Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland

Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland
Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland
Neach-gleidhidh Seula Mòr na h-Alba (Scottish Gaelic)
	Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom used in Scotland
	; Flag of Scotland; ; Royal Banner of Scotland
	Incumbent; Humza Yousaf MSP; since 29 March 2023
	Scottish Government ; Crown Estate Scotland
Status	Great Officers of the Crown (Scotland)
Member of	Privy Council ; Scottish Government
Residence	Bute House, Edinburgh, Scotland
Appointer	The Monarch
Term length	As long as the office holder is First Minister of Scotland
Formation	1389
First holder	Sir Alexander de Cockburn
Deputy	Jennifer Henderson, ; Keeper of the Registers of Scotland
Website	Registers of the Great Seal

The Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic Neach-gleidhidh Seula Mòr na h-Alba), formerly known as Keeper of the Seal of the Kingdom of Scotland, is the keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland and one of the officers of the crown in Scotland. The Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland is the incumbent First Minister of Scotland, currently Humza Yousaf.

History

The chancellor had the custody of the King's Seal. [1] The first recorded office holder was Sir Alexander de Cockburn in 1389.

The first Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland post Treaty of Union in 1707 was Hugh Campbell, 3rd Earl of Loudoun (1708-1713). Until the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland was usually the Secretary of State for Scotland until the responsibility passed to the First Minister of Scotland.

In April 2023, First Minister Humza Yousaf, in his capacity as the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, oversaw the departure of the Stone of Scone, an ancient symbol of Scotland's nationhood, for Westminster Abbey for usage in the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla on 6 May.[2]

List of Keepers of the Great Seal of Scotland

Great Seal of the Kingdom of Scotland (1389–1707)

The Great Seal of Scotland during the Premiership of Nicola Sturgeon

1389–96: Sir Alexander de Cockburn[3]
Date unknown (c. 1473): Alexander de Cockburn
1474–1483 John Laing Bishop of Glasgow
1514: Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld
1525: Gavin Dunbar, Bishop of Aberdeen[4]
Date unknown: James Beaton (1473–1539)
Date Unknown: John Lyon, 7th Lord Glamis (c. 1521–1558)
1558: John Lyon, 8th Lord Glamis
1561: George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly[5]
1562–1567:[6] Sir Richard Maitland

...

1635–1638: John Spottiswoode, Archbishop of St. Andrews[7]
1638–1641: James, Marquis of Hamilton[8]
1641–1660: John Campbell, 1st Earl of Loudoun[8]
1657–1660: Samuel Disbrowe (for the Commonwealth)
Date unknown: Sir Adam Forrester
Date unknown: Sir John Forrester

Great Seal of Scotland (1707–present)

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[9]
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 secretaries 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 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
1924: William Adamson
1926: Sir John Gilmour

The following are keepers of the Great Seal who served as secretaries 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 with the terms of section 45(7) of the Scotland Act 1998.

References

See list for years AD1057-1794, pp. 78–82 in "A political index to the histories of Great Britain and Ireland" by Robert Beatson: https://archive.org/stream/apoliticalindex02beatgoog#page/n88/mode/2up
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/humza-yousaf-ill-make-sure-stone-of-destiny-comes-back-to-scotland-after-it-leaves-for-kings-coronation
Article on the Cockburn family, retrieved 17 April 2012
"Records of the Parliaments of Scotland". www.rps.ac.uk.
(Chalmers, George, 1742-1825. The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots: Drawn From the State Papers, With Subsidiary Memoirs. 2d ed., corr. and enl. London: J. Murray, 1822: Voir volume 3, p.153).
"Sir Richard Maitland, Lord Lethington - Scottish poet".
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Spottiswoode, John" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Barker, George Fisher Russell (1886). "Campbell, John (1598-1663)" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 8. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 365.
"No. 16018". The London Gazette. 11 April 1807. p. 450.

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[1] See list for years AD1057-1794, pp. 78–82 in "A political index to the histories of Great Britain and Ireland" by Robert Beatson: https://archive.org/stream/apoliticalindex02beatgoog#page/n88/mode/2up

[2] ttps://news.stv.tv/scotland/humza-yousaf-ill-make-sure-stone-of-destiny-comes-back-to-scotland-after-it-leaves-for-kings-coronation

[3] Article on the Cockburn family, retrieved 17 April 2012

[4] "Records of the Parliaments of Scotland". www.rps.ac.uk.

[5] (Chalmers, George, 1742-1825. The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots: Drawn From the State Papers, With Subsidiary Memoirs. 2d ed., corr. and enl. London: J. Murray, 1822: Voir volume 3, p.153).

[6] "Sir Richard Maitland, Lord Lethington - Scottish poet".

[7] Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Spottiswoode, John" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

[DNB,_vol._8_p._365-8] Barker, George Fisher Russell (1886). "Campbell, John (1598-1663)" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 8. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 365.

[9] "No. 16018". The London Gazette. 11 April 1807. p. 450.