Burgh of Hawick records
- Reference:GB 1097 BH
- Dates of Creation:1537-about 1984
- Name of Creator:
- Language of Material:Scots English
- Physical Description:246 items
Scope and Content
The Burgh of Hawick archive contains town chartularies, town minute books with indexes, reports of Burgh committees and officials, abstracts of the accounts of the town council, town clerk's fee fund accounts, superannuation and other financial records, police records and licensing registers, as well as invitations to the Common Riding, newspaper cuttings concerning the town, the declaration of Hawick's twinning with Bailleul and other related material. It also contains a large quantity of records relating to property and housing, including inventories of titles, records relating to feu duties, registers of mortgages, grants and applications for minor warrants, Master of Works registers and building specifications, quantity schedules, tenders and contracts.
Items with a TDS alternative reference number are marked with this reference, rather than the new BH reference number.
Administrative / Biographical History
Hawick was created a Burgh of Barony on 15 June 1511 in favour of Sir James Douglas of Drumlanrig. Douglas granted a charter in 1537 (ratified and extended by Queen Mary in 1545) that allowed the inhabitants to exercise the privileges of a royal burgh, apart from sending a member to parliament. Hawick then became a Burgh of Regality in 1669 in favour of William, Viscount Drumlanrig. In 1845 it became a Parliamentary Burgh and from 1868, following a local Police Act and the adoption of the General Police Act of 1862, a Police Burgh. Before the passage of the Hawick Police and Improvement Bill in 1861, the town had been governed by a council made up of life members and quarter-masters elected by trade incorporations, after the act the town was divided in to five wards with elected members. In 1930, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1929, Hawick became a Small Burgh. When the status of Burgh was abolished in 1975 Hawick became part of the Roxburgh district in the Borders region, and from 1996 part of the Scottish Borders council area.
Sources:
A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland by Samuel Lewis (1846), pp. 527-539.
Historic Hawick: the archaeological implications of development by Anne Turner Simpson and Sylvia Stevenson (1980), p. 1.
The Story of Hawick by W. S. Robson (1937), pp. 69-70, 91.
Scottish Archive Network www.scan.org.uk
ScotlandsPlaces: www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk
Arrangement
BH/1 Chartularies
BH/2 Town Books and Minutes
BH/3 Town Book Indexes
BH/4 Burgh Reports
BH/5 Burgh Committee Reports
BH/6 Abstracts of the Accounts of the Town Council
BH/7 Other Financial Records
BH/8 Property and Housing Records
BH/9 Police Records
BH/10 Licensing Records
BH/11 Common Riding and Kirking Invitations
BH/12 Newspaper Cuttings
BH/13 Hawick and Bailleul Twinning Records
BH/14 Other
Access Information
Open
Scottish Borders Archives operates within Local Authority, Freedom of Information and Data Protection Legislation, whereby some limitations on access may apply.
Conditions Governing Use
Applications for permission to quote should be sent to the Archive Manager. Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational or private use & condition of documents.
Custodial History
Transferred from Scottish Borders Council Hawick Area Office and Hawick Town Hall.
Accruals
None expected.
Related Material
Other items relating to the Burgh of Hawick are located in the records of the County of Roxburgh.
Subjects
Geographical Names