expenses there was always some money in the Bazaar Fund which could be

used if necessary, to augment the income of the church. There were 365

names on the communion roll in 1901 which was only a slight decrease from

the figure of 385 in 1894. By contrast, when the first Free Church minute

book closed in 1911 there were 87 members, although the numbers had in-

creased from a low of 71 in 1907. In 1863 there had been a membership

of 222 in the Free Church.

The subject of small livings contributions was brought up again by the

Presbytery in 1913 when they asked the congregation in Strathkinness to give

£180 to the Fund. The decision as to whether they should give £100 left over

from the bazaar held in 1907 was deferred, but they eventually decided to

send the £100 ‘provided the Ladies’ Work Party would use the proceeds of

their sales of work towards gradually replacing it’. This the Ladies’ Work

Party did with an addition of £45 to the General Fund in 1921 and a further

addition in 1923 of £20.

In 1915 Mr. McLeod’s stipend, like that of other ministers in ‘small livings’

parishes, was raised to something just over £200 a year. However, in 1924

the Trustees of Strathkinness Church wrote to the Commiteee for the Augmen-

tation of Smaller Livings ‘protesting against the fact that the stipend had not

been raised to £300 as had been promised, the parish having contributed its

required quota’.

One of the problems in paying the stipend for the minister in Strathkinness

was that property bought in Glasgow when the church was first established

in 1860, and which was intended to bring in enough money from rents to

help pay the minister’s stipend, never brought in the amount expected. There

were constant problems concerning the property and there were times when

the minister in Strathkinness did not get his full stipend,because of difficulties

arising from this property. In 1928 the ‘property had got into dangerous

conditions’ and as the Trustees of Strathkinness Church did not have the

money for the necessary repairs it was decided that the Corporation of Glasgow

should repair the buildings and recover the cost of these repairs from the rents

of the improved property.

Although for many years the Kirk Session minutes had been recording

not much more than the numbers at communion, in 1913 the minutes list the

church property. Included in the list are: two pulpit Bibles [one] wanting

several leaves; three minute books, one in present use; Communion Cups

and Flagon with wooden Bread Platter; Communion Cups and Platter (electro-

plated) and one brass door collection plate with a pedestal; Communion

Cloths for all seats on the ground floor; a Baptism Register, commencing 19

November, 1876; and a Proclamation Register commencing September 1875’.

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