{"id":62802,"date":"2017-05-11T11:28:45","date_gmt":"2017-05-11T11:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scotclans.com\/?p=62802"},"modified":"2022-03-07T11:36:10","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T11:36:10","slug":"dowry-brides-st-cyrus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project1-m9gb2xku8.live-website.com\/?p=62802","title":{"rendered":"The Dowry Brides of St Cyrus"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Mrs Frances Birse (nee Wood) is measured for the dowry in 1941<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scotland has some quite bizarre\u00a0traditions and this one\u00a0is truly odd. \u00a0It is a tradition specific to St Cyrus in\u00a0Aberdeenshire.<\/p>\n

It was the sight of a couple in the snow on their wedding day that led a civil servant to establish one of Scotland\u2019s quirkiest wedding day traditions. John Orr, the Accountant General of Madras, is said to have been so moved by the newlyweds struggling in the cold conditions in his home village of St Cyrus, Aberdeenshire, that he offered them some money.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Location of the village<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From a one off gift to help out this couple in the cold, Mr Orr was to continue this donation to struggling newly weds. \u00a0He was a very wealthy man and in his will he left his money to continue this tradition – but stated some very clear rules about who this annual gift of money should be given to.<\/p>\n

Mr Orr\u00a0died in 1845 after which the interest from the money in the bank was to be split \u00a0five ways.<\/p>\n

Four parts of it were split between four brides\u00a0– the tallest, the shortest, the youngest and the oldest. \u00a0The\u00a0measuring stick was to used to find the worthy \u201cDowry Bride of St Cyrus\u201d.<\/p>\n

Then the final\u00a0fifth of the interest was to be distributed amongst the poor of the village. A ledger in the church shows a list of the lucky newlyweds, which have been recorded in John Gavin\u2019s The Dowry Brides of St Cyrus.<\/p>\n

Records from 1887 show a 30-year-old Mrs Bain qualified as the eldest bride, with 21-year-old Mrs Jolly recorded as the youngest. That year, Mrs Gourlay was the tallest and Mrs Elder the smallest. While the heights weren\u2019t recorded in 1887, the following year records show Mrs Gibon – nee Beattie – was the shortest bride, at 4ft 11ins. The tallest was Mrs Beattie – nee Smith – who was measured at 6 ft 4 and one-tenth inches, showing that accuracy was everything in the quest to be a Dowry Bride.<\/p>\n

Each bride in 1888 received \u00a36 and a little over nine shillings. In his book, Mr Gavin said this payment could equate to around six months wages for a general farm labourer in the middle 1800s, with the dowry worth the equivalent of up to \u00a36,000 today. The dowry was rated as a \u201cwelcome boom by the Female sex\u201d in the church\u2019s ledger of the Orr request.<\/p>\n

Following Orr\u2019s\u00a0death the legitimacy of this settlement was questioned\u00a0in the Court of Session and on December 10 1867, a judgement was delivered. The settlement was found to be \u201cwhimsical and capricious\u201d but the court allowed it to stand. Mr Mone, in his judgement, said it down to the Parish to administer the distribution of the bequest so that a bride could only take one share of the dowry, regardless of whether she was both the oldest and the tallest, for example. Mr Gavin, in his publication The Dowry Brides of St Cyrus, said: \u201cI think John Orr wanted to select four St Cyrus brides, with a selection procedure based purely on chance. \u201cIt is not dependent on a means test or any \u201cmoral criterion, such as attendance at worship, or even virginity. \u201cThere can be no cheating; nor does the Minister have to apply the judgement of Solomon in deciding\u00a0between the recipients. \u201cJohn Orr is to be commended for producing a foolproof system of selecting four bridges, at random, that has stood the test of time. In the 1950s, the dowry was still considered a substantial amount of sum, with Mr Gavin reporting it was the equivalent of two-weeks wages.<\/p>\n

However in 1991, as the\u00a0value of the money remaining in the bank \u00a0plummeted, the Kirk Session decided to replace the cash with a small engraved vase. \u00a0So to continue this tradition in some way.<\/p>\n

Mr Gavin added: \u201cAssuming people continue to get married, brides will always be a certain age and height, and I see no reason why this bequest should not continue for many years.\u201d Weddings are still held at St Cyrus, but in dwindling numbers. To have four at the church in a year – to fulfil Orr\u2019s bequest to its full – would now be fairly unlikely.<\/p>\n

The tradition of giving a vase to the tallest, shortest, youngest and oldest bride in St Cyrus continues to this day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scotland has some quite bizarre\u00a0traditions and this one\u00a0is truly odd. \u00a0It is a tradition specific to St Cyrus in\u00a0Aberdeenshire. It was the sight of a couple in the snow on their wedding day that led a civil servant to establish one of Scotland\u2019s quirkiest wedding day traditions. John Orr, the Accountant General of Madras, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":65592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1349,1519],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aberdeen","category-scottish-weddings"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Dowry Brides of St Cyrus -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/project1-m9gb2xku8.live-website.com\/?p=62802\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dowry Brides of St Cyrus -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scotland has some quite bizarre\u00a0traditions and this one\u00a0is truly odd. \u00a0It is a tradition specific to St Cyrus in\u00a0Aberdeenshire. It was the sight of a couple in the snow on their wedding day that led a civil servant to establish one of Scotland\u2019s quirkiest wedding day traditions. 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