Great Seal of Scotland Totally Explained

Everything about The Great Seal Of Scotland totally explained

The Great Seal of Scotland (An Seala Mòr na h-Alba in Gaelic) allows the monarch to authorise official documents without having to sign each document individually. Wax is melted in a metal mould or matrix and impressed into a wax figure that's attached by cord or ribbon to documents that the monarch wishes to make official. The earliest seal impression, in the Treasury of Durham Cathedral, is believed to be the Great Seal of Duncan II and dates to 1094.
   Strictly, the Great Seal of Scotland was abolished by the Act of Union 1707 which provided that "a Seal in Scotland after the Union be alwayes kept and made use of in all things relating to private Rights or Grants, which have usually passed the Great Seal of Scotland, and which only concern Offices, Grants, Commissions, and private Rights within that Kingdom".
   Although referred to in the Scotland Act 1998 as "the seal appointed by the Treaty of Union to be kept and made use of in place of the Great Seal of Scotland", the seal is still commonly referred to as the Great Seal of Scotland.
   Section 12 of the Treason Act 1708, still in force today, makes it treason in Scotland to counterfeit the seal.(External Link

) The Design of the Great Seal is a responsibility of the Lord Lyon King of Arms. The reverse of the seal shows the monarch on horseback, but isn't changed from reign to reign—the current version is that engraved in 1911 for the accession of King George V. The obverse is inscribed "ELIZABETH II D G BRITT REGNORVMQVE SVORVM CETER REGINA CONSORTIONIS POPULORUM PRINCEPS F D" and the figure on it's the same as on the Great Seal of the United Kingdom.
The Great Seal is administered by the Keeper of the Great Seal, one of the Great Officers of State. From 1885 this office was held by the Secretary of State for Scotland. It transferred in 1999 to the First Minister of Scotland, whose place in the order of precedence in Scotland is determined by his office as Keeper of the Great Seal. In practice the Seal is in the custody of the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland, who has been appointed as Deputy Keeper.

List of Keepers of the Great Seal of Scotland prior to the Union

List of Keepers of the Great Seal of Scotland since the Union

1708: Hugh Campbell, 3rd Earl of Loudoun

1713: James Ogilvy, 4th Earl of Findlater, 1st Earl of Seafield

1714: William Johnstone, 1st Marquess of Annandale

1716: James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose

1733: Archibald Campbell, 1st Earl of Islay

1761: Charles Douglas, 3rd Duke of Queensberry, 2nd Duke of Dover

1763: James Murray, 2nd Duke of Atholl

1764: Hugh Hume-Campbell, 3rd Earl of Marchmont

1794: Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon

1806: James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale

1807: Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon

1827: George William Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll

1828: George Gordon, 5th Duke of Gordon

1830: George William Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll

1840: John Hamilton Dalrymple, 8th Earl of Stair

1841: John Douglas Edward Henry Campbell, 7th Duke of Argyll

1846: John Hamilton Dalrymple, 8th Earl of Stair

1852: Dunbar James Douglas, 6th Earl of Selkirk

1853: Cospatrick Alexander Home, 11th Earl of Home

1858: Dunbar James Douglas, 6th Earl of Selkirk The following are Keepers of the Great Seal, who served as Secretary for Scotland (1885-1926).

1885: Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond

1886: George Otto Trevelyan

1886: John William Ramsay, 13th Earl of Dalhousie

1886: Arthur Balfour

1887: Schomberg Henry Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian

1892: George Otto Trevelyan

1895: Alexander Hugh Bruce, 6th Lord Balfour of Burleigh

1903: Andrew Murray, 1st Viscount Dunedin

1905: John Adrian Louis Hope, 1st Marquess of Linlithgow

1905: John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland

1912: Thomas McKinnon Wood

1916: Harold Tennant

1916: Robert Munro, 1st Baron Alness

1922: Ronald Munro-Ferguson, 1st Viscount Novar of Raith

1924: William Adamson

1926: Sir John Gilmour The following are Keepers of the Great Seal, who served as Secretary of State for Scotland (1926-1999).

1926: Sir John Gilmour

1929: William Adamson

1931: Sir Archibald Sinclair

1932: Sir Godfrey Collins

1936: Walter Elliot

1938: John Colville

1940: Ernest Brown

1941: Thomas Johnston

1945: Harry Primrose, 6th Earl of Rosebery

1945: Joseph Westwood

1947: Arthur Woodburn

1950: Hector McNeil

1951: James Stuart

1957: John Maclay

1962: Michael Noble

1964: William Ross

1970: Gordon Campbell

1974: William Ross

1976: Bruce Millan

1979: George Younger

1986: Malcolm Rifkind

1990: Ian Lang

1995: Michael Forsyth

1997: Donald Dewar The office of the Keeper of the Great Seal was transferred on 6 May 1999, to the First Minister, in accordance to the terms of section 45(7) of the Scotland Act 1998.

1999: Donald Dewar

2000: Henry McLeish

2001: Jack McConnell

2007: Alex Salmond

Notes and references

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