The constituency labelled ‘Lanark Burghs’ was made up of eight different burghs, scattered along the entire length of the Clyde river system: Lanark in Clydesdale; Glasgow and its near neighbours, Rutherglen, Renfrew and Dumbarton; Rothesay on the Isle of Bute; and finally Irvine and Ayr, on the Irish Sea coast. These were all ancient settlements, and all except Glasgow had been granted the status of royal burgh by the end of the Middle Ages.
The seven towns which constituted the Dornoch Burghs were spread in a wide semi-circle around the Moray Firth and its adjacent sea lochs. The most northerly burgh, Dornoch, was in Sutherland; facing it, across the Dornoch Firth, was Tain, in Ross-shire. Dingwall, at the head of the Cromarty Firth, was also in Ross-shire. Inverness, situated on the isthmus of land between the Moray Firth and Loch Ness, was the largest burgh of the seven.
The ‘Banff Burghs’ comprised the towns of Banff and Cullen and the city of Aberdeen, situated on the north-east coast of Scotland. All three had been royal burghs since the twelfth century, but Aberdeen, as an important centre for trade, religion and education, soon outstripped its neighbours in size and prosperity. Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii. 767, 769, 771. This disparity was reflected in the rates set by the government for the general assessment in 1657: Cullen was to pay £1 10s., Banff £3, and Aberdeen £66 12s. A. and O. ii.
The five burghs which made up the ‘Linlithgow Burghs’ – Linlithgow, Stirling, Perth, Queensferry and Culross – were scattered across three shires in the centre of Scotland, where the highland region met the lowlands. The burghs varied greatly in size and wealth – from Perth, taxed at £39 19s 3d in the general assessment of June 1657, to Culross and Queensferry, which each paid less than £5 – and before the 1650s they had little in common. A. and O. The five burghs can be divided into two loose groups.
The city of Edinburgh owed its importance to three factors: the strength of its castle, sited on an imposing volcanic plug; the richness of the surrounding farmland; and the proximity of a deep-water port at nearby Leith, on the Firth of Forth. The medieval city had grown as a suburb of the castle, gradually extending down the ‘old town ridge’ from the castle gates, along the High Street to the Canongate, with the royal palace of Holyrood lying just outside the city’s boundary.
The St Andrews burghs comprised 13 royal burghs mostly scattered along the Firth of Forth and the North Sea coasts of the shire (or ‘kingdom’) of Fife. The 13 varied greatly in size and prosperity, the richest (according to the 1657 assessment rates) being St Andrews, assessed at £33, and Kirkcaldy at £24, while Anstruther Wester, paying £3 9s and Kilrenny £3 were barely more than fishing villages. A.
The eight ‘Dumfries burghs’ were spread across two shires and a stewartry in the far south west of Scotland: Wigtown and Whithorn were in Wigtownshire; Kirkcudbright and New Galloway on the River Dee in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright; Dumfries on the estuary and Sanquhar much further upstream on the River Nith, and Annan and Lochmaben on the River Annan, were all in Dumfriesshire. Atlas Scot. Hist. 228. For some reason, Stranraer, which had been a royal burgh since 1617, was left off the list. Young, Parliaments of Scot. ii.
The five Forfar burghs were all located in Forfarshire, to the north of the Firth of Tay, but they differed markedly in character. The largest was Dundee, which had a population of around 12,000 in 1639, and was about the same size as the cities of Aberdeen and Glasgow.
The constituency known as Peebles (or Haddington) Burghs was made up of seven royal burghs spread across five shires in south-east Scotland: Haddington and the ports of Dunbar and North Berwick in Haddingtonshire, Peebles in Peebleshire, Selkirk in Selkirkshire, Lauder in Berwickshire and the border town of Jedburgh in Roxburghshire. The seven burghs varied greatly in size, prosperity and status.