48-446: A royal burgh ( / ˈ b ʌ r ə / BURR -ə ) was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter . Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by the Crown , or upgraded from another status, such as burgh of barony . As discrete classes of burgh emerged,
96-510: A Dean of Guild Court which was given the specific duty of building control. The courts were abolished in 1975, with building regulation transferred to the relevant local authority. Appointments to the office of Dean of Guild are still made in some areas: for instance the Lord Dean of Guild of Glasgow is described as the "second citizen of Glasgow" after the Lord Provost although the appointment
144-497: A mayor , was called a provost . Many different titles were in use until the Town Councils (Scotland) Act 1900 standardised the term as "provost", except in cities with a lord provost. Since 1975 local authorities have been free to choose the title of their convener and provosts are appointed to chair a number of area and community councils . Under the provost were magistrates or baillies who both acted as councillors, and in
192-425: A community council for a former Royal burgh is not able to use the words "Royal Burgh" in its title; and what scope there is for the continuance of historical titles under the present organisation of local authorities." In reply, McElhone stated: "The title which may be used by a community council is a matter for the district council to decide when drawing up the scheme for community councils in its area. Section 23 of
240-524: A guild, but many merchants did not belong to it, and it would be run by a small group of the most powerful merchants. The class of merchants included all traders, from stall-holders and pack-men to shop-holders and traders of considerable wealth. As used in this article, the Scots language word burgh is derived from the Old English Burh . In Scotland it refers to corporate entities whose legality
288-447: A number of their members to be bailies, who acted as a magistrates bench for the burgh and dealt with such issues as licensing. The provost, or chief magistrate, was elected from among the council every three years. The Royal Burghs Act was also extended to the 12 parliamentary burghs which had recently been enfranchised. These were growing industrial centres, and apart from the lack of a charter, they had identical powers and privileges to
336-752: A placename on its own, in the West Germanic countries: Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65) is an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that altered local government in Scotland on 16 May 1975. The act followed and largely implemented the report of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland in 1969 (the Wheatley Report ), and it made
384-486: A region outside their settlements. Properties known as Burgage tenures were a key feature, whose tenants had to be of the Burgher class, known as a " Burgesses ", and therefore eligible to participate in trade within the town, and to elect town officials. Most of the early burghs were on the east coast, and among them were the largest and wealthiest, including Old and New Aberdeen , Berwick, Perth and Edinburgh, whose growth
432-606: A time when Newcastle was under Scottish rule. A mid-twelfth century date corresponds to the reigns of two Scottish kings: David I (1124-1153) and William I (1165-1214). In 1609, the publisher of the Laws of the Burghs stated that burgh laws were begun by David I, but this was called into question in 1807 by George Chalmers, who pointed out that David I never held Newcastle. At any rate, Whyte notes that medieval Scottish burghs, when compared to their English counterparts, were more uniform and, by
480-611: A widened high street or junction, marked by a mercat cross , beside houses for the burgesses and other inhabitants. The founding of 16 royal burghs can be traced to the reign of David I (1124–53) and there is evidence of 55 burghs by 1296. In addition to the major royal burghs , the late Middle Ages saw the proliferation of baronial and ecclesiastical burghs, with 51 created between 1450 and 1516. Most of these were much smaller than their royal counterparts. Excluded from foreign trade, they acted mainly as local markets and centres of craftsmanship. Burghs were centres of basic crafts, including
528-559: Is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland , usually a city , town , or toun in Scots . This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs . Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status , found in the rest of the United Kingdom . Following local government reorganisation in 1975 , the title of "royal burgh" remains in use in many towns, but now has little more than ceremonial value. The first burgh
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#1732847590697576-496: Is in the hands of the Merchants House of Glasgow, and not the city council. Early Burghs were granted the power to trade, which allowed them to control trade until the 19th century. The population of burgesses could be roughly divided between merchants and craftsmen , and the tensions between the interests of the two classes was often a feature of the cities. Craftsmen were usually organised into guilds . Merchants also had
