Present in spirit

Published on Saturday 7 October 2006 01:16

Q I HAVE found out that my great grandfather ran a pub in or around Kirkcaldy in the mid-19th century. Can I find out anything about him from Scottish licensing records? P McDowell (by e-mail)

A The modern system of licensing is a relatively late development, imported from England in the mid-18th century. After the Alehouses Act of 1756 a person who sold ale or other excisable liquor was required to have a licence. If he operated within a burgh, then the licence was granted by the burgh court. If they operated outwith the burgh, then the licence would have been granted by the local Justices of the Peace for the county. In the early days of the act, however, the clerk issuing licences often did so without any process of examination into the fitness of the applicant. Licensing in its modern form dates largely from 1808, with the introduction of half-yearly meetings at which JPs in counties and magistrates in royal burghs granted licensing certificates. Such a certificate was a necessary precondition to the grant of a licence by the Commissioners of Excise.

The present system is based on the Licensing (Scotland) Act 1976, which began the process of relaxing the licensing laws and replaced the former courts with licensing boards for each council area or for separate divisions within them.

Records of liquor licensing prior to 1976 consist mainly of licensing registers in Justice of the Peace (JP) court records and burgh records. The early registers of certificates issued are usually brief, single-line entries with annual lists of names, addresses and occupation (normally "spirit dealer", "publican" or "change-keeper"). They may be in the form of registers of applications granted, or simply of applications, with a note of whether or not they were granted or refused.

Only a small minority were refused, almost always without reason given. In 19th-century burghs the magistrates would take reports from the police or the watchmen as to the reputations of licensees, and these reports may also survive. The early registers may be for the sale of ale or spirits or both. Those under the later Licensing Acts specify the type of licence, distinguishing for example between those for inns and hotels, for public houses and for dealers in spirits, groceries and provisions.

Liquor licensing registers of a burgh are most likely to survive among burgh records, normally held by the appropriate local authority archive or library service, or the National Archives of Scotland (NAS). In the case of several Fife burghs, the records are held by the University of St Andrews library. Registers compiled by Justices of the Peace may either be with local authority archives or with the NAS.

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