Peerage of Scotland
The
Peerage of Scotland is the division of the
British Peerage for those peers created in the
Kingdom of Scotland before
1707. With that year's
Act of Union, the Kingdom of Scotland and the
Kingdom of England were combined into the
Kingdom of Great Britain, and a new
Peerage of Great Britain was introduced in which subsequent titles would be granted. After the Union, the old Scottish Peers elected sixteen
representative peers to sit in the
House of Lords. The
Peerage Act 1963 allowed all Scottish Peers to sit in the House of Lords, a right which was lost along with all other hereditary peers due to the passage of the
House of Lords Act 1999. Unlike most other peerage titles, many Scottish titles can pass through female lines, and in the case of daughters only, these pass to the eldest daughter rather than go into
abeyance.
The ranks of the Scottish Peerage are
Duke,
Marquess,
Earl,
Viscount, and
Lord of Parliament. Scottish Viscounts are unique from the other Peerages in using "of" in their title, as in
Viscount of Oxfuird. Though this is the theoretical form, most Viscounts drop the "of". The Viscount of Arbuthnott and, to a lesser extent, the Viscount of Oxfuird, still actively use "of". Scottish Peers had the right to sit in the
Parliament of Scotland. Scottish
Barons are not peers, but merely holders of feudal baronies, which can be bought and sold.
In the following table of extant Scottish peers, all higher or equal titles in the other peerages are listed. Also, if a Scottish peer holds a lower title in the Peerages of England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, and therefore sat (or, in the cases of Life peerages, sit) by virtue of such a peerage in the
House of Lords, such a lower title is listed. However, a holder of multiple Scottish peerages is only listed under the highest one.
Duke of Berwick-upon-Tweed
