Royal Burgh

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 Bailie s 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 , 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 to 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 which ran individual burghs were individually known as ''lie doussane'', meaning the dozen.

LIST OF ROYAL BURGHS

By 1153 (royal)