burgh A burgh is an autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland and Northern England, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burg ...

of regality is a type of Scottish town. They were distinct from

royal burgh A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by ...

s as they were granted to "lords of regality", leading noblemen. (In distinction, burghs of barony were granted to a tenant-in-chief, a landowner who held his estates directly from the crown, and had fewer civil and criminal law powers). They were created between 1450 and 1707, and conferred upon the landowner varying trading rights, such as the right to hold weekly markets or to trade overseas. Burghs of regality possessed higher jurisdictional rights ''in liberam regalitatem'', amounting to complete criminal jurisdiction except for

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. These rights were abolished by the

Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 The Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 (20 Geo. II c. 43) was an Act of Parliament passed in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745 abolishing judicial rights held by Scots heritors. These were a significant source of power, especia ...

, after which the Burghs enjoyed only the jurisdictional rights of burghs of barony. The titles are redundant today but remain in descriptive use.

Notes

References

* * Government of Scotland Early Modern Scotland Scots language Burghs Defunct types of subdivision in the United Kingdom {{UK-gov-stub

See also

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References