The City of Perth

Perth has been fortunate in the benefactions of its several merchant princes in cultural no less than sporting amenities. It has a much more than passable art gallery and museum (George St) It has the well-stocked Sandeman Library (Kinnoull St). It has the oldest established repertory theatre in Scotland. From winch many have emerged to stardom in the West End and on television: it has achieved its own orchestra and choral society, and has many kinds of learned organisations.

Debate about the meaning of the place-name is inconclusive. A possible derivation is from the Welsh meaning for Perth bush or thicket but a more obvious explanation lies in the contraction and mutation of Abertay through Bertha, to Perth.
Formerly it was known as St John's

The theory that the place originated round a Roman camp of the 1st centuary is supported by the plan and dimensions of the old town within the city wall (ol vv Inch t lie re are still remnants), the course of which was by way of Canal St. Canal Crescent.
Methven St. and Mill St: ENE. from about thee N. end of Skinnergate to the SE. corner of the front block of the Royal George Hotel (George St), thence south-eastwards to the river Tay. N. of a medieval bridge sited near the end of  the High St. Though there is evidence for the national importance of nearby places (Scone,Teviot) earlier than the 9th cent, Perth makes no appearance in records before the 12th. when it seems to have been well established. The Augustinian canons of Scone claim that a dwelling-place in Perth was among the first grants made by Alexander I to the monks (c1114 15). About 1126 David I gave the Kirk of Perth to Dunfermline Abbey: and shortly afterwards he instructed his steward at Perth (Malbride MacCongi) that the tenths of the King's house there were payable to Dunfermline. David too. gave an annual payment from the revenue of his mills at Perth to the Abbey at Scone. He is also reputed to have given the burgh the wide trading privileges later comprised in a charter of William the lion.

It has been claimed that for centuries Perth was the national capital Kings and their courts were peripatetic in feudal times, and Perth was frequently the royal residence. Scone, nearby, was the place of many coronations. Parliament and General Councils are known to have been convened there between the accession of Alexander I (1106 7) and the death of Robert III (1406). In a lOth-cent. chronicle it is called the Royal City and in charters of Malcolm IV and Robert III the 'principal seat of our kingdom' Plainly, Perth was for long the governing centre of Scotland. It was
also a preferred meeting place for Scottish church councils from the beginning of the 13th cent onwards. It seems possible that, had James I lived a few years longer or died a natural death. Perth might have become the permanent capital.

The city has been besieged seven times and has been the scene of many turbulent events. Among them were the Battle of the Clans (1396): the destruction of four monasteries and the altars in the Kirk (1559). consequent on the lambent preaching of John Knox that kindled the Reformation in Scotland: the Gowrie mystery (1600): the meeting of the 'red' parliament, the last to be convened here (1606): the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland (1618). at which Five Articles of Perth were approved; and Cromwell’s invasion (1651). Perth was Jacobite in 1715 and 1745. Prince Charles Edward Stuart lodged at the Salutation Hotel drilled troops on the North Inch  and here proclaimed his lather King.

Surviving records include a large collection of royal charters, the oldest (1210) being that of William the Lion: a letter from John Blair. Postmaster-General, of 1689. explaining the beginning of the post-office system in Perth: the census of 1766, showing the population at 7.542: papers dealing with the first railway between Perth
and Dunkeld (1835): a petition of Mistress Agnes Ranken (1719) for encouragement to carry on her school 'much put out of its course by the late rebellion': information about attempts to find coal (1686, 1732, 1782): an Obligation by James I of Scotland to indemnify the city for its share of his ransom.