A FUND which has lain dormant since it was set up to help the poor in the 17th century has finally started handing out money.
William Lawtie's Mortification fund, which has a pot of around £100,000, has awarded £500 to a man who has lost his eyesight.
The award has enabled Bruce Cruickshank, 29, to buy a computer which he hopes will open up a range of job opportunities.
The former heavy plant driver lost his sight two years ago due to diabetes.
Mr Cruickshank, who lives with his wife Stephanie, a dental nurse, at Lintmill, near Cullen, Banffshire, said he was grateful to the trustees for the award.
William Lawtie was a burgess of Cullen which meant he owned property and was entitled to vote in burgh elections. It was actually set up by John Lawtie, thought to be William's brother or father in 1650.
William left the administration of the fund to a friend and thereafter to a descendant in each succeeding generation.
The role of trustee later fell to successive town clerks of Cullen and, following local government re-organisation in the mid- 1970s, to Moray councillors.
The fund lay dormant for many years until in April Moray Council invited applications.
Mr Cruickshank, who had to give up work two-and-a-half years ago, said: "Stephanie had a laptop which was 10 years old and had seen better days, and with just one wage coming into the house we would not have been able to afford a computer without the money from the fund."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article