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Tolbooth
A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of three essential features in a Scottish burgh, along with the mercat cross and the kirk (church). Etymology The word tolbooth is derived from the Middle English word ''tolbothe'' that described a town hall containing customs offices and prison cells. History Burghs were created in Scotland from the 12th century. They had the right to hold markets and levy customs and tolls, and tolbooths were originally established for collection of these. Royal burghs were governed by an elected council, led by a provost and baillies, who also acted as magistrates with jurisdiction over local crime. The tolbooth developed into a central building providing for all these functions. Most tolbooths had a bell, often mounted on a steeple, and later clocks were added ...
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Tolbooth 280
A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of three essential features in a Scottish burgh, along with the mercat cross and the kirk (church). Etymology The word tolbooth is derived from the Middle English word ''tolbothe'' that described a town hall containing customs offices and prison cells. History Burghs were created in Scotland from the 12th century. They had the right to hold markets and levy customs and tolls, and tolbooths were originally established for collection of these. Royal burghs were governed by an elected council, led by a provost and baillies, who also acted as magistrates with jurisdiction over local crime. The tolbooth developed into a central building providing for all these functions. Most tolbooths had a bell, often mounted on a steeple, and later clocks were added. ...
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Kirkcudbright Tolbooth
Kirkcudbright Tolbooth is a historic municipal building in Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built between 1627 and 1629 to serve the town as a centre of commercial administration, a meeting place for the council, and a prison, it was used for all these roles until the late eighteenth century when the council moved much of its business to new, larger premises they had constructed across the street; the tolbooth remained in use as a prison until the early nineteenth century, after which it remained in council ownership and was put to a variety of uses. Amongst the people incarcerated in the tolbooth during its use as a prison were people accused of witchcraft, and as late as 1805 it was used to imprison a woman convicted of pretending to be a witch. It was also used to imprison Covenanters during the Killing Time of 1679–1688; in 1684 a crowd stormed the building, killing a guard and freeing the Covenanters held within. American naval hero John Paul Jones was ...
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Old Tolbooth, Edinburgh
The Old Tolbooth was an important municipal building in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland for more than 400 years. The medieval structure, which was located at the northwest corner of St Giles' Cathedral and was attached to the west end of the Luckenbooths on the High Street in the Old Town, was first established in the 14th century by royal charter. Over the years it served a variety of purposes such as housing the Burgh Council, early meetings of the Parliament of Scotland and the Court of Session. The Tolbooth was also the burgh's main jail where, in addition to incarceration, physical punishment and torture were routinely conducted. From 1785 public executions were carried out. In 1817 the buildings, which had been rebuilt and renovated several times, were demolished. History A deed in the chartulary of St Giles' Cathedral indicates there was already a pretorium (an earlier Latin term for a tolbooth) in Edinburgh as early as 1368. Following the burnings of Edinburg ...
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Canongate Tolbooth
Canongate Tolbooth is a historic landmark of the Old Town area of Edinburgh, built in 1591 as a tolbooth, that is, the centre of administration and justice of the then separate burgh of the Canongate which was outside the Edinburgh town walls. It ceased to be a municipal building in 1856 and it is now occupied by The People's Story Museum and is protected as a category A listed building. History The tower of the tolbooth was built in 1591, and the block to the east of it at that time or slightly after, by Sir Lewis Bellenden, baron of Broughton and feudal superior of the burgh of Canongate and Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland. It served as the courthouse, burgh jail and meeting place of the town council. Many Covenanters were held in the tolbooth in poor conditions in the 17th century and a riot took place in the building in May 1692. It ceased to be the meeting place of the burgh council when Canongate was annexed by Edinburgh in 1856. In 1875 the City Architect, Robert Mo ...
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Musselburgh Tolbooth
Musselburgh Tolbooth is a municipal building in the High Street in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland. The tolbooth, which was the headquarters of Musselburgh Burgh Council, is a Category A listed building. At right angles and attached to it is the Musselburgh Town House. History The first building on the site was a 15th century tolbooth which was destroyed by Lord Hertford during the burning of Edinburgh in May 1544. It featured a clock tower with a tiered octagonal belfry and steeple: the clock had been given to the burgh by Dutch merchants in 1496. The current structure, which was designed in the Scottish medieval style and built with ashlar stone, was completed in 1590. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage facing onto the High Street; there was a square tower at the southwest corner which featured an arched doorway on the ground floor, a window with a hood mould on the first floor and then a tall main section, which was constructed in rubble masonry and su ...
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The Tolbooth, Aberdeen
The Tolbooth in Aberdeen, Scotland is a 17th-century former jail which is now operated as a museum. The museum contains prison cells and exhibits various police and law and order related items. History Considered one of the oldest buildings in Aberdeen, the tolbooth was built between 1616 and 1629 and is attached to Aberdeen Town House on the city centre's Union Street. In the mid-16th century, Aberdeen commissioned its first guillotine for executing criminals there. This device is on display at the museum for the public to view. In around 1630, Marion Hardie from Elgin was arrested for practicing witchcraft, incarcerated in the tolbooth and then strangled and burnt in front of the public outside the tolbooth. By 1703, witchcraft was no longer a crime, but by then many of the 45 women and 2 men accused of it in the area had been executed. In 1686, a market cross was built in front of the tolbooth. It was restored in 1821 and then moved to its present site in 1827. During t ...
