tei.
MISCELLANY
OF
THE SPALDING CLUB.
ABERDEEN: PRINTED BY W. BENNETT,
42, CASTLT. STREET.
THE
MISCELLANY
OF
THE SPALDING CLUB.
VOLUME FIFTH.
ABERDEEN:
PRINTED FOR THE CLUB.
M DCCC LIT.
Ctoh,
DECEMBER, M.DCCC.LII.
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT.
ffa&ttt.
THE EARL OF ABERDEEN, K.T.
THE DUKE OF RICHMOND, K.G. THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND, K.G. THE EARL OF KINTORE. THE EARL OF SEAFIELD. LORD SALTOUN.
THE LORD PROVOST OF ABERDEEN.
SIR ROBERT ABERCROMBY, BART.
JOHN ANGUS, ADVOCATE, CITY CLERK, ABERDEEN.
JOHN HILL BURTON, ADVOCATE, EDINBURGH.
SIR JAMES CARNEGIE, BART.
CHARLES CHALMERS OF MONKSHILL.
P. CHALMERS OF AULDBAR.
SIR W. G. G. GUMMING OF ALTYRE, BART.
ARCHIBALD DAVIDSON, SHERIFF OF ABERDEENSHIRE.
JOHN DUNN, ADVOCATE, ABERDEEN.
THE EARL OF ELLESMERE.
CAPTAIN FORDYCE.
THE LORD FORBES.
COL. JONATHAN FORBES.
JAMES GILES, R.S.A., ABERDEEN.
JOHN GORDON OF CAIRNBULG, ADVOCATE.
GEORGE GRUB, ADVOCATE, ABERDEEN.
COSMO INNES, ADVOCATE, EDINBURGH.
A. F. IRVINE, YOR. OF DRUM.
THE RIGHT REV. JAMES KYLE, D.D., PRESHOME.
LORD LINDSAY.
JAMES LOCH, ESQ., M.P.
COL. LESLIE OF BALQUHAIN.
HENRY LUMSDEN OF AUCHINDOIR.
HUGH LUMSDEN OF PITCAPLE, SHERIFF OF SUTHERLANOSHIKE.
LORD MEDWYN.
THE REV. JAMES MELVIN, LL.D., ABERDEEN.
JOSEPH ROBERTSON, EDINBURGH.
WILLIAM FORBES SKENE, ADVOCATE, EDINBURGH.
THE RIGHT REV. WM. SKINNER, D.D., ABERDEEN.
ALEXANDER THOMSON OF BANCHORY.
JOHN STUART, ADVOCATE, ABERDEEN.
JOHN BLAIKIK and JOHN LIGERTWOOD. ADVOCATES, ABERDEEN.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE, 9
APPENDIX TO PREFACE — No. I., 47
Do. Do. No. II., 56
I. EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS OF THE BURGH OF ABER- DEEN, 1
II. EXTRACTS FROM THE ACCOUNTS OF THE BURGH OF ABER- DEEN, 39
III. LETTERS TO DR. JAMES ERASER, 1679-1689, 183
IV. DOCUMENTS FROM THE CHARTER CHEST OF THE EARL OF
AIRLIE, 1578-1682, 201
V. DECREET OF THE SYNOD OF PERTH, IN THE CASE BETWEEN WILLIAM, BISHOP OF ST. ANDREW'S, AND DUNCAN DE
ABERBUTHENOTH, A.D. 1206, 207
VI. EXTRACTS FROM THE COURT BOOKS OF THE BARONIES OF
SKENE, LEYS, AND WHITEHAUGH, 1613-1687, 215
VII. MISCELLANEOUS CHARTERS AND CONTRACTS, FROM COPIES AT
PANMURE HOUSE, MADE FROM THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS, 239 VIII. BIRTH BRIEVES FROM THE REGISTERS OF THE BURGH OF
ABERDEEN, 1637-1705, 323
IX. MISSIVES TO THE PROVOST, BAILLIES, AND COUNCIL OF THE
BURGH OF ABERDEEN, 1594-1688, 369
X. DOCUMENTS RELATING TO ORKNEY AND SHETLAND, 1438-
1563, 389
XI. STATUTA ET LEGES LUDI LITERARII GRAMMATICORUM
ABERDONENSIUM, 1553, 397
THE EDITOE'S PEEFACE.
