Tolbooth
A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of three essential features in a Scottish burgh, along with the mercat cross and the kirk (church).
Etymology
The word tolbooth is derived from the Middle English word tolbothe that described a town hall containing customs offices and prison cells.[1]
History
Burghs were created in Scotland from the 12th century. They had the right to hold markets and levy customs and tolls, and tolbooths were originally established for collection of these.
The first record of a tolbooth is at
Present
There are around 90 tolbooths surviving in Scotland.[8] Many are still used as municipal buildings, while others have been renovated as museums, theatres, or other attractions.
Some notable tolbooths include:
- Aberdeen Tolbooth, built in 1629
- Canongate Tolbooth, built in 1591
- Crail Tolbooth, re-modelled in 1776
- Dysart Tolbooth, built in 1576
- Edinburgh Tolbooth, a medieval building on the Royal Mile, built around 1400, demolished in the 19th century
- Girvan Tolbooth, built in 1787, of which the steeple is the only remaining part
- Glasgow Tolbooth, built in 1627, of which the steeple is the only remaining part
- Inverkeithing Tolbooth, built in 1770
- Kirkcudbright Tolbooth, built in 1629, now used as an art gallery and visitor centre
- Lanark Tolbooth, built in 1778
- Musselburgh Tolbooth, built in 1590
- New Galloway Tolbooth, rebuilt in 1875 but dating back at least to 1711
- Pittenweem Tolbooth, built in 1588
- Sanquhar Tolbooth, built in 1739
- South Queensferry Tolbooth, remodelled in 1720
- Stirling Tolbooth, built in 1705
- Stonehaven Tolbooth, built in the late 16th-century
- Tain Tolbooth, built in 1708
- West Wemyss Tolbooth, built circa 1700
See also
- Tholsel, term for buildings with a similar function in Ireland
- Tron, a weighing device situated near tolbooths for defining taxation on goods.
- Wikt:Tolsey, a term for a similar English building
References
Sources
- ISBN 0114957991.
- Mair, Craig (1988). Mercat Cross and Tolbooth: Understanding Scotland's Old Burghs. Edinburgh: John Donald. ISBN 0-85976-196-7.
- "Burgh tolbooths and early prisons". Scottish Archive Network Knowledge Base. Scottish Archive Network. Retrieved 24 April 2012.