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Glasgow Tolbooth
The Glasgow Tolbooth was a municipal structure at Glasgow Cross, Glasgow, Scotland. The main block, which was the meeting place of the Royal Burgh of Glasgow, was demolished in 1921 leaving only the steeple standing. The steeple is a Category A listed building. History The first tolbooth erected on the site at Glasgow Cross dated back at least to the mid-14th century. After it became ruinous, construction work on a new tolbooth started in 1626. It was designed by the master of the works, John Boyd, in the Scottish baronial style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1634. The building was laid out in two parts: a five-storey main block and a seven-stage steeple at the east end. The design of the main block involved a symmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto Trongate; the ground floor was rusticated with a series of openings, the first, second and third floors were fenestrated with rectangular windows with architraves while the fourth floor was fenestrated with ...
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Crail Tolbooth And Town Hall
Crail Tolbooth and Town Hall is a municipal structure in Crail, Fife, Scotland. The building, which stands in Marketgate, at its junction with Tolbooth Wynd, is Category A listed. History The structure was developed in two discrete sections, the tolbooth and the town hall. The earlier section, the tolbooth, was designed in the Scottish medieval style, built in rubble masonry and was completed in the 16th century. The design involved a main frontage of a single bay facing Marketgate; there was a doorway with a hood mould on the ground floor; the oculus above the doorway, the upper stages of the structure and the slated pagoda-style bell tower all followed in 1776. A bell, cast in Rotterdam in the 16th century, was installed in the bell tower. A weather vane was installed at the top of the bell tower: it took the form of a haddock (known locally as a ''Crail Capon'') rather than the traditional cockerel form. An earlier iteration of the town hall section was erected in 1602 an ...
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Dysart Tolbooth And Town House
Dysart Tolbooth and Town House is a municipal building in the High Street, Dysart, Fife, Scotland. The structure, which was comprehensively restored in 2009, is a Category A listed building. History The first municipal building in the town was a tolbooth tower erected in 1567. This does not appear to have been successful as it was demolished, just eight years later, in 1575, and replaced by the present three-stage tower, which was built in harled stone and erected slightly to the south of the original structure, in 1576. The first stage of the tower contained a doorway, while the second and third stages were originally blind, although a clock was installed in the third stage in 1592. There was a round stair-tower at the northeast corner of the building which provided access to the upper levels, and the building was extended to create a prison in 1617: five women were accused of witchcraft and incarcerated there in 1630. After roundhead troops started using the building to sto ...
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Sanquhar
Sanquhar ( sco, Sanchar, gd, Seanchair) is a village on the River Nith in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, north of Thornhill and west of Moffat. It is a former Royal Burgh. It is notable for its tiny post office, established in 1712 and considered the oldest working post office in the world. It was also where the Covenanters, who opposed episcopalisation of the church, signed the '' Sanquhar Declaration'' renouncing their allegiance to the King, an event commemorated by a monument in the main street. The church of St Brides contains a memorial to James Crichton, a 16th-century polymath. The ruins of Sanquhar Castle stand nearby. Nithsdale Wanderers, the local football team, were formed in 1897. In 1924–25, they won the Scottish Division Three. History The name "Sanquhar" comes from the Scottish Gaelic language ''An t-Seanchair'', meaning "old fort". A 15th-century castle ruin overlooks the town, but the name predates even this ancient fort. The antiquary, William Forbe ...
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Jougs
The jougs, juggs, or joggs ( fro, joug, from Latin , a yoke) is a metal collar formerly used as an instrument of punishment in Scotland, the Netherlands and other countries. Purpose The jougs was an iron collar fastened by a short chain to a wall, often of the parish church, or to a tree or mercat cross. The collar was placed round the offender's neck and fastened by a padlock. Time spent in the jougs was intended to shame an offender publicly. Jougs were used for ecclesiastical as well as civil offences. Some surviving examples can still be seen in their original locations in Scottish towns and villages. Jougs may be the origin of the later slang word "jug", meaning prison. Examples Sir Walter Scott rescued the jougs from Threave Castle in the Borders and attached them to the castellated gateway he built at Abbotsford House.Napier, George G. (1897). ''The Home and Haunts of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.'' James Maclehose, Glasgow. p. 153. In Stewarton, East Ayrshire, the jougs ...
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Stumpy Tower
The Girvan Steeple is a steeple and the site of a former townhouse in Girvan, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Its popular name, "Stumpy Tower" or "Auld Stumpy", is derived from the Gaelic ''Olladh Stiom Paidh'', meaning "Great Circle of Justice". (The name of Knockcushan Street, upon which the tower sits, means "Hill r Knollof Justice".) It is a Category B listed building. History An earlier tower was erected on the corner of Knockcushan Street and Dalrymple Street in 1787. However, by the mid-1820s it was very dilapidated and on 14 January 1825, it was agreed by a meeting of the burgesses to "rebuild the two houses on the Town's property adjoining the King's Arms and erect, another house on the front leading to the shore, and also a Gaol and Steeple adjoining the present market house to complete the square". The construction of the new townhouse and steeple, as well as the three new houses, was undertaken by local builders, Denham, Davidson and McWhinnie, at a cost £1,633 and was ...
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