Sc. 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’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. Ibid. (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, -school; † burgh-lands, † burgh-roods, lands in a burgh or held by burgage tenure.
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.
1570. Leg. Bp. St. Andrews, in Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 317. Save tua pure aikers of *borrow ruddis.
1864. A. McKay, Hist. Kilmarnock, 137. Such was the origin of the *burgh-school.
1876. Grant (title), History of the Burgh Schools in Scotland.
