Scottish-American Court Records, 1733-1783

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The political union of Scotland and England in 1707 led to a rapid expansion of Scottish economic links with the American colonies, especially on the Chesapeake, where in the years prior to the Revolution the tobacco trade was controlled by Glasgow-based merchants and their factors. Evidence of this economic expansion and the subsequent settlement of Scots in America exists in a wide range of documentary sources in Scotland, including the records of the Scottish court system which have been deposited in the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh. This present work is a digest of such evidence and is based on the minute books of the Court of Session (the highest civil court) and those of the High Court of the Admiralty (which had jurisdiction in all seafaring and maritime cases) for the period 1733-1783. In essence it identifies those people resident in North America who were engaged in litigation in Scotland and whose cases came before the aforementioned courts.