IN the year 1591, Mr. Thomas Mollisone, then Town-Clerk of Aberdeen, in preparing a Catalogue of the " Registeris and Baillie Court Buikis of Aberdene, presentlie extint, or hes bene during the memorie of man thir thre scoir yeiris bygane," states that, be- fore the year 1380, there did not appear any volumes of Record. " Befoir this, scrowis on parchment, contening sum courtis of the Brught of Abirdene, writin in Latyne all, and for ilk year ane skrow : na mater of importance or weycht extant or registrat thairin, nather yit ony ordinance or statut sett dounn, onlie suitis and actionis, or processus for annuellis, euil to be red, be resoun of the antiquitie of the wreit, and forme of the letter or charecter, weray schortlie and compendiouslie wretin, quhilk is not now vsit ; and skairslie gif ony man can reid the samyn " Of these scrolls two fragments were lately recovered out of masses of useless papers which were decaying in a garret of the Town House. They con- sist of narrow membranes of parchment, stitched together endwise, but are obviously only incomplete parts of the much longer Rolls, each of which had formed the record of a year. From these two Rolls, the selections printed in the commencement of the present volume have been extracted. In one case, of which the Record
10 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
has been preserved, and is now printed,3 where the Brieve de recto is said to be sewed to the roll, as relative to the proceedings, that document still remains, attached to the Record, and except in one part, where the parchment has been somewhat injured by damp, the "scrowis" are in good preservation, and the character is not so " euil to be red" as the style of writing used by Mr. Molli- sone and his contemporaries.5 The proceedings preserved in these fragments are not without their value and interest, as exhibiting the forms and principles used in legal pleadings of the day. It may be thought that the most interesting matter is contained in the first extract, where reference is made to a " Lex Burgorum," regulating the giving over of lands within burgh, " per quam dicitur cum cartis et clamore fiat tradicio terrarum in burgis,"c in- asmuch as it seems to refer to a law which has not come down in our ancient code, known as " The Laws of the Burghs." Some valuable information on this point will be found in " Remarks on the Law of the Burghs, concerning delivery of Lands within Burghs," prepared, at the Editor's request, by Mr. Chalmers of Aldbar, which are appended to the Preface d
The Extracts from the earlier volumes of the Council Register, which follow those from the Rolls, have been gleaned from these Records, on the occasion of several recent investigations ; and it is believed that they will be found of considerable importance in various ways.
p. 6. b part of one of the " Scrowis" is printed in facsimile.
d Appendix to the Preface, No. I.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. n
ORrtracts from tf>e account* of tije iSutgf).
These Accounts, for the period from 1398 to 1453, are en- grossed in the Council Register, amid the entries of the ordinary business of the Council and of the Burgh Court In the latter year, the accounts kept by the Dean of Guild commence in a separate form, although, unfortunately, the series which has been preserved is far from complete The first volume of the Trea- surer's Accounts, dates from 1559 ; and among these, also, several gaps occur.
It is hardly necessary to enlarge on the great value of accounts such as those in question, for historical purposes. They relate to disbursements of the most diverse sorts — the most minute, as well as the most important — and serve, in many ways, to throw unex- pected light on historical events,— -on the character, manners, and varied pursuits of our burghal forefathers.
One striking feature pervading these accounts arises from the hospitable temper which seems to have characterised our civic rulers at all times. It cannot be denied that, on all occasions, the Cup of Bon- Accord was liberally dispensed.8 In the earliest of the Accounts now printed, there are many entries for wine, dispensed to various good neighbours of the Town, among whom the Bishop of the day was not forgotten. Indeed, the cordial hospitality of the Burgh to the Clergy was at all times remarkable. Thus, in 1617-18, we have an entry " for wyne and spycerie to propyne the Laird of Corss," apparently when he was proceeding to St. An- drews, for the purpose of being consecrated ; and another entry
a As to this cup, see " Book of Bon-Accord," p. 13.
