East Lothian

Contents

Nearby places

Whitekirk

"WHITEKIRK, a parish on the coast of Haddingtonshire. It contains the village of Whitekirk and the post-office village of Tynninghame. It is bounded on the north by North-Berwick; on the east by the German ocean; on the south by the estuary of the Tyne, and by Dunbar; and on the west by Prestonkirk. Its length from north to south is 5 1/4 miles; and its greatest breadth is 4 1/2 miles ... The present parish comprehends the ancient parishes of Tynninghame, Aldham, and Hamer, or Whitekirk. Aldham - popularly but corruptedly Adam - lay on the north, and included the lands of Aldham and of Scougal. Some desolated vestiges of this hamlet are still traceable on the coast, a short distance east of Tantallan-castle. The original church was probably founded by St Baldred, and in consequence, dated back to the 6th century; and the last church in use was demolished in 1770, yet may still be partially traced in the out-houses of a farm-yard adjacent to the vestiges of the hamlet. At Scougal, about a mile to the south-east, and overlooking the sea, anciently stood a chapel, whose ruins are still extant.- Whitekirk had the ancient name of Hamer, or the greater ham, from its contradistinction to Ald-ham; and its modern name of Whitekirk, from the whiteness of its church ... Aldham was united to Whitekirk in the 17th century, and Tynninghame in 1761."
from the Imperial Gazetteer of Scotland, edited by John Marius Wilson, 1868.

Bibliography

See An Old Kirk Chronicle: a history of Auldhame, Tyninghame, and Whitekirk in East Lothian by Rev. P. Hately Waddell, published at Edinburgh in 1893.

Church History

See the Bibliography section.

Church Records

The parish church (Church of Scotland) has registers dating from 1705. Old Parish Registers (before 1855) are held in the General Register Office for Scotland in Edinburgh, and copies on microfilm may be consulted in local libraries and in LDS Family History Centres around the world. Later parish registers (after 1855) are often held in the Scottish Record Office as are any records of non-conformist churches in the area (often unfilmed and unindexed, and only available there).

Civil Registration

Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths began in Scotland on 1st January 1855. For details of these and other records held at the General Register Office in Edinburgh, see the GRO tutorial.

Gazetteers

Extracts for this parish from the 1868 National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland are available.

History

See the Bibliography section.

Population

According to Dr Webster's return of 1755, the population of Whitekirk then was 369. Most population figures for the parish count it together with Tynninghame. Total counts include: