New Tay Valley Talk - The Dean of Guild - from our President

Now online! The Dean of Guild - our third annual President's Talk on the historic office-holders of Dundee, and the records from their times. This talk by Iain Flett traces the office from mediaeval to modern times - with particular mention of Dundee's links with Viking traders, the development of the Merchant Guild, and the resources that reveal many names of Dundee people not only in the Lockit Buik of burgesses, but in the accounts of the Guild from year to year.
The office of Dean of Guild still exists, the current holder being Dr Joseph Morrow - better known as the Lord Lyon King of Arms of Scotland, and Iain’s talk starts with St Clement, patron of 'Viking' traders, and finishes in our world of 2024, with Dr Morrow.

Link for the talk is https://youtu.be/X9TP7AyfGQQ - and Q&A is scheduled for Monday 29th July, 8.00 p.m. UK time. Registration (for members) is via Eventbrite - please include your membership number or (approx.) date of joining in your registration request.

When developing the talk, Iain said, ‘The Guild of Merchants, now known as The Guildry, would have been in with the bricks at the formation of Dundee as a burgh trading centre in the late 12th century. Although it's difficult to pinpoint accurately Dundee's burgh formation as its early charters were destroyed or ransomed in the Wars of independence, a formation date of 1191 was chosen and celebrated throughout the octocentenary in 1991. What we do know from the Latin charter rolls in The National Archives (TNA) Kew is that King John of England, he of Magna Carta, granted in 1199 the burgesses of Earl David (of Huntingdon) the valuable right to trade in the ports of southeast England.’ (That's the charter shown in this blog post.)

And if the foreign king, John of England, was making his 'free-trading' grant to merchants in the Scottish port of Dundee, as Iain points out in the talk, these merchants must have been developing their fleets of ships and trading connections for a long time previously...