12 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
informs us that he got a similar propyne u when he returned bischope."*
Again, Dr. William Forbes, who was Principal of Marischal College, on his removal, in 1622, to a pastoral charge in Edinburgh, got a banquet which cost 60 lib., and his wife was pre- sented with " wyne, suger, and tobacco." Dr. Forbes returned to the Burgh, as one of its ministers, in 1626 ; and in that yearb we find an entry for the freight of a vessel which conveyed his family and furniture from Edinburgh to Aberdeen, " with fyftie merkis to Thomas Forbes, his brother, for his chairges in going southe to convoy the said Dr. Forbes hither."0 In 1633, he was "written for to teache befoir the King's Majestie," when his expenses were defrayed by his kind patronsd ; and in that year he was promoted to fill the newly-erected See of Edinburgh. Before he left the Burgh, he received a supper, at which the Magistrates and the Clergy of the town were present, and at which the guests were regaled by the music of " the violers." The cordiality of the connection which subsisted between the parties cannot be better un- derstood than by the entry which shows the charge " at the salute- ing of Doctour Forbes, at his hame cuming, 4 lib. 14 s. ;"e and " for wyne careit to the Crabstane at the said Doctour Forbes de- parture."
A like good feeling on the part of the Magistrates towards his colleague, Dr. Barron, appears by the following payment " for ane dussone siluer spoones to Mr. Robert Barroun, Minister, to his first hous, in token of the townes lowe to him, 61 lib. 10s.f
The first of the Reformed Ministers, Mr Adam Heriot, was re-
a 97. b 97. p. 144. d p. 150. e p. 101. f Ibid.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 13
ceived at his entry with equal kindness, although displayed in rather a more homely fashion. In the Accounts of 1559-60, we have an entry for " ane garment and haill stand of claythis to Maister Adame Herreot, as well as for the expense of maintaining himself, his servant, and his horse, for 9 weeks "a
Mr Robert Bruce, one of the Ministers of Edinburgh, who, in 1605, was banished by the King and Council to the north, after spending some years in Inverness, where he was not well received, ventured, in 1610-11, to come southward as far as Aberdeen. His visit appears to have partly been at the request of the Magistrates ; and, notwithstanding the cloud which hung over him, their hos- pitality to Mr. Bruce partook of its usual exuberance, and, ac- cordingly, we find that he, first of all, was graced by a " propyne of succouris, sueit meats, and spycerie ;" afterwards, he received the more substantial tokens of the town's good will, in the shape of " tua carkaches of beaff," banquets, and a present of wine, while his wife received a collation " in vine and succour ;" and, in con- clusion, the Burgh defrayed the whole expense of his lodgings and maintenance while he was in Aberdeen.5 The Magistrates, on two occasions, interposed their influence with the Privy Council, in favour of Mr. Bruce, without success ; and he was speedily com- pelled to return to his Highland quarters at Inverness. He at last removed to his own House of Kinnaird in 1613 ; but, in 1622, he was commanded to take up his quarters in Inverness ; and, at his bygoing thither, it appears that he again partook of the town's " wyne and spycerie."0
At another time, we find a payment made to Mr. John Row,
a p. 112. b p. 93. c p. 97.
