Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747

The Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747 (21 Geo. II c.19) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain which applied only to Scotland.  It stated that anyone who was prosecuted on or after 1 April 1748 for treason or misprision of treason could be tried anywhere in Scotland if the crime had been committed in any of the shires of Dunbartain, Stirling, Perth, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Inverness, Nairn, Cromarty, Argyll, Forfarshire, Banff, Sutherland, Caithness, Elgine, Ross, and Orkney.  Normally a crime had to be tried in the shire where it had been committed.  The Act also said that in such a trial, the jurors could come from adjoining counties, instead of (as would otherwise be the case) the county where the trial was held. 

It also provided that His Majesty's Advocate could move the trial to the High Court of Justiciary, and that peers had the right to be tried by their peers.  These provisions expired after seven years, but were later revived again for another seven years in 1760 by another Act, 33 Geo. II c.26. 

Notes

References

Statutes at Large, vol.  XIX, Danby Pickering, Cambridge University Press, 1765. 

See also
Treason Act
Jurors (Scotland) Act 1745

Category:Great Britain Acts of Parliament 1747
Category:Treason in Scotland
Category:Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain concerning Scotland
Category:1747 in Scotland
Category:Scottish criminal law
Category:Jacobite rising of 1745
Category:Jurisdiction