In a message dated 19/06/2004 01:05:48 GMT Daylight Time, tdennis@ihug.co.nz writes: > I have had a wonderful past few days looking at the 1861 census films for > various family members. > My question is what is the definition &difference between the above two > colums or names. > An example is > Parish of St Mary's, Dumfries. Parlimentary Burgh of Dumfries. Royal Burgh > of Dumfries. Town of Dumfries. Dumfries was both a royal burgh and a parliamentary burgh. A burgh is a town; a royal burgh is a status granted by the crown and can be very ancient ..usually it gave trading rights, rights to hold markets, etc; a parliamentary burgh means that Dumfries had the right to return an elected (in 1861 by a fairly small electorate) member of parliament. Irene