Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland explained

The Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland, also known as the Sheriff of Orkney and Zetland, was historically the royal official responsible for enforcing law and order in Orkney and Shetland, Scotland. The office was combined with the role in Shetland of the "foud" and the "foudry".^[1] The foud was a bailiff who returned customs and rents due the crown, including butter and oil known as "fat goods".^[2]

The sheriffdom of Orkney and Shetland was created in the 16th century upon the ceding of the islands to Scotland for non-payment of the dowry of Margaret's marriage to King James III of Scotland by King Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Prior to 1748 most sheriffdoms were held on a hereditary basis. From that date, following the Jacobite uprising of 1745, the hereditary sheriffs were replaced by salaried sheriff-deputes, qualified advocates who were members of the Scottish Bar

The position was merged in 1870 with that of the Sheriff of Caithness to create the new position of Sheriff of Caithness, Orkney & Shetland.

Old feudal duties to the Scottish crown

The sheriffs of Orkney and Shetland were involved in collecting rents to the Scottish crown and teinds based on agricultural produce.^[3] The rents were known as "land maill" and "wadmell", a measure of cloth. Shetland rents were recorded in a document known as the "Skat of Yetland".^[4] "Scat" was the general name for the tax or rent collected from the Shetland crown lands in money or farm produce. Woollen cloth given as rent was called "wadmal".^[5]

Dairy produce, known as "fat goods", was measured in "lipsunds". The value of the produce was exchanged for Scottish money in coin, called "white silver", first using a traditional reckoning in a local "coinless currency" including the "yopindal".^[6] The rates of exchange could cause controversy. In 1569, Robert Stewart, 1st Earl of Orkney, wrote about his Shetland rents:

the charter which I have caused make of the lands of Yetland, for the land maillis of Yetland are counted in shillings, pennies, and pounds of butter and wadmell, and a shilling of butter in account of land maillis is 2 lipsund butter in payment, and a shilling of wadmell is 6 cuttall wadmell^[7]

Sheriffs of Orkney and Shetland

• Oliver Sinclair (sheriff).^[8]
• Olave Sinclair (foud)
• Robert Stewart (1564)
• Gilbert Balfour of Westray, Sheriff of Orkney (1566).^[9]
• Laurence Bruce (1571)
• John Dishington (1581-1610)
• John Buchanan (1620).^[10]
• Lt-Col. Patrick Blair 1663, 1669–1672

Sheriffs-Depute

• Edward Sinclair of Strom, Sheriff-Depute of Orkney, 1557.^[11]
• Robert Craigie, 1786–1791 ^[12] (Sheriff of Dumfries, 1791–1811)
• Charles Hope, 1792–1801 ^[13]
• William Rae, 1801–1809 ^[14] (Sheriff of Edinburgh, 1809)
• William Erskine, 1809–?1822 (died 1822)^[15]
• James Allan Maconochie, 1822–?1845 (died 1845)^[16]
• Charles Neaves, 1845–1852 ^[17]
• William Edmondstoune Aytoun, 1852–1865
• Adam Gifford, 1865–1870
• For sheriffs after 1870 see Sheriff of Caithness, Orkney and Shetland

See also

• Historical development of Scottish sheriffdoms

Notes and References

1. John H. Ballentyne & Brian Smith, Shetland Documents, 1195-1579 (Lerwick, 1999), p. 307.
2. Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, 5:2 (Edinburgh, 1957), pp. 186-7 no. 3014.
3. [Gilbert Goudie]
4. John H. Ballantyne & Brian Smith, Shetland Documents, 1195–1579 (Lerwick, 1999), pp. 251–269.
5. Brian Smith, 'Rent, Tax, Teind, and Tolls in Shetland', Agriculture, Economy and Society in Early Modern Scotland (Boydell, 2024), p. 166.
6. Peter Anderson & John Ballantyne, Personal Correspondence of Sir John Bellenden of Auchnoul (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 2023), p. 23.
7. Peter Anderson & John Ballantyne, Personal Correspondence of Sir John Bellenden of Auchnoul (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 2023), pp. 37, 99–100, modernised here.
8. Peter Anderson & John Ballantyne, Personal Correspondence of Sir John Bellenden of Auchnoul (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 2023), 4: Alison Cathcart, 'Kingship in the Reign of James V', Steven J. Reid, Rethinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland (Boydell, 2024), 119.
9. Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, 5:2 (Edinburgh, 1957), p. 16 no. 2529.
10. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1619–1622, 12 (Edinburgh, 1895), p. 715.
11. Peter Anderson & John Ballantyne, Personal Correspondence of Sir John Bellenden of Auchnoull (Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 2023), p. 11.
12. Book: Brunton, George. An Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice. 548.
13. Web site: Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh. 26 October 2017.
14. Book: Parliament, Great Britain. The Parliamentary Register. 539.
15. Book: The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany, Volume 71. 476.
16. Book: Accounts and Papers, Finance, Banks. Offices. Vol. XIII. 71.
17. Web site: Moray Register. 10 April 2018.