A North Briton (adjective North British) is a term used for a person from the north of the island of Great Britain.

It is most commonly associated with Scotland and the Scottish people, either by self-identification as a Scottish Unionist, or bestowed upon them as an indicator they are from the north of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Similarly, the term North Britain can also mean Scotland. This usage is, however, not universal - for example, the North British Academy of Arts is located in Newcastle upon Tyne in northern England.

Origin

King James VI & I used the terms "South Britain" and "North Britain" for England and Scotland respectively, most famously in his Proclamation of 1606 establishing the first Union Flag, where Scotland and England are not otherwise named:

This usage was repeated in Charles I's Proclamation of 1634 on the use of the flag, though adding England and Scotland too for explanation:

After the Act of Union 1707, Scotland was sometimes referred to as "North Britain". In 1707, the Royal Scots Greys were renamed the "Royal North British Dragoons". In Rob Roy (1817), Sir Walter Scott refers to a Scottish person in England as a North Briton, sometimes in the mouth of an English character but also in the authorial voice.

The term is seldom used in contemporary prose, and is now considered pejorative or comedic in usage, sometimes as an attack on Scottish nationalism and Scottish national identity, or alternatively to describe people who are considered over-sympathetic to the United Kingdom.

Use

Newspapers

The North Briton and New North Briton were newspapers in the 18th and 19th centuries, and in 1844 there was also a North British Advertiser. The North British Review was founded in 1844 by members of the Free Church of Scotland as a Scottish "national review" for those unsatisfied with the secular Edinburgh Review or the conservative Quarterly Review. It continued until 1871 ^[1][2].

Railways

The North British Railway ran a number of east coast routes and was the company involved in the 1879 Tay Bridge Disaster. In the grouping of railway companies in 1923 it was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway. The eponymous "North British Hotel" in Edinburgh was renamed as Balmoral Hotel in the 1980s, though the original name still appears on the stonework.

The Glasgow-based North British Locomotive Company, formed in 1908, was for a time the largest steam locomotive manufacturer in Europe.

See also

• West Briton
• Scottish cultural cringe
• North-South divide in the United Kingdom

References

1. ↑ Ruskin MP | notes
2. ↑ British Periodicals at Minnesota

• University of Guelph Library - All Things Scottish