Register of the Privy Council of Scotland

The Privy Council served as the monarch’s key advisory and executive body in Scotland, handling a wide array of matters including state policy, justice (both public and private litigation), royal proclamations, local governance, religious affairs, border management, trade, military levies, and responses to crises such as plagues, witchcraft accusations, and political unrest. Its records blend full transcripts of key acts with calendars or summaries of decreets (judicial decisions), sederunt books (attendance records), warrants, bonds, and miscellaneous papers. This makes the Register invaluable for researchers tracing family histories—like those of the Guthries—through mentions of land disputes, commissions, appointments, legal actions, military service, and interactions with central authority.

For Guthrie family researchers, these records offer rich potential for identifying specific individuals (e.g., lairds of various Guthrie lands, bishops, or participants in local or national affairs), clarifying lineages amid name variants (Guthrie, Guthry, etc.), and illuminating broader contexts like feudal obligations, land tenure in Angus/Forfarshire and other regions, and migrations.

Found here at Guthrie Genealogy are hundreds of extracted, transcribed and summarized Guthrie details, including notes on their role within the entry, historical and genealogical significance, and explanations of legal terms and Scottish practices found within the record.

The published Register is organized into three main series, covering approximately 1545–1691 (with some addenda and extensions). These series reflect evolving editorial approaches and the turbulent historical periods they document:

• First Series: 1545 – 1625 
  • Focuses on the mid-to-late 16th and early 17th centuries, a time of religious Reformation, royal minorities, unions of crowns, and shifting power dynamics under Mary Queen of Scots, James VI, and the early reign of Charles I.
  • Timelines and Regnal Periods:
    • Vol. 1: 1545–1569 (Mary Queen of Scots’ personal rule and aftermath).
    • Vol. 2: 1569–1578.
    • Vol. 3: 1578–1585.
    • Vol. 4: 1585–1592.
    • Vol. 5: 1592–1599.
    • Vol. 6: 1599–1604.
    • Vol. 7: 1604–1607.
    • Vol. 8: 1607–1610.
    • Vol. 9: 1610–1613.
    • Vol. 10: 1613–1616.
    • Vol. 11: 1616–1619.
    • Vol. 12: 1619–1622.
    • Vol. 13: 1622–1625.
    • Vol. 14: Addenda, 1545–1625 (miscellaneous papers filling gaps).

• Second Series: 1625 – 1660
  • Covers the reign of Charles I through the Covenanting period and into the Restoration era (roughly 1625–1660), documenting intense religious and political conflicts, civil wars, and the transition under Charles II.
  • Timelines and Regnal Periods
    • Vol. 1: 1625–1627 (early Charles I).
    • Vol. 2: 1627–1628.
    • Vol. 3: 1629–1630.
    • Vol. 4: 1630–1632.
    • Vol. 5: 1633–1635.
    • Vol. 6: 1635–1637.
    • Vol. 7: 1638–1643 (Covenanting height).
    • Vol. 8: 1644–1660 (with miscellaneous papers from c. 1544), covering civil wars and Commonwealth/Protectorate transitions.

• Third Series: 1661 – 1691
  • Addresses the later Stuart Restoration and post-Revolution Settlement periods (from 1661 onward into the 1690s), including issues of absolutism, religious conformity, Jacobite tensions, and the lead-up to the Union era.
  • Timelines and Regnal Periods
    • Vol. 1: 1661–1664 (early Restoration under Charles II)
    • Vol. 2: 1665–1669
    • Vol. 3: 1669–1672
    • Vol. 4: 1673–1676
    • Vol. 5: 1676–1678
    • Vol. 6: 1678–1680
    • Vol. 7: 1681–1682
    • Vol. 8: 1683–1684
    • Vol. 9: 1684
    • Vol. 10: 1684–1685
    • Vol. 11: 1685–1686
    • Vol. 12: 1686
    • Vol. 13: 1686–1689
    • Vol. 14: 1689
    • Vol. 15: 1690
    • Vol. 16: 1691

Digitized versions are widely available via Internet Archive, HathiTrust, and other repositories, facilitating modern genealogy and historical research.