Royal burgh

A Royal Burgh is a type of Scottish burgh (town or city), used today for ceremonial purposes only.

A royal burgh is a burgh which has been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter.

Most royal burghs were sea ports, and each was either created by the crown, or upgraded from another status, such as burgh of barony. 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.

Today the title is only of ceremonial status, with royal burghs losing their local government functions in 1975 by virtue of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. However, 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 still extant.

Origins

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, were burghs by 1130. 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.

List of royal burghs

, 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.

By 1153 (royal)

Aberdeen (has since had royal burgh status revoked when city status was conferred)
Berwick-Upon-Tweed
Edinburgh (has since had royal burgh status revoked when city status was conferred)
Dunfermline
Elgin
Forres
Linlithgow
Montrose
Peebles
Perth
Rutherglen
Roxburgh (has since had royal burgh staus revoked: the original settlement no longer exists as more than a hamlet)
Stirling (has since had royal burgh status revoked when city status was conferred)

By 1153 (Burghs passing between the king and other lords)

By 1153 (Burghs controlled by other lords)

Canongate (now part of Edinburgh)
St Andrews

By 1214 (royal)

Ayr
Auldearn
Banff
Cullen
Dumfries
Forfar
Inverkeithing
Inverness (has since had royal burgh status revoked when city status was conferred)
Jedburgh
Kinghorn
Kintore
Leith (has since had royal burgh staus revoked; now part of Edinburgh)
Nairn

By 1214 (Burghs passing between the king and other lords)

Crail

By 1214 (Burghs controlled by other lords)

Annan
Arbroath
Brechin
Dundee (the only Scottish city to also still retain royal burgh status)
Glasgow (has since had royal burgh status revoked when city status was conferred)
Kirkintilloch
Prestwick

By 1300 (royal)

By 1300 (Burghs controlled by other lords)

Notes

References

Barrow, G.W.S., Kingship and Unity: Scotland, 1000-1306, (Edinburgh. 1981)
Lynch, Michael, 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)

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Royal burgh