14 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
" quhen he came first to Aberdein, and wes wpon his trjelles, for making his chairges furth and home, 661ib. 13s 4d. ;" and also the expense of " his transplantatioun from St. Johnstoun, 3331ib. 6s. 8d. ;" and " quhen the pro west and baillies went to salute him, 41ib. 18s. 4d."a
The Magistrates were also liberal patrons of literature and learning, as many entries will show. So early as 1433-38, we find a payment to the Master of the Schools.5 In 1597, " Robert Lind- saye, pylot of the new schip to Hispain," gets a reward " in recom- pance of his carte presentit and dedicat to this toune."0 Mr. David Wedderburn, Master of the Grammar School, on one occasion, got 40 lib. for making his charges to Edinburgh, "being summondit anent Mr. Alexn Hume's Grammer;" and, afterwards, 661ib. 13s. 4d. " in help of his expenssis, be reasone of his long stay in Edin- brugh, upon the approbatioun of his new graimer ;" and, afterwards, " for making of his charges to Edinbrugh, to procure the lordis of secret counsall, thair approbatioun, to the new grammer laitlie set furth be him, 1001ib."d
Nor were his lighter attempts in the region of poetry suffered to pass unrewarded, as we see an entry to " Mr. David Wedderburne, for some poesies made by him on the death of the King, at the de- syre of the toune." e They could not refuse a similar courtesy to Mr. Alexander Forbes, " for ane poesie presentit to tho prowest, on the praise of the toune ;" f nor to Mr. Alexander Gardyne, " for dedicating of his pamphlet to the toune."g Occasional, entries
a p. 157. b] ip. 45. c p. 69
d For notices of this and other Works of Wedderburn, see Collections on the Shires of
Aberdeen and Banff, p. 62, et seq. e Ibid. f p. 102. g p. 101.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 15
occur of money paid to Mr. Edward Raban, the first printer who settled in Aberdeen, for such work as the following : — " For print- ing the thessus of the college of the broch, at the lourtione of the skolleris this present zear, quhilkis are dedicat to the Magistrattis and Counsell, 121ib."a But it appears that a necessary preliminary to any work consisted in " drinksiluer to Raban's servant ;"b and, again, " drink at the setting of the press."
The expense of Royal visits are occasionally to be found. Thus, in 1594, James VI. came to Aberdeen when on his expedition against the Popish Lords. On this occasion, his Majesty was entertained at the charge of the town, and the amount expended for the various articles is duly entered, including a *• punscheoun of wyne," and a large supply of "spyceries."c
Charles II., on his route southwards from Speymouth in 1650, lodged in the Burgh.d On this occasion, we have the usual entries, as well as one for " My Lord Duke of Buckingham, and sundrie wther noblemen's charges, dwreing the aboade of his Majestie."6
Among the miscellaneous disbursements may be noticed those "for the burning and sustentatioun of the witches" f — an yearly entry " for wyne, succour, and glasses, the day of the Kingis Maies- teis deliuerie fra Gowrie.g " To my Lord Merschellis nureis, quhen as the towne wes invited to be his gossipis, ane dubill angill."h " To Archibald Armstrong, his Majesties plesant, ane Portugale ducat." " Gevin for the expenssis maid on the intertenement of Monsieur de Halzie, Frenschemane, and the gentilmen his Majestes servands, quho cum to this burght with him."j Besides the notices which we find of the heavy sums exacted from the inhabitants on different oc-
« p. 106. » ibid. c pp. 59, 61. d pp. 167, 176. e p. 168.
f p. 65. s 81, 85, 127, etc. h p. 86. « p. 96. J p. 129.
16 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
casions, to save the town from plundering " at that tyme," there are many others bearing witness to the impartiality with which both parties, in the great Rebellion, made free with the property of the " Brave Toun."a Thus a supply for " wyne and bread to the Mar- quis of Argyle, " than at Fyvie,"b is balanced, in the course of the same account, by a gift to " Alexander Grahame of Cairney, gene- rall quarter maister to Montroiss armie, of three ellis Spanish tafetie," and various supplies to the camp of " Spanish wyne" and " acquauitie."d The town also furnished " two rim of paper," for the use of the great Marquis himself."6
to fflr. James jfrasser.
These Letters were found in the Charter Chest of the University and King's College, Old Aberdeen. Dr. Fraser, to whom they were addressed, entered King's College, as a student, in the year of the Restoration, After completing his education, he went to England, where, it is said, he was employed as Tutor to several young men of good family, with whom he travelled in various parts of the Continent. He was made Secretary of Chelsea Hospital in the time of Charles II., and retained the office during the reigns of James II., William and Mary, Queen Anne, and George I., having died in 1731. One of the various bequests which he made for the benefit of his Alma Mater was a gift of his library, and the Letters now printed form part of a mass of his papers, which came into possession of the College, along with his Books. It will be seen
a pp. 152, 153, 154:, 162, 163. b p. 162. c p. 163.
d p. 164. e Ibid.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 17
from the Letters that Fraser was an intimate friend of Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury. He was also a friend and corres- pondent of the industrious Wodrow, on whom he conferred many courtesies, and the first volume of whose history he presented to King George I.
