78 Arms of the Royal Burgh of Sanquhar. 



back of the medal presented to the Sanquhar Curling Society 

 in 1817 by William Broom, Esq., who was Preses of the 

 Society in that year. The arms are also engraved on the 

 ticket of membership of the Sanquhar Library founded in 

 1800. The old burgh seals have all disappeared. There was 

 a new seal presented to the burgh fully a hundred years 

 ago by Joseph Gillan, Esq. of Ellisland, who was Town Clerk 

 from 1807 to 1810. This seal was still to the fore in 1880, 

 but it has also disappeared, and the only one now in the 

 Town Clerk's Office is an embossing one. The finest 

 example of the burgh arms that I have seen is that on the 

 medal presented to the Sanquhar Bowling Club in 1875 ^Y 

 James R. Wilson, Esq., its first president. They are also 

 engraved on the two new communion flagons recently pre- 

 sented to Sanquhar Parish Church by the Rev. J. R. Wood, 

 parish minister. In their proper colours the arms are to be 

 seen above the platform of the new Public Hall. 



There is no doubt but that the Royal Burgh would have 

 a common seal from 1598, when King James VI. granted the 

 Royal Charter ; but Sanquhar was a Burgh of Barony long 

 before that date. It was re-erected a Burgh of Barony, 20th 

 October, 1484, by King James III., the charter of re-erection 

 being granted to Robert Crichton (the title Lord had not 

 yet been bestowed), probably because of the service which 

 he rendered in repelling Albany and Douglas at Lochmaben, 

 24th July, 1484. The charter of re-erection distinctly states 

 that Sanquhar had been from ancient times such a burgh 

 (ex antiquis temporibus retroactis fuit liber Burgus in 

 Baronia), and it is further stated that its charters had been 

 destroyed in the wars and tumults of the Middle Ages (cartae 

 ejusdem per guerras et alias destrutae sunt et combustae). 

 Mr William Wilson in his excellent little book. Visitors^ 

 Guide to Sanquhar, published some thirty years ago, says : — 

 " It is in every way likely that Sanquhar was made a Burgh 

 of Barony by King Robert the Bruce if not before his time." 

 Mr James Brown (History of Saiiquhar, page 155) states that 

 the precise date of Sanquhar as a Burgh cannot be exactly 

 fixed. Mr Tom Wilson, Burgh Cornet, in Dumfries and 

 Galloway Notes and Queries, page 182, says : — " It was 



