Burgesses of fourteenth-century Scotland: a social history
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Date
1984Author
Ewan, Elizabeth Louise
Metadata
Abstract
The history of the burgesses of fourteenth-century
Scotland has been confined largely to a study of the
development of the political representation of the Third
Estate. However, sources do exist for a more detailed
examination of their lives and their relations with the
rest of the kingdom. Within the burgh, urban excavation
is revealing new evidence about the material life of the
burgh inhabitants: their houses, their diet, their
industrial activities. Land grants and burgh records
reveal the functioning of the institutions of burgh
government and the responsibilities of those who acted
as officials in the burghal administration, Investment
in land, both urban and rural, overseas trade and royal
service all provided opportunities for the burgesses to
increase their wealth and brought them into contact with
the rest of the kingdom. Grants to the burghs of common
agricultural land helped maintain the links of the burgesses
with the lifestyle of their rural neighbours, while the
purchase of country estates by individuals gave them an
entree into the landowning classes. Trading commissions
and the burgh markets and fairs brought together the burgesses
with country people, the church the nobility and the royal
household. Administrative and financial services by
individual burgesses to the church, crown and nobility
underlined the importance of the burgesses to other social
groups within the kingdom. The sense of community felt within
the burghs and between the burghs was echoed an a national level
as the burgesses proved themselves to be an integral part of
the community of the realm.