▪ I. burgh Sc.
(ˈbʌrə)
Forms: 4 burch, 5 bwrch, 6 bruch, brughe, browght, burcht, 7 bourgh, burrow, brught, 8–9 brugh, 6– burgh.
[Var. of borough; obs. in ordinary Eng. use since 17th c., but continued in Scotland, and now always used instead of borough when a Scotch town is referred to. The form brugh is found in Burns and other writers of rustic dialect.]
1. Originally = borough; now restricted to denote a town in Scotland possessing a charter. (The earlier English instances will be found under borough; the examples given here are all Scottish.)
There are three classes of burghs, viz. royal burghs, the charter of which is derived from the king, burgh of regality and burgh of barony, having their charters respectively from a lord of regality and from a baron. Originally only the royal burghs sent representatives to Parliament.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce iv. 213 In burch I wist weill I suld de. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vi. xi. 31 Þe Bwrch of Jerusalem. c 1505 Dunbar Flyting 201 Thow held the burcht lang with ane borrowit goun. 1566 Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 99 The Commissionaris of browghtis. 1597 Acts James VI (1814) 148 (Jam.) To erect ane vniuersitie within the said brughe. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 119 The Lawes and Constitvtions of Bvrghs. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1829) 74 The body of puritan ministers of the burrows of Scotland. 1732–69 De Foe, etc. Tour Gt. Brit. IV. 45 There are three Sorts of Burghs; viz. Burghs Royal, Burghs of Regality, and Burghs of Barony. 1785 Burns Author's Earnest Cry and Pr. i, Ye Knights an' Squires, Wha represent our brughs an' shires. 1828 Scott F.M. Perth I. 60 The right of hunting and sporting over the lands of the burgh. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) II. 371 In burghs, there is often a separate school for classics. |
b. burgh and land: town and country. Sc.
| 1513–75 Diurnal of Occurr. (1833) 81 Chargeing all our soueranes liegis alsweill to burgh as to land, regalitie as to royalitie, to address thame to come to Edinburgh. 1540 Lyndesay Satyre 1795 Baith in bruch and land. 1634–46 Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 74 [The] whole body of this Realme both in brught and land. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxix, I glance like the wildfire through brugh and through land. 1827 ― Surg. Dau. i, Within burgh, and not landward. |
2. Used for borough: a. by Scotch writers in speaking of foreign towns; b. as an archaism, either poet. or Hist. (see borough 6 a, burg).
| 1798 Canning New Moral. 434 in Anti-Jacobin 9 July (1852) 219 Till each fair burgh, numerically free Shall choose its members by the Rule of Three. 1816 J. Scott Vis. Paris (ed. 5) 274 The wars of the Normans..made the inhabitants [of Paris] feel the necessity of an enclosure to preserve their burghs from the invasion. 1828 Carlyle For. Rev. & Cont. Misc. II. 118 The mere earthly burgh of Stratford-on-Avon. |
3. attrib. and comb., as burgh-moor, burgh-school; † burgh-lands, † burgh-roods, lands in a burgh or held by burgage tenure.
| c 1505 Dunbar Tua Mariit Wem. 338 And gottin his biggingis to my barne, & hie *burrow landis. |
| 1513–75 Diurnal of Occurr. (1833) 296 Mr. Archibald Grahmes hous..in the *burrowmure. |
| c 1570 Leg. Bp. St. Andrews in Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 317 Save tua pure aikers of *borrow ruddis. |
| 1864 A. M{supc}Kay Hist. Kilmarnock 137 Such was the origin of the *burgh-school. 1876 Grant (title) History of the Burgh Schools in Scotland. |
▪ II. burgh
obs. form of barrow n.1, borough, burr n.1; var. of broch.
▪ III. burgh
var. burg 2.