The first four are written by Mr. Martin, who appears to have had some connexion with the English Embassy at Madrid. In these he gives a ludicrous account of the Spanish Monarch and his Court. Of the latter he says, in the third Letter, written during the time of Lent — " The continual noise of misereres in the churches, and the dismal sight of penitents scourging their insolent flesh in euery corner of the streets, is the only entertain- ment we have at present in this Catholic Court, wher you'l imagine how impatientlie the galants and ladyes wait for Easter, to put on fine cloaths, change their hypocritical faces, and sin publickly, without scandal"a
The fourth is a Letter from the learned Lloyd, Bishop of St. Asaph, in which he discusses several curious points connected with our early history.
The letters written to Dr. Fraser by the Countess of Errol con- tain several graphic allusions to the unsettled state of the country soon after the invasion of the Prince of Orange.3
" The Prince of Orange his circular letters for the approaching convention is just now dispersing in this country; my Lord Erroll got his this morning. I pray God send it a good ending, for it is of great comfort, and I am mightily concerned for their security that is to be at it, since I hear there is ane army of people about
p. 188. a p. 195. I
18 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
Edinbrugh that hes kept them in trouble for severall ueeks, and it is not yet perfectly understood uhat they would be at ; but I am so much a coward as to be afraid extreamly of those wariours, if they come near a convention wher I most expect a great number of my friends to be.
" Ther is also ane army of some hundreds of Highland men that hes threatened to come and destroy all my brother Perth's land.8 He is sending his two eldest daughters hear, uho is realy extreamly fine young ladys, and it shall be much against my uill if any of them ever be in hazard of being put in a convent, for I love them uell, and I hope they shal not be permited to goe abroad, though he says he designs they shall, but it most be prevented."
And again, " It is very uueasie for me to think on the condition this country is in, for we have only as yet in this corner of it heard of the tuo first dayes of the convention at Edinburgh ; and things hes so gloomy and so divided ane aspect, that I am sadly apprehen- sive of some great missfortune, nor is it to be doubted, for ther is so many privat quarels, and every man so much endeavoring to be uppermost, that it uill be a very hard matter to give our govern- ment queit for a uhile ; and the common people are so sett on edge by ther hopes of relife from all taxes, that they uant but a little
a James sixth Earl of Perth, who is here and elsewhere referred to in these Letters, had been recently converted to the faith of the Roman Church. An interesting series of Letters from his Lordship to the Countess of Errol has been printed for the Camden Society. From these it appears that his Lordship was a sincere convert. In one of them, dated Venice, 28th March, 1695, he writes : — " I offer you dailly to God that he would convert you, that you who see so far in all things else may at last see the unreasonableness of being a Protestant." While on the other hand the Countess writes ot her most earnest hopes that she may one day see her Brother " a member of that gloryouss church which it was his mis- fortune to fall from." Of Burnet, whom the Countess regarded so highly, his Lordship adds in the same Letter : — '« Abbe Leith swears Burnet is the damn'dest lying rogue in the whole world. I give it you as the Abbot's own words, who speaks broad Scots, excellent French, and Italian like a Roman."
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 19
of a disapointment to be on fire ; and nobody knows whome to trust, for it is realy a very sad thing to consider how much division and quareling does threaten some mischief to come upon us, if God of his mercy do not prevent it, uhich I earnestly pray that he may doe ; and since my Lord Erroll uent away to the convention I have been in the most extream consern in the world for fear of him, nor can I be at peace least he may be involved in danger, though I am sure he will never do anything himself to draw it upon him."3
JBocumenta from tfte OHjarter OTfjest of tfte Eari of
The first of these papers is a Bond dated 31st July, 1578, by the Earls of Athol, Argyle, and Montrose, and Lord Ogilvy of Airly, binding themselves to pay to Captain Pa.trick Cranstoun and his wife, and the surviour of them, a pension of 100 merks for the " gude and thankful seruice done and to be done be Patrik Cranstoun, for the libertie and releif of our souerane the Kingis Maiesteis persone."
James VI. had recently fallen into the custody of the Earl of Mar through a plot in which, although Mar appeared as the osten- sible agent, the real mover was doubtless the wily Earl of Morton, who was longing for a restoration of his credit and power.
