County Names

[Forfarian]

Does anyone know for certain exactly when the names Forfarshire, Elginshire, Linlithgowshire, Edinburghshire and Haddingtonshire were coined for Angus, Moray, West, Mid and East Lothian respectively?

And by what method? And why were analogous names not inflicted on Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, Kincardine, Fife, Bute and Argyll?

I know the name Forfarshire was abolished by an Act of Parliament in 1928, but it seems much harder to find the starting date.

[Andy J2022]

This Wikipedia article seems to explain how the shires were created. It happened over quite a long time and at different times for different regions. I have no idea how authoritative the article is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shires_of_Scotland
According to the article Bute and Argyll were sometimes called Buteshire and Argyllshire (see the section headed Counties until 1890 and hover over the names). I assume Fife was never called Fifeshire due to its existing title of the Kingdom of Fife. The Shetlands and Orkneys were probably left out because of their remoteness (cf Devon, Cornwall and Durham) or the fact that they are a group of islands collectively known as "The Shetlands" etc. Kincardineshire was a thing, but also The Mearns. No idea about Caithness and Sutherland - again possibly because of their remoteness or local opposition?

Definitely not something imposed by Scotland's neighbours to the South after 1708, as I first imagined.

[Forfarian]

Thanks, Andy.

Leaving aside the fact that Shetlanders detest the use of 'The Shetlands' as much as Orcadians detest the use of the term 'The Orkneys', it does all seem to be a bit confusing. Hence my question.

Not sure that I would ever rely 100% on Wikipedia, but even so, the article doesn't attempt to clarify my specific question. Just says the names are 'of long standing'.

[GR2]

Here is a page from 1693 that contains both the Shire of Angus and the Shire of Forfar.

https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/historical-tax-rolls/hearth-tax-records-1691-1695/hearth-tax-records-angus/147

[AlanBoyd]

These are the earliest references in newspapers at BNA:

Forfarshire 1754
Elginshire 1754
Linlithgowshire 1763
Edinburghshire 1763
Haddingtonshire 1749

[hdw]

As a native of Fife, and having done a lot of research into Fife local and family history, I have often seen it called Fifeshire.

Harry

[AlanBoyd]

The Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, 1670 edited by Mary Anne Everett Green, published 1895 refers to:

Oct 11 Court at Newmarket. Warrant for a pardon to Geo. M'Clair, ensign in Capt. John Hay's company in the militia of Haddingtonshire for the slaughter of Alex. Adington, a soldier in his company, who mutinously assaulted him, whilst in discharge of his duty.

From the context, I think this is a summary or paraphrase of a document, but I would have thought that Haddingtonshire was in the original.

[Forfarian]

Thanks, all.

So at least some of them were in use in the 17th century.

[Ian Nelson]

Only guessing but does ' shire ' not relate to ' the sheriffdom of ' suggesting there had to be a Sheriff appointed by the powers that were.   How far back does that go .... did William Wallace not give a good kickin' to the Sheriff of Lanark, sometime back in the 1200s ?