This thesis investigates radicalism and reform in Scotland, from the collapse of the post- 1815 popular movement for parliamentary reform in 1820, to the achievement of parliamentary reform in 1832, and burgh reform in 1833. It focuses on the ideologies and languages that were used in contesting issues of political reform, both by elites and by popular movements. One of its aims is to explore the debate over the position of Scotland within Britain that was facilitated by the reform of political institutions and the system of representation. Chapter one examines the broad critique of Scottish institutions and society that had developed from the 1790s, and particularly following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. This was apparent in parliament, in three attempts to amend various aspects of Scotland's system of representation, and outside parliament, in numerous reform campaigns with both political and religious objectives. Chapter two investigates the political context of the 182Os, focusing on the reaction in Scotland to the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts in 1828. Catholic Emancipation in 1829 and the revolution in France in 1830. Chapter three provides a narrative of the drafting and passing of the Reform Act (Scotland), and of the popular movement outside parliament. It identifies the key stages in the development of the legislation, and the various problems its architects had to surmount. Chapter four looks at the debate on reform among Scotland's political elites and, in particular how this debate was prosecuted in parliament. Chapter five investigates the popular movement for reform in Scotland, briefly considering the functional factors that contributed to its creation and the maintenance of unity. It argues that while reformers and radicals made claims using a number of different languages, the reform movement after 1830 was characterised by the appeal to 'popular constitutionalism'. This language provided a coherent and flexible critique of the unreformed political system and allowed the reform movement to monopolise the language of patriotism and loyalty. The final chapter considers the consequences of parliamentary reform. It had a major influence on the languages and strategies used to contest issues in Scottish politics, and the patriotic consensus that had been achieved between 1830 and 1832 began to deteriorate. Finally, the consequences of parliamentary reform were sectarian as well as political. Changes made in the constitution and the state bolstered calls for changes to be made in the church. Movements calling for the end of religious establishments, or for their improvement, emerged during and after the agitation for parliamentary reform, and the 'Ten Years' Conflict' and the Disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843 should be seen in the context of the reforms of 1829 to 1833.

In 1840 all the burgh gaols of Scotland came under the direction of the General Prison Board operating through local county prison boards.  The burgh gaols had been the principal places of incarceration for both criminals and debtors since the Act of 1597.  No bridewells or houses of correction of any importance were established in Scotland until the end of the eighteenth century and then only in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and eventually Aberdeen.   At the same time the burgh gaols were seen as quite unsuited as places of incarceration but the great majority of the burghs did not have the financial resources to undertake major prison building without help from landed proprietors. Between 1815 and 1939 there were a number of initiatives which attempted to redress the situation. This thesis shows that some of these were generally more successful that it was thought except in the northern counties of Scotland, and in so doing touches on some of the major debates and themes of Scotties history like the inflammability or otherwise of the Scots, the role of voluntarism in society, the centre/civil society axis and the Anglicisation and centralisation following parliamentary reform.  Central to the matter are the relationships between burghs and counties and between the local bodies and the centre.  The role of the newly-established prison inspectorate and how the legislation of 1839 came to be passed and what it achieved are considered.

The historiography of Scotland and the British army in the early eighteenth century largely concerns the suppression of the Jacobite risings and the growing assimilation of Highland soldiers into its ranks during and after the Seven Years War. This thesis seeks to redress this by foregrounding all Scots and their earlier contribution to the British army. It does this by analysing the transition of Scottish soldiers from mercenaries in foreign service to soldiers of the British army. Additionally, the wider role of the British army in Scotland is investigated, including the legal constraints it operated under. The career patterns of prominent Scottish soldiers are also appraised, revealing issues of identity, motivation and nationality. Scottish auxiliary forces are then examined, especially where their function, administration and utilisation are particular to Scotland. Finally, an analysis is made of Scotland’s fortifications and their development and significance regarding the defence of Scotland and Great Britain. The thesis concludes by extending Colley’s suggestion that ‘Britishness’ stemmed from a common threat from France to include Jacobitism, evidenced by the large-scale presence of Scots of all origins in military service well before William Pitt the Elder boasted of ‘harnessing’ the military resources of the Highlands in 1762.

