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**Court closed 2013 - Records and business moved to Dumfries Sheriff Court**
Kirkcudbright Sheriff Court operates within the Sheriffdom of South Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway which also comprises the courts situated at Airdrie, Ayr, Dumfries, Hamilton, Lanark and Stranraer.
As of The Sheriff Court Districts (Alteration of Boundaries) Order 1996, Kirkcudbright Sheriff Court District wards 15-26 in the area of Dumfries and Galloway.
In 1526 the office of Steward of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright was granted heritably to Robert, Lord Maxwell, ancestor of the Earls of Nithsdale. It remained in that family until 1699, when granted to the Duke of Queensbury on their resignation. The Queensbury tenure was brief, the office being resigned in 1707 in favour of the Marquis of Annandale, whose family held it at the abolition of the heritable jurisdictions. On the abolition of the jurisdictions the Crown appointed sheriffs-depute of Dumfries and Wigtown and a steward of the Stewardry of Kirkcudbright.
On the death of the sheriff of Wigtown and Kirkcudbright in 1874 the sheriffdom was united with that of Dumfries, becoming known as the sheriffdom of Dumfries and Galloway, the union being effected under the Sheriffs Act of 1870. Under the Sheriff Courts (Sheriffdom of Dumfries and Galloway) Order, 1925, made under the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1907, the post of resident sheriff-substitute at Kirkcudbright was abolished. The Eastern District of the Stewartry, comprising the parishes of Colvend, Dalbeattie, Irongray and Terregles, Kirkbean and New Abbey, Kirkgunzeon and Lochrutton, Kirkpatrick-Durham, Maxwelltown, Troqueer and Urr, was placed under the sheriff-substitute at Dumfries, while a sheriff-substitute at Newton-Stewart held courts at Wigtown, Stranraer and Kirkcudbright for Wigtownshire and the other parishes of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.
Stewards-depute of Kirkcudbright
1748 Thomas Miller
1756 David Ross
1761 David Ross. Appointed Clerk of Session on 25 Aug 1763
1764 Alexander Gordon
1784 Alexander Gordon
1830 Alexander Wood
1841 Erskine Douglas Sandford. Sheriff of Wigtown and Kirkcudbright from 24 Nov 1860. Died 4 Sep 1861.
1860 United with Wigtown
1867 David Hector
1874 United into Sheriffdom of Dumfries and Galloway |