Barony

A modern geographic barony, in Scotland, Ireland and outlying parts of England, constitutes an administrative division of a country, usually of 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.

Surviving examples

England

Two divisions of the county of Westmorland in England:

Barony (de) Colville (of Castle Bytham)

The Barony de Colville of Castle Bytham is a Barony of the Peerage of England. Centred on Castle Bytham in Lincolnshire a notable holder is Roger de Colville, recorded as the first true Baron. The de Colville/Colvin family originated in England following the Norman Conquest with Gilbert of Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy noted as a knight of William the Conqueror.

The Castle

The castle itself after which the Barony takes its name is now a mound of stones sitting upon a mound. It was originally owned by the Northumbrian earl Morcar, who tried to stop William the Conqueror around the time of the Norman invasions of 1066. He was imprisoned and Odo, the half-brother of William took over the castle and completed it. It was destroyed during the War of the Roses between 1455 and 1485.

References

Barony (Ireland)

In Ireland, a barony (Irish: barúntacht, plural barúntachtaí) is a historical subdivision of a county, analogous to the hundreds into which the counties of England were divided. Baronies were created during the Tudor reconquest of Ireland, replacing the earlier cantreds formed after the original Norman invasion. Some early baronies were later subdivided into half baronies with the same standing as full baronies.

Baronies were mainly cadastral rather than administrative units. They acquired modest local taxation and spending functions in the nineteenth century before being superseded by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898. Subsequent adjustments of county boundaries mean that some baronies now straddle two counties.

Creation

The island of Ireland was "shired" into counties in two distinct periods: the east and south during the Anglo-Norman period (from the 1169 invasion to the early fourteenth century) and the rest in the Tudor conquest of the sixteenth century. "Barony" was used in three overlapping but distinct senses in the early period: