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A Burgh ( corporate entity in Scotland , usually a Town . The term has been in use since the 12th Century , when David I created the first Royal Burgh s. Recognition of burgh status today, however, has little more than ceremonial value. HISTORY OF BURGHS The first burgh was Haddington , East Lothian . By 1130, David I had established burghs at Stirling , Dunfermline , Perth and Scone , as well as Edinburgh . Burghs had rights to representation in the Parliament Of Scotland . Under the Acts Of Union Of 1707 many became Parliamentary Burghs , represented in the Parliament Of Great Britain . Under the Reform Acts Of 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 Election s ceased to be necessarily their boundaries for other purposes. When Scottish County Council s were created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 burghs were already important in the Local Government of Scotland. County councils and burgh councils were both abolished under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 , which created a new system of Regions And Districts and Island Council Area s. FEATURES OF BURGHS The titular head of a burgh is called a . Under the Provost are Magistrate s or Baillie s who both acted as councillors, and in 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 common citizen of a burgh was a Burgess (''pl. Burgessess''). These were Freemen , a class which did not include dependants, servants and so on, though freemen might not be wealthy. 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 Guild s. Merchants also had 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. TYPES OF BURGH There are several types of burgh, including;
ETYMOLOGY As used in this article, the Word ''burgh'' is derived from Scots Language and refers to corporate entities whose Legality is peculiar to Scotland. (Scottish Law was protected and preserved as distinct from laws of England under the Acts Of Union Of 1707 .) Pronunciation is the same as the English word '' Borough '', which is a near Cognate of the Scots word. The word has cognates, or near 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 , and Icelandic . In southern England, the word took the form ''bury'', as in Canterbury (Stewart 1967:193). The Scots language ''burgh'' and the English language ''borough'' are derived from the '' means '' Castle '', though so many towns grew up around castles that it almost came to mean '' City '', and is incorporated into many Placenames , such as Hamburg and Strasbourg ), A number of other Europe an 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 in German (both literally '' Citizen '', with connotations of Middle-class in English and other Germanic Languages ). Also related are 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 ''). [http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE59.html BURGH AS AN ELEMENT IN PLACENAMES Burgh is commonly used as a Suffix in place names, in Scotland and other countries to which Scots Emigrate d:
And as a placename on its own, in the West Germanic countries:
SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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