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

INTRODUCTION Ixxvii
was represented in Parliament,1 and no doubts about its
status were thereafter expressed.
On occasion, therefore, the requirements of the law could
be evaded : with no formal claim to hold directly from the
crown, a town might win recognition as a royal burgh. Per
contra, a burgh with impeccable charter evidence of its
tenure in chief might be thwarted in its desire to assume
its rights—as Whithorn had been before the Reformation,
by reason of the opposition of Wigtown.2 It was the
hostility of Wigtown, too, that caused Stranraer’s long
wait (from 1617) before admission to Convention (in 1683)
and to Parliament (in 1685).3
Inveraray’s case is comparable to that of Hamilton, for
their progress was hampered by the excessive local auth¬
ority of their noble superiors : the prestige of the Campbells
was inimical, that of the Hamiltons fatal, to the advance¬
ment of their burgh. A precept of 1554 indicates an
intention to erect Inveraray in liberum bur gum regalem*
but the plan was apparently not carried out, and the
effective date of the promotion seems to be 28 January
1648.5
Ecclesiastical superiors were even more reluctant than
lay barons to surrender their former rights. Long after
Burntisland’s promotion in 1541, the abbey of Dunfermline,
and later the inheritors of its temporalities, fought a delay¬
ing action. Though admitted to Parliament and Con¬
vention from 1586-87, it could not regard its position and
its privileges as being completely secure until 1633. It is
indeed clear that the powers previously wielded by the old
Church tempted the cupidity of nobles and lairds, and that
burghal superiorities, like feudal rights in general, were
1 A.P.S., iv, 50.
* Cf. supra, p. Ivii. Though stented from 1535 and represented in
Convention from 1574, Whithorn was not admitted to Parliament until
1641, in which year there was a confirming charter : R.C.R.B., i, 514, 36 ;
A.P.S., v, 306, 489.
3 R.C.R.B., iv, 39 ; A.P.S., v, 53 ; viii, 453. For the shorter delays
imposed on Anstruther Wester and Queensferry, see Rait, Parliaments, 259.
4 R.S.S., iv, 2327, 2328.
3 R.M.S., ix, 1901.