Shires of Scotland
The shires of Scotland (
Today, local government in Scotland is based upon
History
Sheriffdoms or shires
The shires of the Highlands were completed only in the reign of King Charles I (reigned 1625 to 1649).
Shires extant by 1305
In 1305 Edward I of England, who had deposed John Balliol, issued an ordinance for the government of Scotland. The document listed the twenty-three shires then existing and either appointed new sheriffs or continued heritable sheriffs in office.[5]
- Aberdeen
- )
- Banff
- Berwick (Dependent on the governor of Berwick Castle)
- Clackmannan
- Cromarty (Had been formed by 1266, covering only the area immediately surrounding Cromarty)
- Dunbarton
- Dumfries
- Edinburgh
- Elgin and Forres
- Fife
- Forfar
- Haddington
- Inverness
- Kincardine or the Mearns
- Kinross
- Lanark (Included what later became Renfrewshire)
- Linlithgow
- Peebles
- Perth
- Roxburgh or Teviotdale (Appears to have been created in the period 1114–1133, not mentioned in the ordinancea)
- Selkirk
- Stirling
- Wigtown
- ^a Gospatric was mentioned as sheriff in a number of charters of Earl David.[9][10] The shire was not listed in the ordinance, and in 1305 appears to have been partly under the jurisdiction of the sheriff of Selkirk, with the remainder comprised in the constabularies of Jedburgh and Roxburgh under the jurisdiction of the constable of Berwick.[11] The shire was one of those surrendered to Edward III of England in 1334.[12]
Shires formed after 1305
The remaining shires were formed either by the territorial expansion of the Kingdom of Scotland, or by the subdivision of existing sheriffdoms. Many of the new shires had highly irregular boundaries or detached parts as they united the various possessions of the heritable sheriffs.
- c. 1326: Argyll (or Argyle): lordship subdued by Alexander II in 1222. Norwegian claims over the area finally ended in 1266. First record of appointment of sheriff dates from 1326.[13]
- 1369: Archibald the Grim. Archibald appointed a steward to administer the area, hence it became a "stewartry".[14]
- c. 1388: Bute: the islands formed part of Kintyre district of Argyll. A heritable sheriff was appointed to the shire in 1388.
- 1402: Renfrew: separated from the Shire of Lanark by Robert III.[15]
- Tarbertshire: existed from before 1481, when it gained territory from Perthshire, until 1633, when it was annexed to Argyll.[16]
- 1503: Ross: formed from part of Inverness by act of parliament during the reign of James IV, the sheriff to sit at Tain or Dingwall.[17][18] Sheriffs were seldom appointed, and further acts of 1649 and 1661 restated its separation from Inverness.[19][20][18] The 1661 act also clarified the area encompassed, based on the pre-Reformation Diocese of Ross.[20][18] Sir George Mackenzie's Ross-shire estates were transferred to Cromartyshire by a 1685 act of parliament (repealed 1686, re-enacted 1690).[21]
- 1503: Diocese of Caithness.[17]
- 1581: Orkney: erected into a lordship with the right of sheriffship. It was annexed to the Crown in 1612, although the term "lordship" continued to be applied to the area.[22]
- 1633: Sutherland: separated from Inverness.b
- ^b In 1583 the Earl of Huntly, hereditary sheriff of Inverness, granted the Earl of Sutherland jurisdiction over the sheriffdom of Sutherland and Strathnaver. This was only the south-eastern area of the later county, with Halladale River forming the boundary. The shire was formed in 1631 by crown writ of Charles I, severing Sutherland from Inverness. The new county comprised the Earldom of Sutherland along with Assynt and the baronies between Ross and Caithness. Dornoch was appointed the head burgh of the shire. The writ was confirmed by the Parliament of Scotland in 1633.[23][24]
1707 Act of Union and the ending of heritable jurisdictions
From the 17th century the shires (counties) started to be used for local administration apart from judicial functions. In 1667
Later developments
In 1858 police forces were established in each shire under the Police (Scotland) Act 1857. Burghs were largely outside the jurisdiction of shire authorities.
