The Board of Supervision issued detailed regulations for the records to be kept by poorhouse governors. They included a register of inmates with details, including the religious persuasion of each, a journal, which was an official log book or office diary, and a report book of offences against the rules of the poorhouse and punishments imposed. For many poorhouses all that survives are minute books of the managing committee or board, and these usually survive among county council or civil parish records held by local authority archives. Substantial records survive for a few poorhouses, most notably those for Kyle Union poorhouse in Ayr, whose records (held by Ayrshire Archives) contain registers of inmates, financial records, punishment books, and plans. Where a poorhouse became a hospital, records (including registers of inmates) may survive among the records of the hospital concerned, held by the appropriate health board archive.