624-598: Is incorporated into many placenames , such as Hamburg , Flensburg and Strasburg . The word has cognates in other Germanic languages . For example, burg in German, and borg in both Danish and Swedish . The equivalent word is also to be found in Frisian , Dutch , Norwegian , Icelandic and Faroese . Burgh in placenames is found in its greatest UK concentration in the East Anglia region of southern England, where also
672-708: Is peculiar to Scotland. ( Scottish law was protected and preserved as distinct from laws of England under the Acts of Union of 1707 .) Another variant pronunciation, / b r ʌ f / , is heard in several Cumbrian place names, e.g. Burgh by Sands , Longburgh , Drumburgh , Mayburgh Henge . The English language borough , like the Scots Burgh , is derived from the same Old English language word burh (whose dative singular and nominative/accusative plural form byrig sometimes underlies modern place-names, and which had dialectal variants including "burg" ; it
720-407: Is to say, all counties, counties of cities, large burghs, small burghs and districts, shall cease to exist, and the council of every such area shall also cease to exist. The use of the title continues in informal use, however. The common good properties and funds of the royal burghs continue to exist. They are administered by the present area councils , who must make "have regard to the interests of
768-555: The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , and the above-mentioned Article XXI, which was thus rendered redundant, was deemed by Her Majesty's Government to be abrogated by the 1973 act. The towns are now sometimes referred to officially as "former royal burghs", for instance by the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland . The issue of the future status of royal burghs was discussed during debate on
816-516: The Local Government Act 1972 established a similar system of two-tier administrative county and district councils. The act abolished previous existing local government structures and created a two-tier system of regions and districts on the mainland and a unitary system in the islands. The former counties remained in use for land registration purposes. The act also established the Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland , with
864-592: The Parliament of Great Britain . Under the Scottish Reform Act 1832 , 32 years after the merger of the Parliament of Great Britain into the Parliament of the United Kingdom , the boundaries of burghs for parliamentary elections ceased to be necessarily their boundaries for other purposes. There were several types of burgh, including; Until 1833, each burgh had a different constitution or "sett". The government of
912-517: The Watsonian vice-counties , registration counties and many of the lieutenancy areas of Scotland are based on them. However, the sheer size of some regions meant that it became cumbersome to administer all functions on a region-wide basis. By 1977 Strathclyde Regional Council had established unelected sub-regional councils, which resembled the county councils that the regional council had replaced. The two-tier system of local government introduced by
960-559: The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 governs any change of name of region, islands or district councils. There is no statutory ban to the continuance of historic titles for other purposes." Accordingly, some community councils established since 1975 have the term "Royal Burgh" incorporated in their title. Lord Lyon has permitted the armorial bearings of a number of royal burghs to be rematriculated by community councils. Burgh A burgh ( / ˈ b ʌr ə / BURR -ə )
1008-559: The Local Government Act 1972 in England and Wales, the 1973 act in Scotland used the term region for the upper tier of the two-tier system. This has caused far less confusion over the identity of the counties in Scotland. The counties still enjoy wide public recognition. Even though they no longer play any direct part in local government, counties are used in many other systems: Royal Mail continued to use them as postal counties, and
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#17328475906971056-656: The Local Government Bill. In the Commons on 4 December 1972 Ronald Murray , the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh, Leith , stated "Most of the well-known cities and towns of Scotland became royal burghs by Charter. The Bill does not say that those Charters are removed or are of no legal effect, but Schedule 24 repeals the legislation upon which they appear to stand. I hope that the Government do not intend to abolish entirely
1104-601: The Scottish kingdom. Rosemarkie , Dingwall and Cromarty were also burghs by the Scottish Wars of Independence . The date of the initial establishment of burghs in Scotland is obscure. Historian Ian D. Whyte points to the Leges Burgorum ( Laws of the Burghs ) as the best known compilation of medieval burgh laws, saying that most of the laws therein “were modelled on the mid-twelfth century customs of Newcastle upon Tyne ” at
