Berwickshire, Scotland Genealogy Genealogy

Background
Berwickshire is a maritime county in the south-east of Scotland, bounded on the north by the German Ocean and the county of Haddington (Eastlothian), on the east and north-east by the German Ocean, on the south by the river Tweed, which separates it from the English county of Northumberland, and on the west and south-west by the counties of Edinburgh (Midlothian) and Roxburgh. It is about thirty-five miles in length and twenty-two miles in extreme breadth. It comprises about 446 1/2 square miles or 285,760 acres. The county derives its name from the ancient town of berwick, formerly the county town.

Berwickshire was anciently part of the kingdom of Northumbria until the year 1020 when it was ceded to Malcolm II, King of Scotland, by the Earl of Northumberland. From its situation on the borders, the county was the scene of frequent hostilities and an object of continual dispute between the Scots and the English. The town of Berwick was finally ceded to the English in 1482. Greenlaw eventually became the county town for Berwickshire.

The county comprises thirty-four parishes and three civil districts of Merse, Lammermoor, and Lauderdale. It includes the royal burgh of Lauder, the towns of Greenlaw, Dunse, Coldstream, and Eyemouth, and several villages. The district of Merse is level and extends for nearly twenty miles along the north bank of the Tweed and about ten miles in breadth. It is richly fertile and enriched with plantations. The district of Lammermoor, nearly of equal extent and parallel with the Merse, is a hilly tract chiefly adapted for pasture. The district of Lauderdale, to the west of the other two, is also diversified with hills and affords good pasture for sheep and a coarse breed of black cattle. It has fertile vales of arable land yielding abundant crops. The coast is bold and rocky, rising precipitously to a great height, and is almost inaccessible except at Eyemouth and Coldingham Bay.

The population of the county in 1851 was 34,438.

(Source: Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, 2nd ed., 1851.  Family History Library  book 941 E5L.)

Census
The Scottish government began taking censuses of its population in 1841, and every ten years there after. The records must be 100 years old before they are released to the public, so the most recent record available is for the 1901 census. Read more about Census Records.

Many census records have been indexed by surname. Some indexes cover one parish (and will be listed in the Wiki on the parish page) and some indexes are for the county as a whole. Here is a list of the known county-wide census indexes for Berwickshire which are available at the Family History Library.

Parishes
Here is a list of the historic parishes of the county of Berwick with their parish numbers. Click on the parish name to see information about records.

Maps
Click on the map of Berwickshire to see a larger version. Click on the larger map, then click the 'Expand' button when it appears in the lower right-hand corner of the map.



Click here to see an outline map of the parishes of Berwickshire.

[Return to county list.]