Sinners of Cramond

Between 1651 and 1851 successive clerks to the Kirk Sessions of Cramond carefully recorded the allegations of misbehaviour that were brought against parishioners. Almost all of those who appeared before the session were ‘working-class’ men and women, and not all of them were as ready to confess and express their repentance as minister and elders wished. So while the eleven volumes of Cramond’s session minutes over that time give a vivid picture of the sinners and their unallowable activities (as well as of the neighbours who reported on them), they also reveal the difficulties faced by a group of earnest men (some more likeable than others) who were charged with exercising godly authority over their community. The account is set against the background of national events as they affected Cramond and its kirk. It concludes by sketching some of the changes that have made the modern Edinburgh suburb so different from its forerunner of earlier centuries.