T. & T. CLARK, LAW BOOKSELLERS, GEORGE STREET. GLASGOW: THOMAS MURRAY AND SON; AND J. SMITH AND SON. ABERDEEN: WYLLIE AND SON. MDCCCLXXXII LONDON: STEVENS AND SONS. THE JOURNAL OF JURISPRUDENCE. HISTORICAL NOTES ON TITLES OF NOBILITY NO. III. LORDS OF PARLIAMENT. NEXT in historical importance to the dignity of an Earl in Scotland was the lesser title of a Lord of Parliament, more properly so called then a "Baron." The Scottish Parliament as it existed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the greater part of the sixteenth, was an assemblage in one chamber of three separate orders of the community -the Prelates, Barons, and Burgesses. The Earls belonged to the order of Barons. All Barons in the old sense, that is, landholders holding their lands as a barony, had the right, or more properly, were under an obligation, to attend the meetings of the Estates. Parliamentary duty seems to have been understood to be, equally with military service, a condition under which they held their lands. It is expressly specified in the reddendo of a unique and interesting charter by Robert Bruce, of date 20th December 1324, of the Isle of Man in regality to his nephew, Thomas Randolph, which has been preserved in Lord Haddington's collections in the Advocates Library.1 By the less considerable landholders the obligation to be present was held a grievous burden, and was doubtless not very rigidly enforced; and a statute of James I. in March 1427-28 enacted that the small barons should be excused from attending Parliament, provided they sent two or more wise men from each sheriffdom to represent them. Though this Act, as well as a later one, was a failure so far as regards its main object, the introduction of Parlia 1 Inveniendo inde nobis et hæredibus nostris dictus Thomas et hæredes sui sex naves annuatim quælibet viginti sex ramorum, cum hominibus et victualibus sex septimanarum cum inde fuerint rationabiliter præmoniti, et faciendo personalem appresentationem ad parliamenta nostra et hæredum nostrorum per rationabiles quadraginta dierum summoniciones. VOL. XXVI. NO. CCCI.-JANUARY 1882. A |