The second half of the twentieth century saw a ‘Golden Age’ of castle restoration in Scotland. During this time over one hundred ruined or derelict castles and towers were rebuilt and reoccupied, mostly by private owners who purchased the building with a view to restoring it. This was a far greater number of restorations than at any time in the past, yet the literature on castles has largely by-passed this modern ‘renaissance’ of Renaissance buildings. The majority of the restorers bought a ruinous or derelict building with which they had no family connection - mostly from ‘old’ owners whose family had owned the building for generations - and were often prepared to take substantial financial risks, undergo physical hardships and face considerable uncertainty over planning applications. Clans, charitable trusts and public bodies, such as local councils, also carried out restoration projects, as did a small number of ‘old’ owners. What caused such a proliferation? Two research questions are posed: why were so many Scottish castles restored between 1945 and 2010, and who were the restorers? The question of why so much activity took place in this period is analyzed in terms of the developing ‘restoration climate’, which was increasingly championed by the media, and the interrelationships between social, political and economic factors which allowed it to flourish. At the heart of these relationships are the owners, whose demographic characteristics are surveyed. Their personal qualities and motivations are also examined through an analysis of first person narratives and published interviews with the owners of many of the restored buildings, both in Scotland and beyond its borders, alongside surveys of the architectural features of the castles themselves. It was concluded that the restorations represent a positive benefit to Scotland, through the rescue of an irreplaceable and iconic section of the country’s built heritage which would otherwise have been irretrievably lost. Scotland’s Castles: Rescued, Rebuilt and Reoccupied, 1945 - 2010 Abstract The second half of the twentieth century saw a ‘Golden Age’ of castle restoration in Scotland. During this time over one hundred ruined or derelict castles and towers were rebuilt and reoccupied, mostly by private owners who purchased the building with a view to restoring it. This was a far greater number of restorations than at any time in the past, yet the literature on castles has largely by-passed this modern ‘renaissance’ of Renaissance buildings. The majority of the restorers bought a ruinous or derelict building with which they had no family connection - mostly from ‘old’ owners whose family had owned the building for generations - and were often prepared to take substantial financial risks, undergo physical hardships and face considerable uncertainty over planning applications. Clans, charitable trusts and public bodies, such as local councils, also carried out restoration projects, as did a small number of ‘old’ owners. What caused such a proliferation? Two research questions are posed: why were so many Scottish castles restored between 1945 and 2010, and who were the restorers? The question of why so much activity took place in this period is analyzed in terms of the developing ‘restoration climate’, which was increasingly championed by the media, and the interrelationships between social, political and economic factors which allowed it to flourish. At the heart of these relationships are the owners, whose demographic characteristics are surveyed. Their personal qualities and motivations are also examined through an analysis of first person narratives and published interviews with the owners of many of the restored buildings, both in Scotland and beyond its borders, alongside surveys of the architectural features of the castles themselves. It was concluded that the restorations represent a positive benefit to Scotland, through the rescue of an irreplaceable and iconic section of the country’s built heritage which would otherwise have been irretrievably lost.

Bonds of manrent were familiar and commonplace documents in late-fifteenth and sixteenth century Scottish society. They recorded the obligation of allegiance and service by men to their lords, obligations entered into, with few exceptions, for life, or passed on to their heirs. Some bonds described the obligation in very general terms; most gave a detailed account of what it involved, the main promises being to accompany the lord, to help and support him in all his actions and disputes, to give him counsel when he asked it and keep secret any counsel which he offered, and to warn him of harm and prevent it as for as possible. The making of these bonds was restricted almost entirely to men of power and wealth, the magnates and the lairds; and they brought under the obligation not only the individual but his kin, his friends and his followers. There are some 700 bonds still surviving, the primary source for this thesis, and these are listed in Appendix A. Their name, 'manrent', was the middle Scots form of a rare Anglo-Saxon word 'mannraedan', later 'manred', meaning allegiance or dependences literally, the state of being a man to a lord. The word was therefore etymologically the same as 'homage'; and it was the oath of homage, which by the fifteenth century had lost its binding force and was little used, that manrent replaced. The development of the lord-man relationship from the feudal to the non feudal form, culminating in the widespread use of the bond of manrent after c.1440, is the main theme of the first part of this thesis. There were features of the bonds which would have been familiar in the period of the feudal contract, but there were also changes of emphasis. The main change was that while bonds were sometimes given for land or money, the personal nature of the contract, which to an extont had been lost sight of, was once again paramount. Man no longer gave services primarily for material reward; they gave it for good lordship and protection, and at they normally received in return was a bond of maintenance. The second part of this thesis discusses the reasons why bonds were made and the effect they had. Their main importance lay not in national events but in local affairs. They were used by the magnates to bring under their control men of influence in the localities; for the lairds they offered the advantage of protection against attack, or redress possessions. The forming of large affinities dependent on a magnate whose power was thereby increased has traditionally been regarded as a principal factor in creating disorder and lawlessness in late-Mediaeval Scotland. But it is not axiomatic that the use of magnete power in Scotland was always sinister. On the contrary, one important element in the making of bonds was their place in maintaining law and order. It is clear that there was a strong survival of justice outrith the courts, based on the obligations of kinship; and the bond, as a means of imposing on those who were not of the lord's kin-group the same obligations which bound those who were, had an important place in settling dispute rather than creating it. In general, the nature of Scottish society was such that, while there wars abuses in the practice of bonding,, there was far more that was of positive benefit. And the crown itself, so often regarded as having feared and disliked the making of personal alliances,, in fact saw the advantages of these alliances and encouraged them.