1152-433: The act as "paving, lighting, cleansing, watching, supplying with water, and improving such Burghs respectively, as may be necessary and expedient" . The act could be adopted following its approval in a poll of householders in the burgh. Burghs reformed or created under this and later legislation became known as police burghs . The governing body of a police burgh were the police commissioners. The commissioners were elected by
1200-604: The ancient rights of royal burghs, at least to be royal burghs." In June 1973, David Steel (MP for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles ), unsuccessfully introduced an amendment that "the title of "Provost" shall attach to the chairman of any community council which is based on any existing burgh .. to .. carry forward a title which appears, for example, in the Royal Charters of those burghs". In 1977, Alick Buchanan-Smith (MP for North Angus and Mearns ) asked Frank McElhone , Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland : "Why
1248-434: The anomalies in the administration of burghs were removed: police commissioners were retitled as councillors and all burghs were to consist of a single body corporate, ending the existence of parallel burghs. All burghs of barony and regality that had not adopted a police system were abolished. Councils were to be headed by a chief magistrate using the "customary title" of the burgh. In 1900, the chief magistrate of every burgh
1296-497: The burgh was often in the hands of a self-nominating corporation, and few local government functions were performed: these were often left to ad hoc bodies. Two pieces of reforming legislation were enacted in 1833: The Royal Burghs (Scotland) Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4 . c. 76) and the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4 . c. 46). The Royal Burghs (Scotland) Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4 . c. 76) provided for
1344-605: The dozen. The list is based on the following references. The rights of the royal burghs were preserved (if not guaranteed) by Article XXI of the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England of 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". Royal burghs were abolished in 1975 by
1392-421: The election of magistrates and councillors. Each burgh was to have a common council consisting of a provost (or lord provost), magistrates (or bailies) and councillors. Every parliamentary elector living within the "royalty" or area of the royal burgh, or within seven statute miles of its boundary, was entitled to vote in burgh elections. One third of the common council was elected each year. The councillors selected
1440-516: 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. 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,
1488-483: The enforcement of laws. As well as general tasks, they often had specific tasks such as inspecting wine, or ale, or other products sold at market. The title of bailie ceased to have any statutory meaning in 1975, although modern area councils do sometimes make appointments to the office on a purely ceremonial basis. For example, Glasgow City Council grants the title in an honorary capacity to senior councillors, while Stirling Council appoints four bailies to act in lieu of
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1536-490: 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 and Peebles . By 1210, there were 40 burghs in
1584-603: The existing town council of the burgh, not by the electorate at large. The town council of a burgh could by a three-quarters majority become police commissioners for the burgh. In many cases this led to the existence of two parallel burgh administrations, the town council and the police commissioners, each with the same membership, but separate legal identity and powers. Further legislation, the Police (Scotland) Act 1850 ( 13 & 14 Vict. c. 33), allowed "populous places" other than existing burghs to become police burghs. In 1893, most of
1632-520: The fourteenth century, more politically active. Because of Scottish trading patterns, Scottish burghs came to be populated by foreigners, notably Flemings, French, and English. 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
1680-411: The inhabitants of the area to which the common good formerly related". The use of these assets are to be for the benefit of the inhabitants of the former burgh. Any person or body holding the honorary freedom of any place... formerly having the status of a city, burgh or royal burgh continued to enjoy that status after the 1975 reorganisation. The chief magistrate or convener of a burgh, equivalent to
1728-471: The manufacture of shoes, clothes, dishes, pots, joinery, bread and ale, which would normally be sold to "indwellers" and "outdwellers" on market days. In general, burghs carried out far more local trading with their hinterlands, on which they relied for food and raw materials, than trading nationally or abroad. Burghs had rights to representation in the Parliament of Scotland . Under the Acts of Union of 1707 many became parliamentary burghs , represented in
