Edinburgh, Scotland, Lord Provost Passports, 1845-1916

This collection contains registries of passports from Edinburgh, Scotland between the years of 1845 and 1916. All records are handwritten in English.

Passports from Scotland before 1916 are rare and mostly associated with the business owners or those wealthy enough to travel abroad.

Using this collection

Records in the collection may include the following information:

If you are searching for family members who emigrated permanently, you might not find them in this collection. During this time passports were primarily used as letters of reference or for identification purposes. Emigrants traveling one-way would require different types of permissions.

Please note that writing from this time period uses the medial s. If the letter "s" appears in the middle of a word, it will be written in a form that resembles a lowercase "f."

Collection in context

Although they had been part of Great Britain since 1707, Scotland historically granted their own passports. Passports were granted by the crown, noblemen, or local officials which could include the Lord Provost. A Lord Provost is similar in function to a mayor, except they receive special acknowledgement from the crown. In Scotland, only four cities (Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow) have a Lord Provost. After 1915, Scottish citizens received their passports through the British government.

Bibliography

Scottish Archive Network. "My Ancestor Was A Passport Holder." Last modified 5 May 2014. https://www.scan.org.uk/familyhistory/myancestor/passport.htm.

Topol, Tom. "Scottish Passport 1857." PassportCollector.com. Last modified 29 January 2019. https://www.passport-collector.com/passport-scotland-1857-issued-to-daniel-stevens-to-travel-to-cuba/.