NO. XXIV. ON THE ORIGIN AND INFLUENCE OF BURGHS IN SCOTLAND : many BY JOSEPH IRVING, Esq., F.S.A., Scoт. [Read at a Meeting of the Society held at Glasgow on 15th February, 1864.] THE inquiry into the origin and influence of Burghs in Scotland carries us back to the very sources of our national life. It embraces, indeed, so far as time is concerned, the entire period of our wellascertained history. It touches the daily current of our lives now, and it goes back to a time when charters and deeds were just coming into use among us. "The stream of history" is a phrase with which use has made us so familiar that we are apt sometimes to overlook the springs from which it flows. In speaking of the history of burghs it is particularly necessary to keep their origin in view, for of the peculiarities they present find an explanation in the period or circumstance in which they were created. I may explain at the outset, that it is no part of my plan to trace the ideal burgh beyond Scotland. As to the analogies and affinities it presents to the Roman "Municipia," the Saxon "Burg," or the German "Free Town," I must leave these to be described by others. It is sufficient for me that there was a time within the range of authentic history when burghs had no existence in Scotland-a time when there was in the land neither the walled town of the vassal, nor the protecting castle of the noble-a time when war was the natural condition of life, and slavery the ordinary state of the craftsman. In the erection of burghs two parties were specially benefitted,— the sovereign, by rent and service; and the trader, by peace and security. Their first appearance in our history is pretty well marked. The Pictish kingdom-laws, language, and customs-had just passed away in that confused mysterious manner which is still a puzzle to all students of our national history. The sovereignty of the country, though virtually controlled by two or three of the great earls, was nominally wielded by the heir of the Scottish Mal colm and the Saxon Margaret. The kingdom was resting awhile from the bloodshed and turmoil which had distracted it for centuries. The Church was beginning to arise in her majesty, and the people following her in grateful obedience had begun to know something of knowledge and freedom when the first David made the influence of burghs to be felt in Scottish life in a certain well-defined manner. He was the first of our sovereigns who is known to have recognised the importance of this new element in the body politic, though probably not the very first under whose auspices burghs were erected in Scotland. For about a century before his accession the burgher feeling was making great strides in Europe. There were numerous successful examples in the south of the island, with some of which the sons of Malcolm III. and Margaret must have been familiar, and it is quite likely there may have been in Scotland four, or probably half-a-dozen communities enjoying burghal privileges under the reign of David's predecessor, Alexander I. The introduction of the system here is known to have been gradual, and its growth the result of many different causes. The surmise as to the existence of burghs under Alexander finds corroboration in that unique collection of laws and regulations known as the "Leges Burgorum," now generally received as of the age of David, but providing for the government of communities created possibly before his time, and with which his people were certainly familiar. Edinburgh, Berwick, Stirling, and Roxburgh, composing the Court of the Four Burghs, seem to have exercised a kind of authority before David's time; and from a fragmentary collection attached to the early Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, there is some ground for believing that Aberdeen, Lanark, and Perth also enjoyed special privileges.1 Edinburgh, indeed, may reasonably claim an antiquity reaching far into the dim Anglo-Saxon period of history. It was the "burg" or walled residence of Edwin of Northumbria, when Northumbria extended from the Humber to the Forth. In one of the oldest existing charters of David, granted to the abbot and convent of Holyrood, the capital is spoken of as "meo burgo de Edwynesburg."2 Stirling claims to have been founded by Alexander I., in terms of a charter dated at Kincardine, 1 See Acts Parliament of Scotland, vol. i. p. 359, where an opinion (afterwards embodied in the Burgh Law, c. 101) is given by the three burghs mentioned, touching the power of alienating property on deathbed. Municipal Reports, pt. i., p. 281. 1 in the twelfth year of his reign (1119). It militates nothing against this charter to allege that it was not one of erection; for, as will be shown hereafter, formal charters of erection providing for municipal government were not common, indeed not known, till nearly a century later. All the early charters were simple grants of lands or privileges, and provided in no case for local government. Of charters of Alexander I. it is doubtful if there is one in existence now, and any knowledge we possess touching them must be derived from subsequent charters of confirmation, in which the alleged grants are recapitulated. The absence of charters regarding this early period need excite no surprise, for, until the Book of Deir was discovered at Cambridge the other year, it was doubted whether there was any Scotch writing whatever extant so old as the commencement of Alexander's reign. The nature and number of even David's char ters can only be established by secondary evidence, but it is the best of its kind-references in contemporary charters granted to religious houses. In the Cartulary of Dunfermline reference is made throughout David's grants to his burghs of Elgin, Haddington, and Perth. In the "Black Book of St. Andrews" is a copy of his charter of erection of that church burgh, and mention is repeatedly made of his acts in the earliest existing charters of Aberdeen, Inverness, and Rutherglen, granted by William the Lion. Besides these burghs I have mentioned, Montrose, Forfar, Jedburgh, and Selkirk, are each heard of for the first time in David's reign. And he did