Around the year 1175, a charter from the King of Scots turned the little cathedral settlement of Glasgow into something new: a burgh, a town with the legal right to hold a market and to trade. The charter was granted not to the townspeople but to their bishop, and for centuries afterwards Glasgow would remain a modest bishop’s burgh, overshadowed by its royal neighbours. Only in 1611 did it become a royal burgh in its own right — and only later still, with the coming of Atlantic trade, would it rise to overtake every rival and become the second city of an empire.
This page tells that story: the charter of 1175, what a burgh actually was, the rule of the bishops, the Glasgow Fair, the shape of the medieval town, its long years in the shadows, and its eventual rise.
The charter of 1175
The making of the burgh was the work of one of Glasgow’s great medieval bishops, Jocelin. Around 1175 he obtained from King William the Lion a charter granting Glasgow the status of a burgh of barony, together with the right to hold a weekly market. It was a decisive moment. Until then Glasgow had been essentially a religious settlement, its origins lying in a cluster of buildings around the cathedral and the shrine of St Mungo; now it was, in law, a town, entitled to the trade and privileges that came with burgh status. From this charter the commercial life of Glasgow begins.
What a burgh was
In medieval Scotland a burgh was far more than a large village. It was a place with a defined legal standing, granted the right to hold markets and fairs, to have its own merchants and craftsmen trading under protected privileges, and to govern a good deal of its own affairs. Its full members, the burgesses, enjoyed valuable trading rights denied to outsiders. To be made a burgh was to be given a licence to prosper: it drew traders and settlers, allowed goods to be bought and sold under the law, and set a place on the road from rural obscurity towards wealth. For Glasgow, the charter of 1175 opened exactly that road.
The bishop’s burgh
There was, however, a crucial catch in Glasgow’s case. Its burgh was granted to the bishop, and so Glasgow was a bishop’s burgh — a burgh of barony held of the church, rather than a royal burgh held directly of the crown. The bishop was the town’s feudal superior; it was he who drew its dues and appointed its officers, and the burgh’s fortunes were tied to those of the great bishopric that ruled it. This gave medieval Glasgow a distinctive character, shaped by the church, but it also placed it at a disadvantage: for the highest commercial privileges of all were reserved to the royal burghs, and those Glasgow did not yet possess.
The Glasgow Fair
Among the earliest fruits of burgh status was the granting of an annual fair. By about 1190 Glasgow had secured the right to hold a yearly fair — a great gathering for trade that drew merchants and buyers from far around, and one of the oldest such fairs in Britain. Remarkably, it has never died out. The Glasgow Fair, held each July, survives to this day as a fixture of the city’s calendar, and the ‘Fair Fortnight’ remains a traditional holiday for Glaswegians. In it, the medieval burgh reaches directly into the life of the modern city, more than eight centuries after the fair was first proclaimed.
The shape of the town
The medieval burgh took a shape that can still be read in the streets of the old town. It grew along a single spine running downhill from the cathedral: the High Street, leading from the church at the top to Glasgow Cross at the foot, where the Tolbooth and the market cross stood at the heart of the town’s trade and government. From the Cross, streets ran out to the Gallowgate and the Trongate, and the Saltmarket led down to the crossing of the Clyde. For centuries this compact medieval town — cathedral above, market cross below, river beyond — was the whole of Glasgow, before the city spread west in the age of the tobacco lords.
In the shadow of rivals
For a long time, greatness seemed unlikely. As a mere bishop’s burgh, medieval Glasgow was outranked by the royal burghs of its own region — places such as Rutherglen, Dumbarton and Renfrew — which held superior trading rights, and it remained for centuries a fairly small inland market town. It grew slowly, dependent on the church and the fair, and gave little sign of the extraordinary future ahead of it. Its charter had made it a town, but the road from that modest beginning to true prosperity would prove very long, and for four hundred years Glasgow trailed in the shadow of its rivals.
Royal burgh & beyond
The turning of Glasgow’s fortunes came in two great steps. The first was in 1611, when the town was at last erected into a royal burgh, gaining the full trading privileges that had so long eluded it and setting it on an equal footing with its rivals. The second, and far greater, came with the opening of the Atlantic trade after the Union of 1707, when Glasgow’s merchants seized the commerce of the colonies and the tobacco lords made the city rich beyond imagining. The bishop’s burgh of 1175 had taken more than five centuries to come into its own — but when at last it did, it rose to become the Second City of the Empire, and never looked back.
The essentials
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Charter | From William the Lion, c. 1175 |
| Granted to | Bishop Jocelin |
| Type | A burgh of barony — a bishop’s burgh |
| The right | To hold a market and a fair |
| The Fair | Established by c. 1190 |
| Held of | The bishop, not the crown |
| Royal burgh | Only from 1611 |
| Then | Transformed by the tobacco trade |
Frequently asked questions
When did Glasgow become a burgh?
Glasgow became a burgh around 1175, when Bishop Jocelin obtained a charter from King William the Lion granting it the status of a burgh of barony and the right to hold a weekly market. This turned the cathedral settlement into a town with legal trading rights.
What is a burgh?
A burgh was a town in medieval Scotland with a defined legal status, granted the right to hold markets and fairs and to have merchants and craftsmen trading under protected privileges. Being made a burgh gave a place the means to grow in trade and wealth.
Who was Glasgow’s burgh granted to?
The charter was granted to the Bishop of Glasgow, Jocelin, rather than to the townspeople or the crown. This made Glasgow a ‘bishop’s burgh’, held of the church, with the bishop as its feudal lord — a status distinct from that of a royal burgh.
What is the Glasgow Fair?
The Glasgow Fair is an annual fair first granted around 1190, making it one of the oldest in Britain. Originally a great trading gathering, it survives today as a July holiday, and the traditional ‘Fair Fortnight’ remains part of the Glasgow calendar.
When did Glasgow become a royal burgh?
Glasgow was erected into a royal burgh in 1611. Until then it had been a bishop’s burgh, lacking the full trading privileges of a royal burgh; royal status put it on an equal footing with its rivals and cleared the way for its later commercial rise.
Why did Glasgow stay small for so long?
As a bishop’s burgh, Glasgow was outranked by nearby royal burghs such as Rutherglen, Dumbarton and Renfrew, which held superior trading rights. It remained a modest market town for centuries, and only the Atlantic trade of the eighteenth century transformed its fortunes.
Where was the medieval burgh of Glasgow?
The medieval town ran downhill along the High Street, from the cathedral at the top to Glasgow Cross at the foot, where the Tolbooth and market cross stood. From the Cross the Saltmarket led down to the River Clyde — the compact heart of old Glasgow.