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The word
shire is of Old English origin and
meant office, charge, administration. The Norman Conquest introduced the
word county—through French from the Latin comitatus,
which in mediaeval documents designates the shire. County is the
district ruled by a count, the king’s comes, the equivalent of the
older English term earl. This system of local administration
entered Scotland as part of the Anglo-Norman influence that strongly
affected our country after the year 1100. Our shires differ in
origin, and arise from a combination of
causes—geographical, political and ecclesiastical.
The first known sheriff of Selkirk
was Andrew de Synton appointed by William the Lyon (1165—1214); and there
were sheriffs of Peebles in the same reign. In 1286 Peebles had two
sheriffs, one holding his courts at Traquair, the other at Peebles—the two
courts being amalgamated about the year
1304. In Alexander II’s reign Gilbert Fraser
was sheriff of Traquair, while in the reign of Alexander III Sir Simon
Fraser was sheriff of Peebles and keeper of the forests of Selkirk and
Traquair.
But these counties were
more familiarly known by other names. In State Documents Peebles was
frequently called Tweeddale (Tuedal), and Selkirk, Ettrick Forest or the
Forest. Even in Blaeu’s Atlas (1654) the inscription on the map of the two
counties is: "Twee-Dail with the Sherifdome of Ettrick Forest, called also
Selkirk." Ettrick
Forest—sometimes, and presumably later, Selkirk Forest—was, however, much
more extensive than the present Selkirkshire.
The name Peebles, older form
Peblis, is generally regarded as derived from the British word
pebyll, tents, place of tents. Selkirk, old spelling
Schelescbirche, is taken to mean the kirk of the shieling.
No doubt the counties came into
existence as convenient districts determined mainly by natural conditions
as rivers, mountains, forests, for the administration of local and
national affairs. Peebles corresponded to the Vale of the Tweed from the
source of the river till it approaches the region of its first large
tributary, the Ettrick from the Forest, the watershed between the Tweed
and the Ettrick forming a natural boundary. The Shire of the Forest was a
distinctive area at first marked out and set aside as a hunting preserve
for the Scottish kings. As political and social conditions have changed,
these counties have also changed in shape and to some extent in size. |
