Counties and Parishes to 1975
Counties
Counties were administrative areas in Scotland from later medieval times until 1975. Initially the unit was a judicial one, the sheriffdom. Sheriffs were local judges and crown officials appointed from the 12th century until the present day. A sheriffdom consisted of a group of parishes over which the sheriff had jurisdiction. When there was a need to use larger administrative units than parishes, the sheriffdoms became the basis for the justices of the peace from 1587 and then, as counties, for commissioners of supply from 1667. During the 19th century other local authorities, such as county road trustees, were created and in 1889 county councils were established. In the mid-19th century, the boundaries of some counties and sheriffdoms diverged: sheriffdoms continue today as judicial areas.
Counties were separate administrative areas from burghs. Until 1929, all burghs had their own local authorities and broadly administered their own taxes, services and functions, except when they agreed to make joint arrangements for specific purposes. For example, many smaller burghs opted to contribute to the county police force rather than appoint their own. From 1929, burghs were classified as large or small burghs and those designated small burghs ceased to have responsibilities for many services which were instead provided by counties. For more information see the Knowledge Base entry on burghs.
Counties ceased to be a recognised administrative unit for local authority purposes in 1975 but the traditional names (such as Perthshire or Stirlingshire) continued in use for addresses by the postal services and some names were adopted by the unitary councils in 1996 (such as Aberdeenshire and Clackmannanshire) although boundaries were not necessarily the same.
Many important series of records in Scotland are arranged by county.
Parishes
Scotland has been divided into parishes for church or administrative purposes since early medieval times, but there have been many boundary changes, amalgamations, changes of name and abolitions. Initially parishes were areas of land, whose inhabitants were compelled to pay a proportion of their produce or income (in Scotland called teinds) to support the pre-reformation church. These ecclesiastical parishes continued as the basis of the post-reformation established Church of Scotland.
By the 17th century the crown divided the country into burghs and counties and into civil parishes for the purposes of taxation. Civil parishes were a unit within both rural and urban areas. Between 1845 and 1860 parochial boards were formed in most civil parishes but for some purposes the town council of the burgh acted as the parochial board. The civil parish was used as a unit of local government from 1845 until 1975.
The boundaries of many civil parishes and ecclesiastical parishes diverged after 1845. Ecclesiastical parishes, once the sole preserve of the pre-reformation church and then the established Church of Scotland, later came to be used to define the areas served by churches of other denominations, and from the mid-19th century these churches started to define their own, distinct parish boundaries. A further complication is that, in 1854, registration districts were also created alongside parishes, for the registration of births, marriages, deaths and other vital events, and while many of these districts used the same boundaries as civil parishes, some did not.
Many historical records are arranged by civil parish, including valuation rolls, tax records and poor relief records. Registration records are arranged by registration district. Records of individual congregations are arranged by their name.
Boundary Commissioners
Under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 commissioners were appointed to examine and readjust the boundaries of counties and of parishes which extended into two or more counties or consisted of detached portions. Detached areas of parishes could result in land not being part of a parish by which it was completely surrounded before 1891 when the boundaries were adjusted to remove these anomalies. Similarly, several counties consisted of a main geographic area and one or more detached portions. For example, there was a detached portion of Perthshire at Valleyfield, on the River Forth, and the area around Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch was a detached portion of Dunbartonshire. These boundary changes affect the contents of surviving records.
County and parish government
Counties and parishes were used as administrative units for various local authorities. The most important local authorities and other bodies which functioned on a county-wide basis or on a parish basis are listed below and there are Knowledge Base entries for each of these. See also the Knowledge Base List of Counties, Cities, Large burghs and Small burghs.
County authorities
Education Authorities (1918-1930)
Local authorities under the Contagious Diseases Acts
Senior officials – Chamberlain
Senior officials – Medical Officer of Health
Ecclesiastical Parish authorities
Civil Parish authorities
Parochial boards and parish councils
School management committees (1918-1947)
Other authorities in counties
District Committees (1889-1930)
District lunacy boards & District boards of control
Special drainage, water supply, lighting and scavenging districts
Bibliography
Groome, Francis H, ed., Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (William MacKenzie, 1893)
Hay Shennan, John, Boundaries of Counties and Parishes in Scotland, as settled by the Boundary Commissioners under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889 (William Green & Sons, 1892)
McLarty, M. R.(ed.), A Source book and history of administrative law in Scotland (Hodge, 1956)
Sinclair, Cecil, Tracing Scottish Local History (HMSO, 1994)
Walker, David M., A Legal History of Scotland, 7 vols. (Green LexisNexis UK, 1988-2004), vi, The Nineteenth Century.
Whetstone, Ann E., Scottish County Government in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (John Donald, 1981)
Whyte, W. E., Local Government in Scotland (Hodge, 1936)