The Ladies's Edinburgh Debating Society met on the first Saturday of each month between 1865-1936 to discuss the books they were reading and to debate prearranged issues. For the first fifteen years its members produced a magazine which carried fictive and general interest articles. This thesis will study the archive of the Society and the magazine that it produced to arrive at an understanding of the women's reading practices, their intellectual lives and their attitudes to the society in which they lived and how these experiences impacted upon them. At a time when women's societal role was limited and access to education was based on wealth or the philanthropy of others, these women were able (through their privileged place in the middle and upper classes) to construct their own canon of improving reading and to set guidelines for the education of others. Working against the hegemonic discourse of the time, yet seeking to exert some controlling influence over others, the women's attempts at self culture throw into rellief the context of their cultural experiences and the correlation between self improvement and women's emancipation. This thesis argues that prevailing ideas about Victorian women's existence in 'separate spheres' needs to be revised. It argues that the members of The Ladies' Edinburgh Debating Society make a move from the private to the public sphere through their utilisation of culture. Moreover, they are able to blend this notion of spheres to make society their concern through collective and individual action; improving themselves and the community in which they lived.

The Covenanting Movement was essentially composed of radicals and conservatives. Radicals were in a minority among the noble estate, but had a strong base among the gentry and the burgesses. In addition, pragmatic Royalists were Royalists who accepted and subscribed compulsory Covenanting oaths and obligations in order to secure admission to public office, particularly Parliament. The radical wing of the Covenanting Movement dominated parliamentary proceedings from 1639-1646. A radical political and constitutional agenda had been formulated prior to the 1639 Parliament. Such an agenda was enacted in the Scottish Constitutional Settlement of 1640-41. The radicals similarly-orchestrated the calling of the 1643 Convention of Estates and the signing of the Solemn League and Covenant. Whilst there was a rapprochement between radical and conservative nobles in 1645-1646, the cutting edge of the radicals was maintained by the gentry and burgesses and the emergence of a Scottish Commons can be detected. The crisis over the position of the king in 1646-1647 led to the ascendancy of conservatism among the Scottish Estates, 1647-1648. The defeat of the Engagement Army in the summer of 1648 led to a coup d'etat in Scotland and the instillation of a radical regime which held power unchallenged until the defeat at the Battle of Dunbar in September 1650. Thereafter there was a patriotic accommodation between the various political factions in Scotland in light of the growing threat to national independence from Cromwellian military forces. Following military defeat at the hands of Cromwell, Scotland eventually became incorporated within the Commonwealth and Protectorate. In political terms, the continuance of an "Argyll interest" can be observed. The Restoration witnessed the rescinding of Covenanting legislation. although Covenanting procedures were adopted, rather than abandoned. Whilst the Restoration witnessed the reassertion of noble power. a significant political role for the gentry was still maintained. That the gentry and burgesses provided the political backbone of the Covenanting Movement was reflected in the complicated committee structure of Parliament. 1639-1651. In addition. non-parliamentary gentry and burgesses were regularly involved in the proceedings of both parliamentary session and interval committees. Detailed parliamentary procedures and regulations were established in 1640-41 and continued to be modified according to circumstances throughout the 1640s and continued to 1651. The Restoration Parliament of 1661 saw a return to more traditional parliamentary regulation, particularly under the control of the crown and crown royal appointees.

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This study investigates the links between economic and demographic variables by examining the impact of industrialization on adult mortality in eastern Scotland, c. 1810-61. Using the concept of the urban hierarchy, sixteen parishes in the counties of Angus and Fife were selected to represent different degrees of industrialization. Patterns of adult mortality in these parishes between 1810 and 1854 are then examined using data on burials from the parish registers. The results are checked by comparing them with the results obtained from an analysis of vital registration data on deaths for the period 1855-61. Thus overall trends in adult mortality are identified and then disaggregated by age, sex, cause of death and occupation. The results show that adult mortality was generally higher in the most industrialized areas. Furthermore, rates in these parishes generally increased over the period whilst in the less industrialized areas they fell. Overall most people died from infectious diseases but deaths from these causes (including tuberculosis) fell over the period. The increase in mortality appears to be in part due to a rise in deaths from respiratory diseases (especially amongst textile workers in the main industrial centres) and food- and water-borne illnesses. This suggests that industrialization had a negative impact on adult mortality rates, causing a short-term rise in mortality in the early to mid-nineteenth century. This was in part due to the direct effect industrialization had, with the shift towards textile employment probably leading to increased mortality from respiratory diseases especially amongst factory workers. The impact of industrialization also appears to have operated indirectly via the impetus it gave to urbanization and changes in the spatial distribution of the population that resulted in worsening sanitary conditions and increased exposure to infection.