A commissioner was a

legislator A legislator, or lawmaker, is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people, but they can be appointed, or hereditary. Legislatures may be supra-nat ...

appointed or elected to represent a

royal burgh A royal burgh ( ) was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by ...

shire Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...

in the

Parliament of Scotland In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and the associated Convention of the Estates. Member of Parliament (MP) and Deputy are equivalent terms in other countries. The Scottish Parliament (also known as the Three Estates) and the Convention of the Estates were unicameral legislatures, so commissioners sat alongside

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

s (the first estate) and members of the

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

(the second estate).

Burgh commissioners

Burgh commissioners were the third estate, and were the longest-established and most powerful group of commissioners to parliament. They first attended in 1326. Burgh commissioners often acted and lobbied collectively, assisted by the fact that the Convention of Royal Burghs often met in association with parliamentary sessions.

Shire commissioners

From the 16th century, the second estate of the nobility was reorganised by the selection of shire commissioners from the lower nobility: this has been argued to have created a fourth estate. Each shire, stewartry or constabulary sent two shire commissioners to parliament, with the exception of the small shires of Clackmannan and Kinross which only sent one. However, each shire had only one vote, meaning that the two commissioners had to cooperate and compromise with each other. They appear to have possessed '' plena potestas'', and were not necessarily required to consult their electorates. Early shire commissioners were lesser barons, with the earliest recorded shire election being on 31 January 1596, in

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

. The powers of the shire commissioners greatly expanded over time, especially with the long-term decline in power of the prelates. In 1640, the Covenanters abolished the episcopates, and each shire commissioner was given their own vote. This arrangement continued upon the Restoration of the Episcopates in 1662.

References

* Parliamentary titles {{job-stub

Burgh commissioners

Shire commissioners

See also

References