13d • Action & Debate
SCOTTISH ARCHIVE HUNTER CHALLENGE
Over the next two weeks I don’t have as much time for research & writing as I’d like, so I wanted to leave you all a bit of a challenge in my partial absence. This will also help us build our Northern Archives Library here on Skool. Details are as follows:
12 missions. Two weeks. Zero complacency.
These tasks are designed to send you down purposeful rabbit holes, uncover hidden Scottish history, and help us build a community-sourced evidence library.
RULES (short, strict, necessary)
1. Cite your sources.
Screenshots, archive links, PDF page numbers, photographs, catalogue IDs — whatever you find, back it up.
2. Fact-check before posting.
If a claim sounds spicy, verify it twice.
If a source feels dodgy, treat it as suspect until proven otherwise.
3. Keep posts concise.
What you found, why it matters, and where you found it.
4. Debate respectfully.
We’re here to sharpen knowledge, not each other’s throats.
5. No conspiracy filler.
Stick to evidence, not vibes.
THE 12 MISSIONS
1. Follow the Bribes
Find original lists, letters, or records naming who was paid during the 1707 Union negotiations and how much.
2. The Voices They Muted
Locate any speeches, letters, or petitions from Scots who opposed the Union — and note where they vanished from the mainstream record.
3. The Last Parliament
Dig up surviving documents from the last independent Scottish Parliament: motions, debates, attendance, anything.
4. The Censored Press
Track Scottish printing presses, newspapers, or pamphlets that were shut down, restricted, or censored between 1680–1750.
5. Letters from the Colonies
Find one Scottish voice in any colonial archive (Jamaica, India, Canada, Australia) and extract what they were doing there.
6. Cumberland’s Instructions
Hunt for orders, letters, or first-hand accounts from the aftermath of Culloden. Compare “official” British claims with on-the-ground testimony.
7. The Not-Empty Glens
Choose a Highland area and find hard evidence of its pre-Clearance population (rent rolls, kirk records, tenant lists, cattle counts).
8. Stolen Shipyards
Find a “British” industrial breakthrough that was actually Scottish — an engineer, design, patent, or shipbuilding innovation later rebranded.
9. Gaelic Erasure
Identify the number, location, and purpose of Gaelic schools before 1800 and show how they were displaced by English-language school networks.
10. Petitions to Nowhere
Find any Scottish petition submitted to Westminster post-1707 and note what happened: accepted, ignored, delayed, or quietly buried.
11. Scots Behind the Empire
Pick any “British” imperial accomplishment and dig out the Scots who actually did the work behind it — administrators, financiers, engineers.
12. Scotland’s Hidden Constitution
Find historical references to constitutional proposals, drafts, or debates in Scotland — pre-Union or post-Union — and map what happened to them.
Direct, ruthless, and designed for digging out truth from under 300 years of rebranding.
ARCHIVE HUNTER: RESEARCH TIPS
1. Search by NAME, not nationality
“British” is a filing trick.
People are not.
Tell them to start with:
• surnames
• first names
• estates
• parishes
• clans
• known family lines
• shipmasters, ministers, printers, lairds, tenants
Most Scots in empire-era archives only show up because the person is named — not the country.
2. Use “Scotch” and “North Briton” as search terms
Because guess what:
Archivists before the 1900s rarely used “Scottish”.
They used:
• Scotch
• North Britain / North British
• North Briton
• Caledonian
• Scotsman (but rarely “Scotswoman”)
These unlock entire document collections that “Scottish” won’t find.
3. Search the place-before-the-person
If you need a Scot abroad, search their home parish first, not the colony.
Example:
Instead of “Find Scots in Jamaica,”
try: “Arbroath,” “Dundee,” “Keith,” “Inveraray,” “Kirkwall” in Jamaican records.
Why?
Because people kept writing where they came from in letters, wills, cargo logs, kirk reports, and militia lists.
4. Use occupation filters
The British Empire worked by job roles.
Scots dominated these categories:
• Factor
• Surveyor
• Bookkeeper
• Overseer
• Clerk
• Shipwright
• Engineer
• Merchant
• Planter
• Agent
• Surgeon
• Minister
• Schoolmaster
Type one of those + “Scotch” or + a parish name and watch the rabbit hole open.
5. Check the legal paperwork
Colonial Scots are heavily recorded in:
• probate/wills
• shipping manifests
• plantation inventories
• kirk session records overseas
• census fragments
• court cases
• debt and credit ledgers
• military rolls
These almost always list origin.
Legal records don’t do “British unity.” They do specificity.
6. Reverse-search London sources
When something is filed as “British,” look at:
• who is signing it
• who is paying for it
• who is complaining
• whose handwriting is on the ledger
• which merchants are referenced
• which bank is involved
A massive number of “British” ventures — from India to Jamaica — are actually driven by Scots traders, Scots financiers, Scots clergy.
London just stamped the receipt.
7. Use the Scottish parish cluster strategy
Every Scot abroad belonged to a home network, and these networks move like shoals of fish.
If you find one Scot in Antigua from Kirriemuir, look for more Kirriemuir names.
If you see Kintyre on a shipping log, expect more Kintyre surnames around them.
Follow the cluster.
8. Translate old spelling variants
Daniel / Daniell
Mackenzie / McKenzie / M’Kenzie
Stewart / Stuart
Cameron / Cam’ron
MacDonald / M’Donald / McDonald
Archivists didn’t care about consistency.
You have to.
9. Use scandal as a breadcrumb
Whenever corruption, debt, violence, or scandal shows up in colonial records, Scots often appear at the administrative or financial level.
Search terms that catch them:
• forfeiture
• bankruptcy
• bond
• security
• guarantor
• trustee
• guardian
• attorney-in-fact
• factor
• estate administrator
These roles were disproportionately Scottish.
10. If it’s a “British achievement,” assume Scottish involvement
Engineers, surveyors, architects, and accountants were overwhelmingly Scottish.
Search with the job title first.
Then look for Scottish surnames nearby.
11. Use the other archive
When the British archive hides something, the colony doesn’t.
Examples:
British Library entry vague?
Check the Jamaican Archives, Nova Scotia Archives, Indian Office Records, Canadian Library and Archives.
Colonial archives tend to be more honest about origins.
12. Follow the churches
Church records abroad are goldmines.
Search:
• Presbyterian
• Secession
• Relief Church
• Free Church
• Church of Scotland
• Gaelic congregations abroad
Anywhere the Kirk went, Scots are documented with embarrassing precision.
13. Use occupational drift
If someone in Scotland was a:
• weaver
• surveyor
• clerk
• tenant farmer
• shoemaker
• schoolmaster
…they often left behind the same job in the colonies.
Search the job title + a surname and you catch the transition.
14. Use estate names as breadcrumbs
Merchants and colonial agents LOVE naming plantations after home estates.
Examples:
• Roxburgh
• Montrose
• Ballindalloch
• Strathleven
If it sounds Scottish, check the owner.
15. When all else fails: follow the money
Banking archives, particularly:
• Coutts
• RBS
• Bank of Scotland
• Douglas, Heron & Co
• Scottish Widows
All these contain receipts of Scots transferring money home — the ultimate proof they weren’t “British,” but Scottish migrants sending profit back north.
Enjoy! Laura 🏴
0
0 comments
SCOTTISH ARCHIVE HUNTER CHALLENGE
powered by
skool.com/scottish-indy-exchange-2628
Debate it. Learn it. Shape it.
The Indy Exchange is Scotland’s space to dig into the who, what, when, where and why of independence.
Suggested communities
Powered by