Prisons – Burgh tolbooths and early prisons
Cells in royal and baronial castles were used throughout the Middle Ages to detain small numbers of prisoners, but the most important form of prison in medieval Scotland consisted of cells in the tolbooths of burghs. Prisoners in these were usually held for short periods before trial, or between trial and punishment, or until a fine or debt was paid. An act of James VI in 1597 ordained that ‘Prisoun Houses suld [should] be bigged [built] within all Burrowes [burghs]’, but most burghs continued to use tolbooth cells rather than build separate prison buildings.[1]
By the mid-17th century larger towns, such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Perth and Aberdeen, were replacing tolbooths with ‘houses of correction’, built on the English model of the ‘Bridewell’, where vagrants and criminals could be imprisoned and made to work at various tasks for short periods of time. From the 1790s prison design was influenced by Jeremy Bentham’s idea of the ‘panopticon’, a circular building in which every cell was under constant surveillance from a central tower. The idea was adopted by the architect Robert Adam in his design for the Bridewell at Calton Hill in Edinburgh in 1791.[2]
At this time jailers were very inadequately paid but supplemented their income by supplying drink to prisoners, extracting fees from debtors, and, in some cases, obtaining fees on liberation. Escape, especially from tolbooths, was quite common and the task of recapturing escaped prisoners fell to the commissioners of supply in each county, who raised a local tax (rogue money) to pay for this.[3]
The royal burghs of Scotland petitioned parliament in 1818 for relief of part of the expense of erecting proper jails, and a parliamentary committee found conditions in most Scottish prisons to be poor and recommended that counties in which burgh prisons were situated should be taxed to provide a contribution.[4] An act of 1819 authorised (but did not compel) commissioners of supply to contribute towards the improving, enlarging or rebuilding of prisons, but such contributions were few and far between.[5] In 1839 there were 178 buildings functioning as prisons: 70 lock-up houses, consisting of one small room; 80 small burgh jails, often part of the town house and unfit for the purpose; and 20 larger prisons, maintained by burghs, counties or both.[6] Responsibility for these local prisons was gradually transferred to central authorities and by 1877 no prisons remained under local authority control.
Records relating to burgh prisons and tolbooths consist mainly of warding and liberation books and are mainly held by local authority archives services. The National Records of Scotland holds the Edinburgh tolbooth records (reference code HH11) and the University of St Andrews holds some Fife tolbooth records. References to prisons and prisoners can also be found in early burgh treasurers’ accounts and early town council minutes.
Compilers: SCAN contributors (2000). Editor: Elspeth Reid (2024).
Related Knowledge Base entries
Prisons – Prison reform and centralisation
Prisons – The modern prison system
Prison records – Burgh prison records
Bibliography
Cameron, Joy, Prisons and Punishment in Scotland (Canongate, 1983)
Mackenzie, Sir George, The Laws and Customs of Scotland in Matters Criminal ed. by Olive F Robinson (Stair Society, 2012)
Walker, David M., A Legal History of Scotland, 6 vols (Green, 1988-2001)
References
[1] Prison houses should be built within all burghs, 1597. The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, ed. by K.M. Brown and others (University of St Andrews, 2007-2021), 1597/11/51 <http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1597/11/51> [accessed 1 August 2021].
[2] Joy Cameron, Prisons and Punishment in Scotland (Canongate, 1983) p. 47.
[3] Rogue Money (Scotland) Act 1839 (2 & 3 Vict. c.65).
[4] Select Committee on Petition of Royal Burghs of Scotland relating to Expense of providing Jails. Report, Appendix, 1818. House of Commons Papers No 346.
[5] Act to enable counties and stewartries in Scotland to give aid to royal burghs situated therein for the purpose of improving, enlarging or rebuilding their gaols, or to improve, enlarge or rebuild common gaols of counties and stewartries which are not the gaols of royal burghs, 1819 (59 Geo. III c. 61).
[6] General Board of Directors of Prisons in Scotland, First Report, 1840. House of Commons Sessional Papers.