Historic Scottish ‘cabinet papers’ published online for first time

Historic Scottish “cabinet papers” dating from the period leading up to parliamentary union with England have been published online for the first time.

Researchers have spent four years painstakingly transcribing and editing the records of the Scottish Privy Council, described as one of the “most important” parts of Scottish government, between the years 1692 and 1708.

The records, which have now been published in a freely-accessible online database, provide “key insights” into the executive government of the day during a period that included revolution, Jacobitism, and the parliamentary union with England.

Alastair Mann, honorary senior research fellow at the University of Stirling, said: “The Scottish Privy Council was one of the most important institutional branches of Scottish government in the early modern period, focusing on the period from the revolution of 1689 to the union of 1707.

“This record is the nearest we have to ‘cabinet papers’ of the time and provides key insights into executive government during a dynamic period of revolution, Jacobitism, famine, economic struggle and parliamentary union with England.”

The Scottish Privy Council Project was launched in 2020 and saw researchers at the universities of Stirling and Dundee study, edit and translate more than three million words contained in the records.

Alan MacDonald, senior lecturer at the University of Dundee, said: “Privy Council records were edited and published in a series of printed volumes – nearly 50 in total – covering the period 1545 to 1691.

“Given the importance of the Privy Council in early modern Scotland, these volumes quickly became central to Scottish historical scholarship, sustaining countless books, articles, and doctoral theses with the breadth and richness of material they contained.

“However, the withdrawal of public funding in the 1970s meant that the final tranche of Privy Council records, covering the years up to the council’s abolition in 1708, has always remained unpublished.

“While most of the Privy Council’s registers were written in something very close to the English of the period, they presented some linguistic difficulties, especially around the use of specifically Scots terms, chaotic punctuation, and a wholly unstandardised approach to spelling.”

Dr Mann added “It is our hope that this website and its records are a foundation for research into government and policy in a dramatic period of flux and transition in the economic, political and social life of the people of Scotland.”

The Scottish Privy Council Project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

The database can be found at https://spcr.ac.uk/.