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

INTRODUCTION xxiii
The grant of two other burghs at this time differed in
kind and in duration from these arrangements. By a
charter ofll78xll82 King William gave his brother David
the earldom of Lennox, along with lands and the towns of
Dundee and Inverurie.1 There is nothing to suggest that
these two places were already burghs, but in the late 1190s
Earl David granted to his new foundation, the monastery
of Lindores, vnum toftum in burgo meo de Dunde and another
in burgo meo de Inuerurin 2 ; other charters by Earl David
and by his son, Earl John ‘ the Scot ’, record gifts of land
and rents in the two ‘ earl’s burghs ’.3
After Earl John’s death without issue in 1237, Dundee
(though full documentation is lacking) seems to have
become one of the ‘ king’s burghs ’ without any loss of
status or privilege. In 1325, at all events, after Robert I
had commissioned his chancellor and his chamberlain to
inquire into the position in the time of Alexander III, the
finding was that the burgesses of Dundee had eandem
libertatem emendi et vendendi per aquam et per terram sicut
aliqui burgenses per totum regnum Scocie . . . habuerunt . . .
videlicet, in mercato, in nundinis, in libero portu . . . cum
gilda mercatoria et aliis libertatibus vniuersis, sicut liberi
burgenses regni semper ab inicio pacifice permanentes.*
Mediatisation within the royal family apparently cost
Liber de Dryburgh, 11 ; Liber de Lundoris, 9 ; Chartulary of Lindores, 103 ;
and under Alexander II, Liber de Balmorinach (Abbotsford Club, 1841),
27 ; R.P.S.A., 234. For Inverkeithing as a king’s burgh in 1229, see
Reg. de Aberbrothoc, i, 85-6 ; and under Robert I, Reg. de Dunfermelyn,
231-2, 247.
1 Chartulary of Lindores, 1.
2 lb., 3-4, 103, 181-2 (Earl David’s own charter and the papal and
royal confirmations).
3 Earl David’s grant (1191 x 1204) to St. Andrews priory of a toft in,
and one mark from the fermes of, his burgh of Dundee is in R.P.S.A.,
238-9, with a royal confirmation of 1228 (ib., 235). After his succession
in 1219, Earl John confirmed previous toft-grants in his burgh of Dundee
to Arbroath (Reg. de Aberbrothoc, i, 95-7) and to St. Andrews priory
(R.P.S.A., 240). In 1229 x 1232, too, John gave Balmerino a toft, described
as being in villa de Dunde (Liber de Balmorinach, 25). And in 1232 x 1237
he conveyed to Lindores an annual sum of 20s. from terra quam burgenses
mei de Inueruri tenent de me ad firmam (Chartulary of Lindores, 20-1).
4 Munic. Corp. Comm. Local Reports, i, 229, 238-9. For the inquest’s
composition and significance, see infra, pp. xxxiv.