1776-504: The most far-reaching changes to Scottish local government in centuries. It swept away the counties , burghs and districts established by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1947 , which were largely based on units of local government dating from the Middle Ages, and replaced them with a uniform two-tier system of regional and district councils (except in the islands, which were given unitary, all-purpose councils). In England and Wales ,
1824-470: The provost in specific geographical areas. A resident granted the rights of a "freeman" of the burgh, was styled a burgess ( pl. burgesses ), a title also used in English boroughs. These freemen and their wives were a class which did not include dependants (e.g. apprentices) and servants, though they were not guaranteed to be wealthy. This was a title held by one of the bailies of the burgh who presided over
1872-511: The remit to make proposals to the Secretary of State for effecting changes which it thought desirable in the interests of effective and convenient local government. The Act also abolished the use of Fiars Prices for valuing grain. Several districts were later renamed: Merrick becoming Wigtown , Argyll to Argyll and Bute , Bishopbriggs and Kirkintilloch to Strathkelvin , Cumbernauld to Cumbernauld and Kilsyth , and Lanark to Clydesdale . Unlike
1920-522: The royal burghs. Royal Burghs retained the right to corporate property or "common good". This property was used for the advantage of the inhabitants of the burgh, funding such facilities as public parks, museums and civic events. The Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4 . c. 46) allowed the inhabitants of royal burghs, burghs of regality and of bBarony to adopt a "police system". "Police" in this sense did not refer to law enforcement, but to various local government activities summarised in
1968-593: The royal burghs—originally distinctive because 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 orally) by a previous monarch. Each royal burgh (with the exception of four 'inactive burghs') was represented in the Parliament of Scotland and could appoint bailies with wide powers in civil and criminal justice . By 1707 there were 70 royal burghs. The Royal Burghs (Scotland) Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4 . c. 76) reformed
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2016-1066: The word has taken the form bury , as in Canterbury. A number of other European languages have cognate words which were borrowed from the Germanic languages during the Middle Ages , including brog in Irish , bwr or bwrc , meaning 'wall, rampart' in Welsh , bourg in French , borgo in Italian , and burgo in Spanish (hence the place-name Burgos ). The most obviously derivative words are burgher in English, Bürger in German or burger in Dutch (literally ' citizen ', with connotations of middle-class in English and other Germanic languages). Also related are
2064-467: The words bourgeois and belfry (both from the French ), and burglar . More distantly, it is related to words meaning ' hill ' or ' mountain ' in a number of languages (cf. the second element of iceberg ). Burgh is commonly used as a suffix in place names in Great Britain, particularly Scotland and northern England, and other places where Britons settled, examples: Examples: And as
2112-498: Was Berwick . By 1130, David I (r. 1124–53) had established other burghs including Edinburgh , Stirling , Dunfermline , Haddington , Perth , Dumfries , Jedburgh , Montrose , Rutherglen and Lanark . Most of the burghs granted charters in his reign probably already existed as settlements. Charters were copied almost verbatim from those used in England, and early burgesses usually invited English and Flemish settlers. They were able to impose tolls and fines on traders within
2160-543: Was also sometimes confused with beorh , beorg , 'mound, hill', on which see Hall 2001, 69–70). The Old English word was originally used for a fortified town or proto- castle (e.g. at Dover Castle or Burgh Castle ) and was related to the verb beorgan ( cf. Dutch and German bergen ) 'to keep, save, make secure'. In the German language , Burg means ' castle ' or ' fortress ', though so many towns grew up around castles that it almost came to mean city , and
2208-516: Was facilitated by trade with other North Sea ports on the continent, in particular in the Low Countries , as well as ports on the Baltic Sea . In the south-west, Glasgow , Ayr and Kirkcudbright were aided by the less profitable sea trade with Ireland and to a lesser extent France and Spain. Burghs were typically settlements under the protection of a castle and usually had a market place, with
2256-632: 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
2304-456: Was to be known as the provost – except in burghs granted a lord provost . The last major legislation to effect burghs came into effect in 1930. The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929 ( 19 & 20 Geo. 5 . c. 25) divided burghs into three classes: The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 (c. 65) formally abolished burghs. Section 1(5) of the act stated: On 16 May 1975, all local government areas existing immediately before that date, that
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