Hi listers,
Thanks for the additional input.
<grin> the GEDcom notes on this couple are the longest I've written !
I couldn't find a film of the church book for the area and time span of interest so I can't comment on where the word appears. I have seen a few extracts of surviving Scottish parish committee interrogations of witnesses; in one instance they had to decide if the young man was telling the truth when he denied being the father and in another instance the girl refused to name the father (!)
Thanks again,
Rena