Treasurer of Scotland

The Treasurer was a senior post in the pre-Union government of Scotland, the Privy Council of Scotland. Lord Treasurer The full title of the post was Lord High Treasurer, Comptroller, Collector-General and Treasurer of the New Augmentation, formed as it was from the amalgamation of four earlier offices. Of these, the Treasurer and Comptroller had originated in 1425 when the Chamberlain's financial functions were transferred to them. From 1466 the Comptroller had sole responsibility for financing the royal household to which certain revenues (the property) were appropriated, with the Treasurer being responsible for the remaining revenue (the casualty) and other expenditure. The Collector-General, created in 1562, handled the Crown's revenue from the thirds of benefices, and the Treasurer of the New Augmentation was responsible for the former church lands annexed to the Crown in 1587. From 1581 Queen Elizabeth sent James VI an annual sum of money. In February 1599 the Privy Council declared that the Treasurer would administer this English subsidy, spending it on clothes for the royal family and the household of Prince Henry. In previous years the goldsmith Thomas Foulis and cloth merchant Robert Jousie accounted this money. All four offices were held by the same person from 1610 onwards, but their separate titles survived the effective merging of their functions in 1635. From 1667 to 1682 the Treasury was in commission, and again from 1686 to 1708, when the separate Scottish Treasury was abolished. From 1690 the Crown nominated one person to sit in Parliament as Treasurer.