A mercat cross is the Scots name for the market cross found frequently in Scottish towns, cities and villages where historically the right to hold a regular market was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron. It therefore served a secular purpose as a symbol of authority, and was an indication of a burgh's relative prosperity. The earliest documentary reference occurs in the reign of William the Lion (1165-1211) when it was decreed that "all merchandises sal be presentit at the mercat and mercat croce of burghis". They are thought to have been originally pillars of wood, possibly placed on stone bases, changing to stone pillars in later centuries. Some, as in Houston, incorporate sundials (though the pillar of each cross itself acts as a primitive sundial).
