The complex history of Scotland’s feudal baronage raises the important question of what a barony is.
If the reader requires a simple answer it is that a barony has never been just one static thing throughout history. As with the land, people and nation of Scotland they have evolved over time with differences in formal existence and practical powers. Today’s barony is much different from that of three hundred years ago, which, in turn, was distinct from three hundred years before that. A barony has also meant different things to different people. Some barons resided in their barony lands and ruled their people intimately through their court, others held many baronies and delegated management to trusted servants while they operated on the national stage. Many baronies were held onto fiercely by families for centuries, while others were frequently lost to debt, warfare or an unhappy monarch. No two baronies are the same, and that is part of their enduring interest. They have been subject to significant and sudden change but also to slow adaptations over centuries.
The story told here is a sense of this history; readers are encouraged to discover the full richness for themselves.
The power of the baron would have varied depending on the individual who held the title, the nature of the barony and changes over time.
The bigger and more populated a barony was ‘the more effective the barons’ police and judicial functions would have been’.[8] Although we cannot know exactly what powers each baron exercised on their lands we have a sense of what they were meant to do. Most importantly barons had the powers of ‘pit and gallows, sake and soke, toll, team and infangthief’. While these may have referred to specific roles and expectations, in practice they were likely used as a phrase ‘to indicate powers of criminal jurisdiction’, particularly the right to carry out the death penalty and confiscate possessions, though not to condemn or acquit.[9] Barons were fundamental elements in the judicial system with ‘essentially the same criminal – and civil – jurisdiction within their lands as the sheriffs had within the sheriffdoms’.[10] In addition, barons may have had a more pastoral role, such as ensuring crops were sown in a timely manner.
Among the tasks of the baron, along with the sheriff, was the holding of ‘wapinschaws’ or weapon showings, where men, horses, armour and weapons were brought out and the best warriors selected.[11]
The baron courts continued, though the baronies and Scotland itself were changing.
The court still exercised criminal powers, but by the seventeenth century they confined themselves to minor matters. They remained important because these minor affairs impacted everyday life, such as petty thefts, encroachments, and small acts of aggression with penalties of fines or forfeiture.[27] According to the historian Michinson: ‘Baron courts met at the instance of the baron, when business had accumulated, and the baron might or might not choose to preside in person. There were also the ‘’birlaymen’’ who might be chosen by the baron or elected by the court. In either case they would be men of considerable local knowledge, whose duties were to settle local issues and divide local burdens.'[28]
These men were possibly the remnant of a system when local people had policed themselves. Baron courts ‘spent much of their time on local policing’, such as over verbal or physical abuse and protecting the land from the burning of moors, polluting of rivers, or cutting of green timber.[29] The court could also enforce the payment of rents or service in kind, as well as supervising the maintenance of the mill, extraction of teinds and other business such as issues caused by straying animals.[30]
A Scottish feudal Baron or Baroness may continue using their existing surname and add their title, becoming, for example, ‘John McDonald, Baron of X’.
It is important to note this is different from ‘John McDonald, Baron X’, a phrasing which denotes a peerage.
Many Scottish histories concern themselves with baronies in some small part as they wove themselves into all aspects of life.
This is especially so of books on the medieval and early modern periods where feudal barons played important roles within Scottish society. A reader will inevitably come across baronies once they begin looking. The history here draws upon several expert works which consider the history and nature of the Baronage.
