Overview
Mauchline is a town in East Ayrshire. Robert Burns lived there for a time on Mossgiel Farm.
This group is a type of nineteenth-century county association. In the stricter sense, county associations were groups whose members (or whose parents) were former residents of counties across Scotland who had moved to Glasgow. This type of group incorporated elements of a benevolent society in that they could offer a combination of accommodation, advice, referrals, and general assistance to newcomers in the city when they arrived, while also offering aid to widows, unemployed members, or members undergoing financial hardship. In addition, they might offer to provide for the education of their members’ children, or money to support their higher education.
This society was also a Burns club, and its members met at the the Christian Institute (Bothwell Street) in the early twentieth century (at least). (For more information about this institute, see the ‘Christian Institute‘ on The Glasgow Story website).
In 1897, this was a fairly large group, with a reported 120 members on its roll. This number would fall to 60 in the next year, and reached a low point of ‘about 30 members’ in 1907, before recovering slightly in 1908 (n. 40). In 1904, the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory listed the club’s object as:
‘[…] to afford relief to those in needful circumstances, to obtain situations to persons of good character, and to promote friendly intercourse among those connected with Mauchline in Glasgow; to erect, endow, hold, preserve, and manage the National Burns Memorial and Cottage Homes, Mauchline’.
(‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1904’, in Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIII (January 1904), p. 142)
Date of Existence
1888-1934? (uncertain: date taken from last year info. given in online catalogue)
Source of Information
1. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1897’,in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. VI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1897), p. 155;
2. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1898’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. VII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation January 1898), p. 142:
3. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1899’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. VIII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1899), p. 159;
4. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1904’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XIII (January 1904), p. 142;
5. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1906’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XV (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1906), p. 151;
6. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1907’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XVI (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1907), p. 162;
7. ‘Directory of Burns Clubs and Scottish Societies on the Roll of the Burns Federation, 1908’, in BC, ed. by D. M’Naught, No. XVII (Kilmarnock: Burns Federation, January 1908), p. 136;
8. (Mentioned in Minutes of the Glasgow and District Burns Club: Minute entry, 30 March 1908, Glasgow and District Burns Club, Minutes, 8 November 1907-5 September 1912, p. 18);
9. ‘Glasgow Mauchline Society’, Glasgow Herald, 9 December 1921, p. 6;
10 .’National Burns Memorial and Cottage Homes, Mauchline, Ayrshire: Catalogue of Exhibits in the Museum Including a History of the Burns Memorial and Cottage Homes’, Ayrshire History <http://www.ayrshirehistory.com/pdf/mauchline_catalogue_of_burns_memorial_tower_museum_1962.pdf> [accessed 31 January 2018]
Repository
Mitchell Library Special Collections (MLSC) (Annual Burns Chronicle, Minutes, and Glasgow Herald)
National Library of Scotland (Annual Burns Chronicle, and Glasgow Herald)
Reference Number
891709 (MLSC) (Minutes)
BNS19BUR (MLSC) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
General Reading Room (stored offsite), Y.233, available no. 1-34 25th Jan. 1892-Jan. 1925 (NLS) (Annual Burns Chronicle)
Additional Notes
See also Glasgow and District Burns Club.
‘BC‘ refers to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, which was published yearly since 1892. Hard copies are available at the Mitchell Library Special Collections and the National Library of Scotland. Many of them have been digitised and are available through the Robert Burns World Federation website: http://www.rbwf.org.uk/digitised-chronicles/.
This list of Burns chronicles as sources of information gives the first year the club was included in the chronicle, and thereafter only for the years where the information is different from the previous year’s listing. In keeping with the scope of this study (1800-1914), only the chronicles published between 1892 and 1914 are included.
The Glasgow Herald is available at the Mitchell Library and the National Library of Scotland in both hard copy and microfilm (check libraries for availability in both formats). Digitised issues are also available through the British Newspaper Archive: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/