Banffshire

Banffshire formed a narrow wedge of land, stretching from the burgh of Banff on the southern shore of the Moray Firth to the Grampian Mountains in the south west. The shire was smaller and less prosperous than its southern neighbour, Aberdeenshire: in the general assessment of 1657 the former was rated at £95 17s. and the latter at £339 16s. 7d.1 A. and O. ii. 1239. Banffshire had long been dominated by a handful of families: the Ogilvies, Abercrombys, Gordons and Urquharts. Although key figures, such as George Gordon, marquess of Huntly, James Ogilvie, earl of Findlater, and Sir George Ogilvie, Lord Banff, had sided with the king during the civil wars, the majority of the gentry families became covenanters, and the commissioners for the shire in the Scottish Parliaments of the 1640s were drawn from their ranks. Sir Alexander Abercromby of Birkenbog, for example, represented the shire between 1641-3 and 1646-8.2 Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii. 790. In February 1652, when the shire submitted to union with England, its chosen deputies were former parliamentary commissioners, Walter Ogilvie of Boyne (who had served for the shire in 1644) and Dr Alexander Douglas* of Downies (who represented Banff Burgh between 1641 and 1651).3 Cromwellian Union ed. Terry, 43. The dominance of the traditional families continued into the 1650s, with the commissions of the peace and assessment under the protectorate again being staffed by Abercrombys, Gordons, Urquharts, Ogilvies and other prominent families.4 Scot. and the Protectorate ed. Firth, 310; A. and O. ii. 1145. These were not merely honorific positions: in the later 1650s the commission of the peace was attended by at least eight of the 13 Scottish justices of the peace, including the earl of Findlater, John Abercromby of Farskan, Alexander Gordon of Troup and the lairds of Birkenbog and Downies.5 NRS, JC26/19, ‘Bundle 6’; JC26/22, ‘Bundle 3’ no. 22; JC26/25, ‘Bundle 3’.

Under the 1654 ordinance, Banffshire was allowed to return one MP, elected ‘in the same shire’, to the Westminster Parliament.6 A. and O. ii. 930. No elections were held in 1654, apparently because of the lack of qualified voters, but by 1656 the situation had improved.7 Roundhead Officers ed. Akerman, 89-90. The indenture signed on 20 August 1656 shows that the election was supervised by the sheriff, John Forbes of Byth, and that the electorate was made up of local landowners, eight of whom signed the document itself. The signatories were led by the earl of Findlater and included several major gentry figures – Sir George Ogilvie of Carnoussie and the lairds of Birkenbog, Troup and Farskan.8 C219/45, unfol. The chosen MP was also a prominent local figure: the provost of Banff Burgh, Dr Alexander Douglas. In 1659 the electorate may well have been similar to that of 1656, but the result was very different: the new MP was William Wheler, an Englishman with no previous connection with Scotland. Wheler had served as the Long Parliament MP for Westbury in Wiltshire until Pride’s Purge in 1648, but had become reconciled with the Cromwellian regime in the mid-1650s. His return for Banffshire, presumably at General George Monck’s* behest, was part of a wider scheme to bring in reliable and experienced Presbyterians to bolster the court interest. It also attests to the willingness of the local aristocracy to collaborate with the protectorate authorities by the end of the 1650s. After the restoration of the monarchy, the local landowners continued to dominate Banffshire. In the elections for the Scottish Parliament of 1661, the laird of Birkenbog was again elected, and in 1665 the commissioner was another local man, Sir James Baird of Auchmedden.9 Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii. 790.