Tarbertshire
{{Short description|Shire of Scotland until 1633}}
{{see also|Tarbert (Parliament of Scotland constituency)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{coord|55.8|-5.8|region:GB_type:adm1st_dim:50km|display=title}}
Tarbertshire, or the sheriffdom of Tarbert, was a shire of Scotland until 1633, when it was annexed to Argyll.RPS, 1633/6/91 It comprised the mainland peninsula formed by Knapdale and Kintyre, together with the southern Inner Hebrides to the west.Mitchell 1886 p.46
History
It has been suggested that Robert the Bruce, who extended Tarbert Castle, created or intended a sheriffdom there; however, the first reference to Tarbertshire is in 1481, when Knapdale (back then including the lands between Loch Awe and Loch Fyne) was transferred to it from Perthshire.{{cite journal|last1=Dunbar|first1=J. G. |last2=Duncan |first2=A. A. M. |date=April 1971 |title=Tarbert Castle: A Contribution to the History of Argyll |journal=The Scottish Historical Review |jstor=25528888|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|volume=50|issue=149 Part 1|pages=1–17 : 14}}Mitchell 1886 pp.45–46 The shire town was Tarbert, but the sheriff court was latterly at Inveraray in Argyllshire. The Earl of Argyll family of Campbells often supplied the Sheriff of Tarbert and other officials of both Argyll and Tarbert.
Although shires elected commissioners to the Parliament of Scotland from 1590, it was not until the 1628–33 Parliament of Charles I that Tarbert is known to have sent one: Sir Lachlan Maclean of Morvern.{{cite web |url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1633/6/14 |title=RPS, 1633/6/14 |access-date=4 July 2017}}{{cite book |chapter-url=http://dbooks.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/books/PDFs/555089378.pdf#page=548 |title=Return of the name of every member of the lower house of parliament of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with name of constituency represented, and date of return, from 1213 to 1874; Part II: Great Britain, United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland. |series=Command papers |volume=C.69-I |date=11 August 1879 |publisher=HMSO |pages=539–556 |chapter=Parliaments of Scotland, 1357–1707}}{{cite book|last1=Porritt|first1=Edward |last2=Porritt|first2=Annie Gertrude |title=The Unreformed House of Commons |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/unreformedhouse01porrgoog#page/n97|volume=2: Scotland and Ireland|date=1903 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=78|chapter=Patt V: Scotland; Chapter xxxv: The franchise in the counties}} Since this was the Parliament that abolished Tarbertshire, Maclean was its last commissioner. (In the 1630 session roll, Sir Coll Lamont, laird of Lamont, is said to represent "Argyll and Tarbert".{{cite web|url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/A1630/7/1|title=RPS, A1630/7/1|access-date=4 July 2017}})
References
=Sources=
- {{cite web |title=Act in favour of Archibald Campbell, lord Lorne |page=1633/6/91 |no-pp=y|date=2007–2017 |editor1-first=K.M. |editor1-last=Brown |location=St Andrews |work=RPS (The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707) |access-date=4 July 2017 |url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1633/6/91}}
- {{cite book |title=Tarbert, Past and Present: Gleanings in Local History |first=Dugald |last=Mitchell |chapter=The Sheriffdom of Tarbert |date=1886 |publisher=Bennett & Thomson |location=Tarbert |pages=45–51 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/tarbertpastandp00mitcgoog#page/n63 |access-date=4 July 2017}}
- {{Cite book |title=An Atlas of Scottish History to 1707 |access-date=4 July 2017 |year=1975 |author=Scottish Medievalists and the Department of Geography of the University of Edinburgh |chapter=Administration: Sheriffs, stewards and bailies |chapter-url=http://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/published-gazetteers-and-atlases/atlas-scottish-history-1707/atlas-scottish-history-1707/230 |pages=208–210 }}