more than merely increase their number. It is one of the glories of the reign of our Scottish Justinian that he gathered together and consolidated the different fragmentary laws touching burgh government, and threw around the new estate that protecting power which made it civilize the people while it enriched the Crown. Next to David, the most important promoter of burghs in their old and simpler form was his grandson, William the Lion, who ascended the throne in 1165. Troubled as he was throughout the most of his long reign with English claims, ending often in English wars, he seems to have been fully alive to the importance of the new burghal element in the constitution. It was in his reign that Ayr at the one end, and Dumfries at the other, were planted as outposts of civilization to the wild men of Galloway, while Dundee and Banff, Elgin and Inverness, became each little centres of peaceful industry among the turbulent chiefs of the north. 1 Nimmo's Stirlingshire, vol. i., p. 327. In a sketch of this kind, and in immediate connection with the influence of burghs, it is proper I should place before you some of the more prominent features of Scottish life at the time, that you may see how society was held together when the new burghal element was being introduced. You will thus understand more clearly the nature and extent of the influence exercised by burghs, and how they in turn were modified by the constitution under which they sprung up. First, as to property. All land belonged to the king as feudal superior. If ever there was an allodial or independent tenure in Scotland, every trace of it had disappeared by the beginning of the twelfth century. The relation between the sovereign and his immediate noble retainers as to suit and service represented the connection existing between all the other grades of society. As the knight was to the baron, so was the squire to the knight, and the yeoman to the squire. Each in his station, as a feudal tenant, was bound to serve his superior in the field when need was, or send others to the array. The Court attended by its great officers of state-the Stewart, Chamberlain, Constable, and Justiciar, made frequent progresses throughout the country, bringing justice as near as possible to every man's door, and controlling the lesser courts of regality and burgh. To keep up the royal state and carry on the public business of the country, there was a revenue derived from the crown lands, farmed by Thanes, who accounted to the Chamberlain; from burgh trade and rents, and from the feudal casualties known as marchet, relief, wardship, and maritage. The Parliament, or Great Council of the nation, undefined as yet in either its constitution or duties, sometimes legislated, and sometimes advised. The Church, endowed by the pious munificence of David with a splendour rivalling even the splendour of Italy, was independent without being rebellious-zealous, without being intolerant-the guide and home of the scholar-the patron and instructor of the craftsman. Such commerce as existed at this early time was mainly carried on by the aid of the little mercantile communities whose history we are tracing. At their ports the produce of a country by no means barren or uncivilized found a safe and ready outlet, and their fairs and markets were in some instances of such importance as almost to reach the dignity of national institutions. In exchange for the soft wool of our flocks, the hides of our cattle, and the fish of our rivers, the industrious burghers brought in wine from Gascony and Bordeaux, cloth and tapestry from Flanders, fruits from Cyprus, and armour bought by agents at the distant marts of Toledo and Milan. Through their agency the baron kept up the magnificent pomp of the castle, and the churchman the abundant hospitality of the abbey. They gathered together the trappings of war and the fruits of peace -the harness of bittle and the good cheer of the refectory. Seeking thus to promote a home as well as a foreign trade, the little peaceful communities were permitted to take kindly root throughout the length and breadth of Scotland. Probably the most numerous group was planted along the fine natural harbours of the east coast, but there were several on sweetly sheltered bends of navigable rivers in the west, and I have already mentioned how early one at least was to be found among the sylvan glades of Ettrick. The burgh itself has already been drawn by an experienced hand. There are the rude fishing boats run up on the beach-the larger sea-going craft waiting for the tide to start for Bruges or Antwerp-the little straggling street leading from the haven to the castle, built by the king for the protection of the traders, whom he greatly cherishes-the homes of the burghers, thatched and clean, and the small squat church built of stone after the new fashion. There is a town-hall for council, and a cross for proclamations-a tron for weighing and measuring-a toll booth where custom is taken,—and a jail, or, perchance, the stocks and jouggs, for the unruly.1 Secure in the protection afforded by the burgh, merchant and craftsman ply their vocations and wax rich. That grave old man stepping down to the harbour in his furred gown and cap is one of the bailies of the place, and has a deep interest in these vessels now about to start; another, who has just parted on the street from one of the new order of preaching friars, looks after the wool sent in from the wide pastures belonging to the abbey near by. They are both elected by the Crown, and responsible to the court of the Lord Chamberlain for their management of affairs. There are, of course, smiths, The craftsmen are of many kinds. for I do not believe there was ever a and if it is holiday time the chances are that "Burn the wind" will be found not far from the modest hostel known as "The Traveller's Rest," which even at this early time offers good entertainment for man and beast. There are tailors, and dyers, and shoemakers; all becoming so numerous that they will by and by require a special statute to prevent their exercising undue weight in the merchant 1 Mr. Innes on Scotch Surnames, p. 12. " |