Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747 Explained

Short Title:	Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747^[1]
Type:	Act
Parliament:	Parliament of Great Britain
Long Title:	An Act for the more effectual Trial and Punishment of High Treason and Misprision of High Treason, in the Highlands of Scotland; and for abrogating the Practice of taking down the Evidence in Writing in certain Criminal Prosecutions ; and for making some further Regulations relating to Sheriffs Depute and Stewarts Depute, and their Substitutes; and for other Purposes therein mentioned
Year:	1747
Citation:	21 Geo. 2. c. 19
Territorial Extent:	Scotland
Royal Assent:	13 May 1748
Commencement:	1 April 1748
Original Text:	https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Statutes_at_Large/eaRFAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA106&printsec=frontcover

Short Title:	Treason Act 1760
Type:	Act
Parliament:	Parliament of Great Britain
Year:	1760
Citation:	33 Geo. 2. c. 26
Collapsed:	yes

The Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747 (21 Geo. 2. c. 19) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain^[2] which applied only to Scotland. It stated that anyone who was prosecuted on or after 1 April 1748 for treason or misprision of treason could be tried anywhere in Scotland if the crime had been committed in any of the shires of Dunbartain, Stirling,^[3] Perth, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Inverness, Nairn, Cromarty,^[4] Argyll, Forfarshire, Banff,^[5] Sutherland, Caithness, Elgine, Ross, and Orkney.^[6] Normally a crime had to be tried in the shire where it had been committed. The Act also said that in such a trial, the jurors could come from adjoining counties, instead of (as would otherwise be the case) the county where the trial was held.^[7]

It also provided that His Majesty's Advocate could move the trial to the High Court of Justiciary,^[8] and that peers had the right to be tried by their peers.^[9] These provisions expired after seven years,^[10] but were later revived again for another seven years in 1760 by another Act, 33 Geo. 2. c. 26.^[11]

The act also began the process of grouping the smaller shires into a single sheriffdom, by creating shared sheriffdoms for:^[12]

• Fife and Kinross
• Stirling and Clackmannan
• Argyll and Bute
• Elgin and Nairn
• Sutherland and Caithness
• Ross and Cromarty

References

• The Scots Statutes Revised. W Green and Sons. 1899. Volume 1. Page 80.
• The Public General Statutes Affecting Scotland. William Blackwood and Sons. Edinburgh. 1876. Volume 1. Pages 121 and 122.
• Statutes at Large, vol. XIX, Danby Pickering, Cambridge University Press, 1765.
• Walker. A Legal History of Scotland. W Green. 1988. Volume 6. Pages 356 and 454. 2004. Volume 7. Page 633.
• Robson and Rodger. The Spaces of Justice: The Architecture of the Scottish Court. Farleigh Dickinson University Press. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. 2018. Pages 34 and 36.

See also

• Treason Act
• Jurors (Scotland) Act 1745

Notes and References

1. The citation of this Act by this short title was authorised by the Short Titles Act 1896, section 1 and the first schedule. Due to the repeal of those provisions it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpretation Act 1978.
2. The Act was actually passed in 1748, but is listed under 1747 because under the common law Acts of Parliament took effect retrospectively from the beginning of the session in which they were passed, which in this case was 1747: see the article Acts of Parliament (Commencement) Act 1793 for the explanation as to why. However this Act was expressed to take effect from 1 April 1748.
3. Spelled "Sterling" in the Act.
4. Spelled "Cromartie" in the Act.
5. Spelled "Bamff" in the Act.
6. Section 1.
7. Section 2.
8. Section 3.
9. Section 4.
10. Section 6, which applied to sections 1 to 5.
11. Statutes at Large vol. XXIII (1766)
12. Section 12