I imagine the first question anyone will ask is what is a column called "Scottish Flotsam". I guess we will have to begin with what is "flotsam". Among the definitions of the word are "things washed ashore" or "miscellaneous trifles". Well, we believe you can find some great treasure on the ocean shore. But -- you will never know what you will find or its value. So we decided that is what this column is - flotsam. We wanted a place to put things that didn't fit anywhere else and might be of interest. Each item could be a column itself and might be some day but for now it will be the flotsam, which washes our way.

Sheriff.
A key figure in the judicial system since the twelfth century. By the sixteenth century it had become an hereditary appointment with the extensive duties that it involved, including outlawing criminals, settling territorial disputes or enforcing taxation, being undertaken by various deputies. The Crown rarely tampered with the hereditary aspect of the system and when Charles I (16OO-49) did deprive the Gordons and certain other families of their hereditary sheriffdoms it was a highly unpopular action. Thus it was not until the aftermath of the Jacobite rebellion in 1746 that heritable jurisdictions were finally abolished in 1747. Thereafter the country was organized into a series of principal sheriffships with sheriff substitutes designated for every county town. Today the sheriff-substitute remains the judge before whom both civil and criminal cases are initially heard with more serious charges ultimately being referred to the High Court.

Since we have story about Iona this month what do you know about the Statutes of Iona?

Statutes of lona, (1609)
In controlling the Highlands and Islands James VI (1566 - 1625) relied to a great extent on the assistance and cooperation of powerful clans like the Campbells and McKenzies. However, in some areas an alternative strategy was adopted, notably in the Western Isles, where Andrew Knox (1559-1633), Bishop of the Isles, strongly disapproved the Campbell hegemony. Thus, in 1608, he led an expedition to Mull, tricked the local chieftain and various others into boarding his ship and then had them incarcerated in various prisons in Central Scotland. He made their release the following year dependent on their signing a series of statutes whose terms included supporting the reformed Kirk, suppressing beggars and vagabonds, not to mention bards who encouraged clan feuds, reducing their retinues and sending their sons to the Lowlands to be educated. The agreement was consolidated by the chiefs putting their names to a General Band in which the signatories acknowledged the authority of the King and gave guarantees of their loyalty to him. Renewed in 1616 it would seem that at least in this part of the Highlands James VI had some success in asserting royal control.
Dickinson, W. C. and Donaldson, G., eds., A Source Book of Scottish History III, Nelson, 1961.

Now lets look at some specific dates:

1979 - March 1
Scots voted in favour of Devolution, but failed to reach the required 40% of the population in favour of implementing it.

1316 - March 2
King Robert II born in Paisley.

1890 - March 3
Prince of Wales hammered in the last of seven million rivets on the Forth Bridge (57 men died during construction).

1847 - March 3
Alexander Graham Bell born Edinburgh.

1756 - March 4
Sir Henry Raeburn, reknowned for painting the portraits of many of the citizens of Edinburgh, born.

1890 - March 4
Forth Rail Bridge opened by Prince of Wales.

1936 - March 4
Jim Clark, Formula I World motor racing champion, born Fife.

1323 - March 5
King David II born.

1913 - March 6
BBC Scotland founded.

1702 - March 8
William of Orange died in a riding accident when his horse stumbled in a molehill and Scots Jacobites toasted 'The wee gentleman in the velvet jacket'.

1996 - March 13
Sixteen primary school children and their teacher murdered in Dunblane.

1941 - March 14 SS "Politician" ran aground on Islay, creating the basis for Sir Compton MacKenzie's novel "Whisky Galore".

1543 - March 15
Permission was given for the production of a Scots translation of the Bible

1640 - March 24
Covenanters got the blame for a shortage of peat in Aberdeenshire, having the previous spring chased away all the servants who would normally have done the cutting.

1941 - March 30
Italian newspapers claimed that bombing raids on Scotland has been so intense that the Loch Ness monster had been killed by a direct hit.

Source - Scotching the Myths by Jim Hewiston can be found in the History Book Section of Scottish Radiance.

It is time to stop combing the library but we can not quit without some quotes from Quotable Scots another great History bookshelf resident. Let's see what quotes we can find.

An English tea-party - you are offered a piece of bread and butter that feels like a damp handkerchief and sometimes when cucumber is added to it, a wet one.
Sir Compton MacKenzie

The Western custom of one wife and hardly any mistresses.
Saki (H.H. Munro), Reginald in Russia

Cho fileanta ri uileann fìdhleir. - As tunefull as a fiddler's elbow

You can find more articles in the archive under Scottish Flotsam.