted on the Ask Scotland website? 

[patval]

Hi there, yes I did......

A.
Dear Patricia
I am not sure that I can give a definitive answer to your question. Certainly the position of Town Clerk and Sheriff Clerk in Dornoch passed from father to son.

However according to Michael Hook in ‘A History of the Royal Burgh of Dornoch’ in ‘1729 the council was composed of the Provost, four baillies , a dean of guild, the treasurer and eight councillors one of whom acted as Town Clerk’.

I have found little evidence of what qualifications the Town Clerk and Sheriff Clerk had but Robert Manson in 1655 was a ‘Wrytter in Dornoch’ (Old Dornoch and its Traditions- H.M Mackay)

William Taylor, Sheriff Clerk, whose son and grandson succeeded him holding office for about 100 years, was a lawyer.

It would seem that sometimes the same person held both offices and sometimes not.

I hope however this is of interest.
Kind regards
Susan

References
MacKay, H. M. (Hector Munro) . - Old Dornoch : its traditions and legends / by H. M. MacKay, town-clerk ; wit . - Dingwall : 'North Star', 1920

Hook, Michael . - A history of the Royal Burgh of Dornoch . - Dornoch : Historylinks Museum, 2005 . - 0954425340


......... I am still researching though as I have been unable to source the books referred to......

A never ending task


thanks for your message

regards
Pat
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