Great Chamberlain

Holders of the office of Lord Chamberlain of Scotland are known from about 1124.It was ranked by King Malcolm as the third great Officer of State, called "Camerarius Domini Regis", and had a salary of £200 per annum alloted to him. He anciently collected the revenues of the Crown, at least before Scotland had a Treasurer, of which office there is no vestige of until the restoration of King James I when he disbursed the money necessary for the maintenance of the King's Household.

The Great Chamberlain had jurisdiction for judging of all crimes committed within burgh, and of the crime of forestalling; and was in effect Justice-General over the burghs, and held Chamberlain-ayrs every year for that purpose; the form whereof is set down in "Iter Camerarii", the Chamberlain-ayr. He was a supreme judge and his Decrees could not be questioned by any inferior judicatory. His sentences were to be put into execution by the baillies of burghs. He also settled the prices of provisions within burghs, and the fees of the workmen in the Mint.

The Chamberlain lost his financial functions after 1425 to the Treasurer. The position was vacant from 1558 to 1565 and again from 1569. It was occupied in 1580 for the cousin of James I, Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, whose appearance as a Great Officer of State in 1581 is attributable to his personal standing with the king rather than his office. But following the Raid of Ruthven, August 24, 1582, the Great Chamberlain lost his supervision of the royal burghs.

Thereafter the office was held by successive Dukes of Lennox (heritably from 1603) until resigned to the Crown "ad perpetuam remanentiam" by the Duke of Richmond and Lennox in 1703, since which time no Great Chamberlain has been appointed. In 1711 a form of the office was revived in a Commission of Chamberlainry and Trade, which lapsed on the death of Queen Anne.

Lord Chamberlains

* 1159: Herbert, to Kings David I and Malcolm IV
* 1179: Nicolaus
* 1205: Philip de Valence, to King William the Lion
* Walter de Barclay
* Hugo de Gifford, Lord of Yester and Morham
* John de Melville, to King Alexander II
* 1216: Henry de Balliol (d. 1246)
* 1228: David de Benham (later Bishop of St.Andrews)
* 1253: William, Earl of Mar, to King Alexander III
* 1261: Henry de Balliol
* 1269: Sir Thomas Randolph, father of Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray,
* 1278: John de Lindsay
* 1319: William de Lindsay, to Robert the Bruce
* 1325: Alexander Frazer (who married Mary, the King's sister)
* 1329: John Baptista, to King David II
* 1333: Sir Robert de Lawedre of The Bass (d. 1337) (also Justiciar)
* 1334: Robert de Peebles
* 1349: Thomas, Earl of Mar
* 1350: Walter Fleming of Biggar
* 1354: Robert de Erskine
* 1371: William de Biggar, Rector of Errol, to King Robert II
* 1376: Michael, Bishop of Dunkeld
* 1378: John Lyon
* John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Buchan
* 1426: John Forrester of Corstophine (d. c1448), to King James I
* 1431: George de Schoriswood, Bishop of Brechin
* 1458: James Livingstone, 1st Lord Livingston, to King James II
* Robert Boyd, 1st Lord Boyd, to King James III
* 1477: James Stewart, 1st Earl of Buchan
* 1483: David Lindsay, 5th Earl of Crawford
* 1489: Alexander Home, 2nd Lord Home, to King James IV
* 1516: Malcolm Fleming, 3rd Lord Fleming (d. 1547 at Battle of Pinkie), to King James V
* 1565: John Fleming, 5th Lord Fleming (d. 1572), to Mary Queen of Scots
* 1581: Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, to King James VI
* 1594: Ludovick (or Louis) Stewart, Duke of Lennox (made heritable Chamberlains).

References

* "The Staggering State of the Scots' Statesmen", by Sir John Scot of Scotstarvet, Director of Chancery, Edinburgh, 1754, pps: xx - xxii, and 186-188.
* "The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland", edited by George Burnett, Lord Lyon King of Arms, vol.II, 1359-1379, Edinburgh, 1878, in the appendix to the Preface is a list of Chamberlains of Scotland. See also p.cxxiii.