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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1976 (SND Vol. X).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

CONVENTION, n. Sc. usages: 1. A meeting of the Estates of Scotland summoned in an informal manner as a General Council of the Realm to deal with emergencies too urgent for the more formal procedure of a Parliament. The Reformation of 1560 and the Revolution Settlement of 1689 were sanctioned by Conventions. Hist. since 1702.Sc. 1714 G. Lockhart Memoirs 19:
This Monstrous Parliament, which, from a Convention, was Metamorphos'd and Transubstantiated into a Parliament. Sc. 1727 P. Walker Remarkable Pass. 71:
When we saw so many of hand-bloody Persecutors sitting in that Convention of States [in 1689]. Sc. 1802 Scott Bonnie Dundee i.:
To the Lords of Convention 'twas Claver'se who spoke. Sc. 1905 C. S. Terry Sc. Parliament 27:
The representatives of both shires and burghs were elected annually, and quite irrespective of whether a Parliament or Convention was summoned or imminent. Sc. 1923 Sc. Hist. Review XX. 98:
In Scotland, from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, the estates of the realm met in two forms of assembly, (1) ‘parliament’ and (2) ‘general council’, succeeded by ‘convention’. Sc. 1924 J. Mackinnon Constit. Hist. 269:
The General Council, which from about the middle of the fifteenth century tended to acquire the character of a reinforced Privy Council in case of emergency, was summoned on shorter notice, and had a more limited authority. In the reign of James V. the term “Convention”, as applied to these emergency meetings, comes into use, though not exclusively, and the summons is by letter, not by “precept,” as in the case of the regular Parliaments.

2. More fully The Convention of Royal Burghs: an assembly of representatives of the burghs of Scotland held annually in Edinburgh for deliberations on matters of common interest, under the ex-officio chairmanship of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh. This body was amalgamated in May 1975 with various other local government Associations to form the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (see 1975 quot.).Sc. 1700 Rec. Conv. Burghs (1880) 305:
Each burgh in obedience to his Majesties lettres and acts of borrowes send thair Commissioners sufficiently instructed for keeping the conventione. Sc. 1711 Minutes J.P.s Lnk. (S.H.S.) 120:
He and the Dean of Guild of Glasgou was then going to a Generall Convention of the Burroughs to be keeped att Edinburgh. Sc. 1776 J. Yair Sc. Trade in Netherlands 328:
At the convention of the royal burroughs, upon application from the conservator and president (the Lord Provost of Edinburgh), there was a letter signed by him, in their name, to her Royal Highness. Sc. 1905 C. S. Terry Sc. Parliament 52:
In their annual Convention the Royal Burghs had developed those representative traditions the lack of which so greatly retarded the organised representations of the shires. Sc. 1924 J. Mackinnon Constit. Hist. 300:
From the reign of James III. onwards, the Convention appears as a statutory body, constituted by Act of Parliament in 1487 to represent and act for all the royal burghs. Sc. 1926 T. Pagan Conv. Royal Burghs 261:
The convention was never a leader in political or religious controversy, and accepted changes of government with equanimity and without protest. Sc. 1949 W. M. Mackenzie Sc. Burghs 184:
To their scheme of [municipal] reform [of 1832] the Convention of Royal Burghs showed no good will. Sc. 1961 W. C. Dickinson Scotland 119:
Later [in the 14th c.] the Court of the Four Burghs was enlarged to include representations of more than the Four Burghs, and out of it developed the Convention of Royal Burghs. Sc. 1975 Glasgow Herald (24 Jan.) 3:
The association will be called the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, and will replace the Convention of Royal Burghs, the Association of County Councils, the Counties of Cities Association, and the District Councils Association.