Series 3 > Court book of the Burgh of Kirkintilloch 1658-1694

xviii KIRKINTILLOCH BURGH COURT BOOK
highest grade of municipality,1 was applied in Scotland, as
we have seen, to Newburgh in Fife (1266), Staplegorton
(1320), Port Seton (1321) and Whithorn (1325).
There was movement both within and between the groups
of burghs. The effective total of king’s burghs was reduced
through losses in the English wars, simple lapses and
neglect of burghal right, and the ecclesiastical and baronial
burghs suffered similarly from decay. We have only
glimpses of Crawford, Urr and Buittle in the south-west,
of Langton and Port Seton in the south-east, of Rattray
and Newburgh in the north-east, followed by a century or
two of unbroken silence. The burghal lapse of Dunblane—
if that is the proper term—was sui generis. It was the
lands of the bishopric, vnacum regalia sue civitatis (without.
mention of a burgh 2), that were erected into a barony in
1443.3 In later centuries, however, Dunblane showed all
the attributes of an incorporated town, apparently as a city
but not a burgh. The inhabitants were cives, they used the
‘ common seal of the city ’, they had bailies and quarter¬
masters, a tolbooth and a market cross, the crafts were
organised on the usual lines, the petty customs were
rouped for the common good.4
Between the two main groups, the movements of indi¬
vidual burghs, in both directions, are numerous and
suggestive. One of David I’s burghs, Renfrew, was still
seemingly dependent on the Crown in 1159.5 but by 1163
Walter FitzAlan was referring to it as bur go meo 6 ; it had
1 J. Tait, The Medieval English Borough (1936), 205-6.
2 Not that this by itself is conclusive : James II’s charters of 1450 and
1452 creating the regalities of Glasgow and St. Andrews do not mention
the burghs : R.E.G., ii, 375-7 ; R.M.S., ii, 1444 (charter of confirmation
of 1480).
3 A.P.S., ii, 58.
4 Cf. G. S. Pryde, ‘ The City of Glasgow ’, in The College Courant, vol. ii,
no. iii (Martinmas 1949), 29-30.
b Liber de Calchou, i, v.
6 Reg. de Passelet, 2 ; R.E.G., i, 19 ; Reg. de Neubotle, 145-6 ; Reg. de
Dunfermelyn, 93. So, in the next generation, Alan FitzWalter gave tofts
in his burgh to several religious houses : Reg. de Cambuskenneth (Grampian
Club, 1872), 44, 48 ; Rental of Cupar Angus (Grampian Club, 1879-80),
i, 350 ; Charters of Coupar Angus (S.H.S., 1947), i, xxxii; ii, 253. There