Under the
Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929, two pairs of councils were combined with each other to form the "joint county councils" of Perth & Kinross and Moray & Nairn. Though governed by the same council, each county remained nominally independent from the other.
In 1963 the Government published a white paper which proposed a reduction in the number of counties from thirty-four to between ten and fifteen.[28] A process of consultation between county councils and officials from the Scottish Office was begun to effect the amalgamations. Following a change of government, it was announced in 1965 that a "more comprehensive and authoritative" review of local government areas would be undertaken.[29]
In 1966 a Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland, chaired by
In 1970 another change in government control was followed by the publication of a white paper in 1971 implementing the commission's reforms in a modified form.[32] The abolition of counties "for local government purposes" was enacted by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, with counties playing no part in local government after 16 May 1975, being replaced by regions and districts.
Local government was reorganised again under the
The historic counties of Scotland are included in the Index of Place Names (IPN) published by the Office for National Statistics. Each "place" included in the IPN is related to the historic county it lies within, as well as to a set of administrative areas.
Names
In official documents shires were referred to as the Shire of X, rather than X Shire. The latter was more common in general usage. Thus in parliamentary proceedings one may find, for example, a heading referring to "Act for the shirrefdome of Dumbartane" but the text "the sevine kirkis to Dumbartane schyr."[33]
The first accurate county maps of Scotland appear in the late seventeenth century and contain a first-hand record of shire names. John Adair (maps c. 1682) gives the names of Midlothian, East Lothian, Twaddall and Wast Lothian (the latter also as "Linlithgowshire"[34]). The eighteenth century county maps of Herman Moll (dated c. 1745) preferred to keep the "Shire" suffix a separate word, as for example "Berwick Shire", "Roxburgh Shire", "the Shire of Selkirk otherwise known as Etterick Forest", and in the north to "Murray" (Moray), "Inverness Shire", "Aberdeen Shire", "Banff Shire", "Ross Shire".[35] The map of Boswell's and Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1773) gives "Shire" to every one shown, including "Angus Shire" and "Fife Shire".
Several shires have alternative names of long standing. These include:
- Angus – Forfarshire
- East Lothian – Haddingtonshire
- Kincardineshire – The Mearns
- Midlothian – Edinburghshire
- Moray – Elginshire
- Peeblesshire – Tweeddale
- Roxburghshire – Teviotdale
- Selkirkshire – Ettrick Forest
- West Lothian – Linlithgowshire
In Scotland, as in England and Wales, the terms "shire" and "county" have been used interchangeably, with the latter becoming more common in later usage. Today, "county" is more commonly used, with "shire" being seen as a more poetic or archaic variant.[citation needed]
Lists of shires
Counties until 1890
Counties of Scotland until 1890 | |
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Not shown:
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The map depicts a large number of
Counties from 1890 to 1975
Counties of Scotland from 1890 to 1975 | |
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See also
- List of Local Government Areas in Scotland (1930-75)
- History of local government in the United Kingdom
- List of counties of Scotland in 1951 by population and by area
- List of counties of Scotland in 1971 by population
- List of Scottish counties by highest point
- List of burghs in Scotland
- Local government areas of Scotland 1973 to 1996
- Lieutenancy areas of Scotland
- Subdivisions of Scotland
- List of places in Scotland
- Counties of the United Kingdom
References
- ^ "Counties and Burghs". National Records of Scotland. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
- ^ Land Register Counties & Operational Dates Archived 28 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ County Directory of Scotland. https://archive.org/details/countydirectoryo1875edin
- ^ John of Fordun wrote that Malcolm II introduced the shire to Scotland and also the thane class. Shires are certainly mentioned in charters by the reign of Malcolm III, for instance that to the Church of Dunfermline, AD 1070-1093
- ^ a b Wallace, James (1890). The Sheriffdom of Clackmannan. A sketch of its history with a list of its sheriffs and excerpts from the records of court compiled from public documents and other authorities with preparatory notes on the office of Sheriff in Scotland, his powers and duties. Edinburgh: James Thin. pp. 7–19.
