| Description
| Burgh of Hamilton Freedom Casket, awarded to the Right Reverend Matthew Stewart D.D. on the 29th of April 1948, when he was Moderator of the Church of Scotland. He had been previously minister for Hamilton Old and Auchingramont.
Presentation caskets such as this were issued to noteworthy people in acknowledgement of their services to the area or the country as a whole. Usually caskets were a decorative box in which to hold the scroll which conferred freedom of the burgh to the person or "burgess". The origin of this ceremony is centuries old. In medieval and early modern Scotland, a person had to be made a burgess by the local burgh in order to own property or operate a business. They would be presented with a scroll which acted as a legal document acknowledging this fact. The South Lanarkshire collection has local examples which date back to the 1700s, when these scrolls served a legal purpose. By the late 1800s, at the height of Victorian civic pride, being made a burgess had become a symbolic event recognising the achievements of a particular person or group. Caskets and scrolls were particularly prevalent in Scottish burghs, although freedom of the burgh was not confined to Scotland. Some English towns or cities presented caskets as well, with similar laws having existed in various forms across medieval western Europe - whether they were English boroughs, French bourgs or German burgs. Freedom of a town or city still exists in many European cities as a result of this tradition and the ceremony has spread across the world. |
