Treasurer of Scotland
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The Treasurer was a senior post in the pre-
Lord Treasurer
The full title of the post was Lord High Treasurer, Comptroller, Collector-General and Treasurer of the New Augmentation, formed as it was from the amalgamation of four earlier offices. Of these, the Treasurer and
From 1581
All four offices were held by the same person from 1610 onwards, but their separate titles survived the effective merging of their functions in 1635. From 1667 to 1682 the Treasury was in commission, and again from 1686 to 1708, when the separate Scottish Treasury was abolished. From 1690 the Crown nominated one person to sit in Parliament as Treasurer.
The
Originally a deputy to the Treasurer, the Treasurer-depute emerged as a separate Crown appointment by 1614. Its holder attended the
List of treasurers
The following have been identified as treasurers of Scotland.[7]
Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer
The final audited accounts of the Lord High Treasurer were public records of Scotland. These survive as an almost complete record from 1473 to 1635 at General Register House in Edinburgh. Even the early accounts were written on paper rather than vellum. The Scots language was preferred over Latin for the expenditure or "discharge" side. The income, of rents and feudal duties, especially the fees on property transactions known as "compositions", was written in Latin. The record of expenses varies considerably over the reigns. For example, as Regent, Mary of Guise paid for her stable, costume, and wardrobe separately and these expenses do not occur in her treasurer's accounts.[12]
There are also surviving duplicate volumes for the years 1574 to 1596. These volumes were kept for many years by the family of the Earl of Leven and Melville, and were deposited in the National Archives of Scotland in 1944. Their exact purpose in royal accounting remains unclear. The layout of these duplicate accounts and the wording of the entries is not an exact replica of the main series.[13]
The manuscripts were published between 1877 and 1978 in thirteen volumes covering up to 1580. The editors silently abbreviated and omitted some material, especially details of making costume.[14][15]
Historians often refer to the published volumes in references as TA:
- Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, 1473–1498, vol. 1, HM General Register House, (Edinburgh, 1877).
- Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, 1506-1507, HM Register House, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1901)..
- Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, 1507-1513, HM Register House, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1902).
- Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, 1515-1531, HM Register House, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1903).
- Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, 1531-1538, HM Register House, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1905).
- Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, 1538-1541, HM Register House, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907).
- Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, 1541-1546, HM Register House, vol. 8, (Edinburgh, 1908)
- Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 1566–1574, vol. 12, Scottish Record Office, (1970)
- Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, 1574–1580, vol. 13, Scottish Record Office, (1978)
Notes
References
- ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, vol. 1, (1877), xiv.
- ^ Thomas Thomson, Discours Particulier D'Escosse (Edinburgh, Bannatyne Club, 1824), pp. 3–6.
- ^ James Kirk, Books of Assumption of Thirds of Benefices (Oxford, 1995), pp. xiv-xxx.
- ^ John Duncan Mackie, Calendar of State Papers Scotland, vol. 13, pt. 1 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 202-3.
- ^ David Masson, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1882), p. 521.
- ^ Miles Kerr-Peterson & Michael Pearce, 'James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts', Scottish History Society Miscellany XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), pp. 1-94.
- ^ Haydn's Book of Dignities, 1851, pages 402-3.
- ^ Genealogical Memoirs of the Family of Sir Walter Scott, Bt., with a reprint of the memorials of the Haliburtons by Charles Rogers, London, 1877, Haliburtons: p.15-16.
- ^ The Complete Peerage. London: The St. Catherine Press. 1936. pp. 9:148.
- ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, Vol. 1, (1877), xxvii n.6
- ^ This transaction was printed, in Papers relative to the marriage of King James the Sixth of Scotland, with the Princess Anna of Denmark (Edinburgh, 1828), p.21
- ^ Charles Thorpe McInnes & Athol Murray, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), pp. xix, xxxi.
- ^ Charles Thorpe McInnes & Athol Murray, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1970), pp. ix, x.
- ^ Melanie Schuessler Bond, Dressing the Scottish Court, 1543-1553 (Boydell, 2019), p. 2.
- ^ Michael Pearce, 'Review: Dressing the Scottish Court, 1543-1553', Innes Review, 71:1 (Edinburgh, 2020), pp. 120-2