- ^ Charter by King David to the church of St. Andrews of the church of St. Mary at Haddington
- ^ Charter by King David granting Clerchetune to the church of St. Mary of Haddington
- ^ Charter by King David granting the church of Clackmannan, etc., to the Abbey of Stirling
- ISBN 0-85115-731-9
- ISBN 0-900897-17-1
- ^ Kerr, Robert (1811). The History of Scotland during the Reign of Robert I. Edinburgh. p. 152.
- ^ Barrell, Andrew D M (2000). Medieval Scotland. Edinburgh: Cambridge University Press. p. 127.
- ^ MacNair, Peter (1914). Argyllshire and Buteshire. Cambridge County Geographies. London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1, 69.
- ^ Learmonth, William (1920). Kirkcudbrightshire and Wigtownshire. Cambridge County Geographies. London: Cambridge University Press. pp. 2–3.
- ^ Mort, Frederick (1919). Renfrewshire. Cambridge County Geographies. London: Cambridge University Press. p. 3.
- ^ Mitchell, Dugald (1886). "The Sheriffdom of Tarbert". Tarbert, Past and Present: Gleanings in Local History. Tarbert: Bennett & Thomson. pp. 45–51.; Scottish Medievalists and the Department of Geography of the University of Edinburgh (1975). "Administration: Sheriffs, stewards and bailies". An Atlas of Scottish History to 1707. pp. 208–210.
- ^ a b c "Records of the Parliaments of Scotland". www.rps.ac.uk.
- ^ ISBN 9789004269255.
- ^ "Records of the Parliaments of Scotland". www.rps.ac.uk.
- ^ a b "Records of the Parliaments of Scotland". www.rps.ac.uk.
- ^ Mackenzie, Sir George Steuart (1810). General View of the Agriculture of the Counties of Ross and Cromarty: With Observations on the Means of Their Improvement. Richard Phillips. pp. 15–16.; RPS 1685/4/66, RPS 1685/4/67, RPS 1686/4/35, RPS 1690/4/108, RPS 1690/4/119
- Earldom" and Zetland being described as a "Lordship". They constituted a single Orkney and Shetlandconstituency in the House of Commons, as they had done in the Scots Parliament, and were counted together in the census.
- ^ Campbell, H F (1920). Caithness & Sutherland. Cambridge County Geographies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 79–80.
- ^ "Records of the Parliaments of Scotland". www.rps.ac.uk.
- ^ The sheriffdoms listed were Edinburgh (i.e. Midlothian), Hadingtoun (i.e. East Lothian), Berwick, Roxburgh, Selkirk, Peebles, Lanerk, Dumfreize, "the sherifdome of Wigtoun and stewartrie of Kirkcudbright", Air, Dumbartan, Bute, Renfrew, Striviling (i.e. Stirlingshire), Linlithgow (i.e. West Lothian), Perth, Kincairdine, Aberdene, Inverness and Ross, Nairne, Cromarty, Argyle, Fyfe and Kinross, Forfar (i.e. Angus), Bamf (i.e. Banff), Sutherland, Caithnes, Elgine (i.e. Moray), Orkney and Zetland, Clakmannan. "Act of the convention of estates of the kingdom of Scotland etc. for a new and voluntary offer to his Majesty of seventy-two thousand pounds monthly for the space of twelve months". Records of the Parliaments of Scotland. University of St Andrews. 23 January 1667.
- JSTOR 4048219.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-4540-0.
- ^ The Modernisation of Local Government in Scotland (Cmnd. 2067)
- ^ Scots council reform plans changed, The Times, 6 March 1965
- ^ Tasks set for planners of local government - Members of royal commissions named, The Times, 25 May 1966
- ^ Report of the Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland 1966 - 69 (Cmnd.4150)
- ^ Reform of Local Government in Scotland (Cmnd. 4583)
- ^ Parliamentary Minutes, 13 November 1641.
- ^ (1682) - John Adair – Mappe of Wast Lothian commonly called Linlithgowshire authore Johanne Adair; (manuscript in the National Library of Scotland)
- ^ Manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland