Gowrie - History

History

The Scottish royal coronation site was located in this province, at Scone. Containing sites such as Scone and Forteviot, and perhaps originally Abernethy, it was clearly the core province of the early Kingdom of Scotland. In the 12th century, when detailed records begin, the king possessed four royal manors in the province; these manors were Scone, Strathardle, Longforgan, and Coupar. Those four royal manors were held by the crown in addition to the rest of the province, which the king held as mormaer ("earl").

In either the reign of Alexander I or David I a burgh was founded in the province, located at Perth. It also had a sheriff, called the "Sheriff of Gowrie" or "Sheriff of Scone", from the 1130s until at least 1228. It is not clear if this sheriff was originally distinct from the "Sheriff of Perth", as Perth and Scone were often thought of as the same location, being only two miles apart; if they were originally distinct, they were not so by the following century.

There are judices, "Brehons", of the province of Gowrie recorded from the 12th century into the 14th century. These men were the specialist lawmen for the province, who preserved legal knowledge relevant to the provincial community, and it is likely that every province of Scotland had lawmen designated for such purposes.

Ecclesiastically, Gowrie was largely controlled by the Bishop of St Andrews; a Dean of Gowrie existed under the said bishop. Half a dozen or so of the parish churches in Gowrie were under the control of the bishops of Dunblane and Dunkeld; this meant that Deans of Gowrie also existed for these two dioceses, though no Dean of Gowrie was recorded for the diocese of Dunblane.

Gowrie was recreated as an earldom for William Ruthven, Lord Ruthven in 1581.John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie, the second son of William Ruthven, was involved in the famous Gowrie Conspiracy of 1600, which led to the forfeiture of the earldom. The title of Earl of Gowrie was resurrected in 1945 for a descendant of the 2nd Earl.