Royal burgh

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A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh (town or city) which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used unofficially in many of the former burghs.

Most royal burghs were seaports, and each was either created by the crown, or upgraded from another status, such as burgh of barony. As discrete classes of burgh emerged, the royal burghs—originally distinctive by virtue of the fact they were on royal lands—acquired a monopoly of foreign trade.

An important document for each burgh was its burgh charter, creating the burgh or confirming the rights of the burgh as laid down (perhaps verbally) by a previous monarch. Each royal burgh (with the exception of four 'ineffective burghs') was represented in the Parliament of Scotland and could appoint magistrates, called bailies with wide powers in civil and criminal justice. By 1707 there were 70 royal burghs.

The Royal Burghs Act 1833 reformed the election of the town councils that governed royal burghs. Those qualified to vote in parliamentary elections under the Reform Act 1832 were now entitled to elect burgh councillors.

Royal burghs were abolished in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. Article XXI of the Act of Union 1707 which states "That the Rights and Privileges of the Royal Boroughs in Scotland as they now are Do Remain entire after the Union and notwithstanding thereof", is deemed abrogated by the 1973 Act.[1] The towns are now sometimes referred to officially as "former royal burghs", for instance by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland[2] A number of community councils established since 1975 have incorporated the term "Royal Burgh" in their title.†

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Before the reign of David I Scotland had no towns. The closest thing to towns were the larger than average population concentrations around large monasteries, such as Dunkeld and St Andrews, and regionally significant fortifications. Scotland, outside Lothian at least, was populated by scattered hamlets, and outside that area, lacked the continental style nucleated village. David I established the first burghs in Scotland, initially only in Middle-English-speaking Lothian (note:Tain claims a charter dating from 1066 under Malcolm III). The earliest burghs, founded by 1124, were Berwick and Roxburgh. However, by 1130, David had established burghs in Gaelic areas: Stirling, Dunfermline, Perth and Scone, as well as Edinburgh. The conquest of Moray in that same year led to the establishment of burghs at Elgin and Forres. Before David was dead, St Andrews, Montrose, and Aberdeen were also burghs. In the reigns of Máel Coluim IV and William, burghs were added at Inverness, Banff, Cullen, Auldearn, Nairn, Inverurie, Kintore, Brechin, Forfar, Arbroath, Dundee, Lanark, Dumfries and (uniquely for the west coast) Ayr. New Lothian burghs also came into existence, at Haddington, Leith and Peebles. By 1210, there were 40 burghs in the Scottish kingdom. Rosemarkie, Dingwall and Cromarty were also burghs by the Scottish Wars of Independence.

David I established the first burghs, and their charters and Leges Burgorum (rules governing virtually every aspect of life and work in a burgh) were copied almost verbatim from the customs of Newcastle upon Tyne. He essentially imported the burgh into his "Scottish" dominions from his English ones. Burghs were for the most part populated by foreigners, rather than native Scots or even Lothianers. The predominant ethnic group were the Flemings, but early burgesses were also English, French and German. The burgh’s vocabulary was composed totally of either Germanic terms (not necessarily or even predominantly English) such as croft, rood, gild, gait and wynd, or French ones such as provost, bailie, vennel, port and ferme. The councils that governed individual burghs were individually known as lie doussane, meaning the dozen.

Burghs by 1153.
Burghs by 1153.

[3] [4]

  • Dingwall (1226) (later became a burgh of barony of the Earl of Ross 1321, re-established as a royal burgh in fifteenth century)
  • Dumbarton (1222)

  • Elgin (1457) (royal burgh status lost in 1312 restored)
  • Kirkwall (1486)
  • Nairn (1476) (royal burgh status lost in 1312 restored)

  • Dingwall (1497/8) (re-established)
  • Forres (1496) (charter restored royal burgh status lost in 1312, although it may have been a de facto royal burgh)
  • Kintore (1506/7) (re-erected as a royal burgh)
  • Whithorn (1511)

  • Inverurie (1558) (restored lost royal burgh status)

  • Anstruther Easter (1583)
  • Anstruther Wester (1587)
  • Arbroath (1599)
  • Cromarty (1593) (re-established). Disenfranchised by Privy Council 1672. Later re-established as a burgh of barony in 1685.
  • Culross (1592)
  • Earlsferry (1589) (charter confirmed status since time immemorial)
  • Glasgow (1611) (had been a de facto previously)
  • Fortrose (1590) became part of royal burgh of Rosemarkie 1592
  • Kilrenny (1592) (The burgh was included in roll of royal burghs by mistake and continued to enjoy that status, despite attempting to resign it)
  • Rosemarkie (1592) by union of royal burgh of Fortrose and burgh of barony of Rosemarkie re-established as royal burgh of Fortrose 1661
  • St Andrews (1620) (confirmation of de facto status)
  • Sanquhar (1598)
  • Wick (1589)

† Examples are Annan, Arbroath, Cupar, Elgin, Haddington and District, Jedburgh, Kirkcudbright and District, Lanark, Peebles and District, St Andrews; and Wick

  1. ^ Select Committee on Privileges Second Report, September 1999
  2. ^ Third Statutory Review of Electoral Arrangements, Argyll and Bute Council Area (Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland )
  3. ^ , based on the maps in McNeill & MacQueen, Atlas, pp. 196-8, supplemented with Rosemarkie and Leith, which the Atlas omits for unknown reasons; there seems to be two missing, if Barrow's account of things (40) is correct.
  4. ^ G. S. Pryde, The Burghs of Scotland: A Critical List, Oxford, 1965

  • Barrow, G.W.S., Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000-1306, (Edinburgh, 1981)
  • Donaldson, Gordon & Morpeth, Robert S., A Dictionary of Scottish History, Edinburgh, 1977; page 31 re monopoly of foreign trade
  • Lynch, Michael, Scotland: A New History, Pimlico 1992; page 62 re origin of burgh charters
  • McNeill, Peter G.B. & MacQueen, Hector L. (eds), Atlas of Scottish History to 1707, (Edinburgh, 1996)

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