A county constituency in Scotland created in 1832 and was was replaced in 1918 by the new Moray and Nairn constituency

between 1654 and 1658 East Looe and West Looe jointly electeda single member to the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate

The 45 Members who took their seats in the first Parliament of Great Britain, in November 1707, had been chosen by the estates of the Scottish parliament in the preceding February, according to the terms of an act of the Scottish parliament, passed only a short time before, for settling the representation of Scotland in the united Parliament.

Wigtown Burghs failed to implement the order of rotation prescribed by the act of the Scottish parliament for settling the post-Union representation. Ignorance rather than calculation of advantage caused this uniquely aberrant behaviour; but the right of presiding at elections was particularly significant in a four-burgh district, where the presiding burgh’s casting vote in a tied election would be decisive.

The most obvious features of this district were its wide geographical spread and the diversity of electoral influences. Competition for control centred upon the bitter clan rivalry between the Rosses (with their allies the Munros) and the Mackenzies. This struggle dominated local politics in the Ross-shire towns of Tain and Dingwall. The Rosses, led by the 12th Lord Ross of Halkhead, were in the ascendant at Tain, the head burgh of the shire.

Comprising five towns spread across four counties in the Forth valley, Stirling Burghs was not amenable to control by any single interest. As the century progressed this district developed an unenviable reputation for venality, but paucity of evidence makes it impossible to establish how far corruption influenced elections in this period. Undoubtedly, some inducements were given.

The openness of the Perth Burghs was indicated by the presence of four candidates in the field during the prelude to the 1708 election. Previously there had been spirited competition in some of the individual burghs for the choice of commissioners to the Scottish parliament. This was a product of the Court-Country rivalry which featured prominently in the 1702 election. Moreover, each town could lay claim to significance in its own right. Forfar and Cupar were the head burghs of their respective shires. St.

Each of the towns in this district was the head burgh of its respective shire, and the openness of elections reflected the absence of any overriding magnate interest. Linlithgow was influenced by the 4th Duke of Hamilton and his mother, who as 3rd Duchess suo jure also possessed the hereditary sheriffdom of Lanarkshire. It was generally believed within the family that, since the Union at least, the elder Duchess did ‘not care to meddle in elections’. Her endorsement was nevertheless thought highly desirable.

The intense rivalries which are evident in neighbouring county elections rendered electoral politics in this burgh district inherently unstable, culminating in the success of a complete outsider in 1713. Inverness, the senior burgh in terms of rotation, was the most prosperous of the towns. As one patronizing English traveller remarked, not only did it possess ‘two very good streets’, but the inhabitants were ‘more polite than in most towns in Scotland . . . here are coffee-houses and taverns, as in England’.