It’s hard to put a value on a life, but the cost of death is more easily established.
In the 1700s, for instance, 1 Scots pound and 4 shillings was spent on ropes for the execution of two men in Inverness.
For carrying out that grisly task the executioner was rewarded with 1 pound 6s.
Others were paid 2 pounds 2s for carrying a criminal and ladders to the gallows and later digging a grave.
How do we know this?
Entries in the Burgh of Inverness Treasurer’s Accounts for 1732-1790 provide the information in meticulous, handwritten detail.
The thousands of entries in more than 200 pages also reveal Thomas McPherson, master of the grammar school, was paid 400 pounds for two years’ salary.
We also learn the salaries of the head of the town’s music school (130 pounds for 18 months work) and the local watchmaker for maintaining the town clock (80 pounds for two years).
The painstaking care taken to produce important documents hundreds of years ago is replicated in keeping them open for public scrutiny.
The Highland Archive Centre in Inverness has records dating back to the 14th century.
Some are in better shape than others and that’s where Richard Aitken and his small team come in.
The team’s conservation and preservation skills give historic books, maps and other public documents a new lease of life.
Conservation studio keeping history alive
Extending the work of the purpose-built conservation studio to support external customers allows it to be a self-funding business.
Senior conservator Richard was recruited in 2009 to the archive centre as it prepared to open the £10.5 million facility run by High Life Highland.
The conservation studio is the only one in Scotland not attached to a major institution.
Its work secures the future of historic items from Shetland to Argyll and as far away as Aberdeen and Lanarkshire.
“The work is very satisfying”, said Richard. “It’s good to know the items we preserve can be used for another hundred years and longer.
“People will continue to be able to access them in future, whereas before they would be too fragile.”
Document important to Inverness
Damage to the treasurer’s book meant it took at least 70 hours to re-sew and re-bind.
“It’s a historic document that is very important to Inverness and the Highlands”, said Richard.
“It’s now been digitised as well, so hopefully it won’t be handled quite so much as people can access the digital archive.
“But the conversation work makes it fully available for people to research again.”
Other books to come into the team’s care include a tome published in 1476 in Latin by Roman author Pliny the Elder.
The natural history work is a very early printed book and considered to be the first encyclopaedia ever written.
Also recently restored is a 19th century cashier book of former Inverness Provost Thomas Gilzean whhich details funds for the Royal Northern Infirmary and Inverness Royal Academy.
This includes money connected to the slave trade in the Caribbean.
Mary Queen of Scots letter
Income from external work is what helps keep the studio running.
Items the team have saved include accounts from Chivas Brothers distillers which have been preserved for its archives.
Historic documents from Argyll Estates have also been trusted in the hands of Richard and his colleagues.
This includes a 1546 letter granting the 4th Earl of Argyll land for the killing of 50 rebels against the Scottish Crown.
The letter was written on behalf of Mary Queen of Scots who would have been three or four years old at the time.
Arriving in a fragile condition, it was repaired and strengthening by the archive team.
Richard added: “I’m lucky that I like the work I’m doing. I like everything the job brings me.
“We are preserving history and it’s a good responsibility to have.”
Keeping it in the family: Inverness archive centre staff discover they are all related
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