Barony (county division)

Administrative division of a county in Scotland, Ireland and outlying parts of England

A barony is an administrative division of a county in Scotland, Ireland, outlying parts of England and historically France and Sardinia. As a barony is associated to a Baron and a county to a Count or Earl, it has a lower rank and importance than a county.

Origin

A geographic barony is a remnant from mediaeval times of the area of land held under the form of feudal land tenure termed feudal barony, or barony by tenure, either an English feudal barony, a Scottish feudal barony or an Irish feudal barony, which all operated under different legal and social systems. Just as modern counties are no longer under the administrative control of a noble count or earl, geographic baronies are generally no longer connected with feudal barons, certainly not in England where such tenure was abolished with the whole feudal system by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660. The position in Scotland is more complex, although the legal force of the Scottish feudal baron was abolished early in the 21st century.[1]

Surviving examples

England

Two divisions of the county of Westmorland in England:

Scotland

Sweden

  • In Sweden, the only Barony of Adelswärd.

Ireland

  • Barony (Ireland), a former unit of administration in Ireland, below the level of the counties and latterly not usually associated with any baronial title.

Norway

See also

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Barony".

References

  1. ^ P. G. B. McNeill and H. L. MacQueen, eds, Atlas of Scottish History to 1707 (University of Edinburgh: Edinburgh, 1996), pp. 201-7
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Designations for types of administrative division
Common English terms
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Indian reserve/reservation
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Used by ten or more countries or having derived terms. Historical derivations in italics.
See also
Census division
Electoral district
List of administrative divisions by country
Slavic administrative divisions
Authority control databases: National Edit this at Wikidata
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