The Bond now printed is signed by the Earl of Athole the Lord Chancellor, and the other leaders of the faction opposed to Morton, and probably refers to a counterplot by them for regaining posses- sion of the King. It does not appear that any such attempt
P. 197.
20 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
was made, but in any event Cranston appears regularly to have drawn his pension, as we find by the second paper that he dis- charges Lord Ogilvy of his share of it down to 1595.
The Third Document is a Letter from Sir William Ogilvy of Barras to James Earl of Airlie, dated 22d April, 1682. Sir William was son of George Ogilvy of Barras, who so manfully held out the Castle of Dunnotter, containing the Regalia of Scotland, against the usurping Parliamentary troops, and whose wife (a member of the house of Angus), in conjunction with the Dowager Countess of Marischall, and Christian Fletcher, wife of Mr. James Granger, Minister of the Parish of Kinrieff, devised a successful scheme which resulted in the rescue of the Regalia and their con- cealment in the Kirk of Kinneff. After the surrender of Dunnottar, Ogilvy and his wife were imprisoned by the English on account of their share in this transaction, and their property suffered by the imposition of heavy fines. Yet, at the Restoration, these loyal and courageous services were acknowledged with only the unsubstantial reward of a Baronetcy, and a change in the feudal holding of the lands of Barras from ward to blench.
It appears that Sir William, the son of the defender of Dunnot- tar, was pressing his claim at Court for a more tangible reward of his father's heroic services, and this Letter is written to invoke the aid of the Earl of Airlie in his behalf Sir William appears to have been a keen sportsman, taking the opportunity to remind his Lordship that he had expected one of his Lordship's " Clan Ronald Hawks," and as he had been informed that there " vas ane goose- hawks eyrie at Clova," he also makes request for "ane goosehawk." The fourth paper would appear to have resulted out of the applica- tions made on behalf of Sir William. It is a Draft of a Precept
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 21
by the King for expeding a letter under the Privy Seal of Scot- land " making, constituting, and appointing Sir William Ogilvie, Knight baronet, during all the dayes of his lifetyme, Master of his Maiesties hawks, chief huntsman, and master of the royall game, with power to him during the said space to use and exerce the said places and offices with all privileges, casualties, fies, profits, and commodities whatsomever that ever did or. that may hereafter be- long to the samen." It was proposed at the same time to annex a salary to the office in question, but it would rather appear that the matter did not go farther.
JBecwt at tfje Sgnotr of
This document is printed from a Transcript, among the Panmure Collections, made from the original at Arbuthnott House in the early part of last century. A somewhat loose translation of the Decreet was printed in the first volume of an "Enquiry into the Early History of Scotland," by John Pinkerton, where he states that " the above is said to have been translated from the original Latin in the possession of Lord Arbuthnot, about 1700 by a Mr. Clerk, schoolmaster at Bervie."a
It contains the judgment of a Synod of the Church of Scotland assembled at Perth on llth April, 1206 in a cause between the Bishop of St. Andrew's, on the one part, and Duncan, Laird of Ar- buthnot, on the other part, relating to the Kirktoun of Arbuthnot, which the Bishop claimed as belonging to the Church of St- An-
a Advertisement, p. xiv.
22 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
drew's, and of which, as he alleged, the said Duncan had robbed that Church.
Judgment was given in favour of the Bishop, and the evidence on which the Synod proceeded is annexed to the sentence. Some of the depositions of the witnesses are exceedingly curious, and il- lustrate the tenure of an early class of Tenants called Scolocs,3 per- haps resembling the Corbse of Ireland.5 A newer and more curious character is assigned to the " Scolocs " in the admirable paper on the subject of " Scholastic Offices in the Scottish Church in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries," which Mr. Robertson was so kind as prepare for this work, and which is printed as an Appendix to the Preface.
The Editor is also indebted to Mr. Robertson for the following
" Notes on persons mentioned in the Decreet of Perth" : —
John of Hastings seems to have possessed the manor of Dun in
Angus, and is a frequent witness in the northern charters of King
William the Lion. (Lib S. Trinitatis de Scon, p. 22 ; Regist. Vet.
de Aberbrothoc, pp. 19, 23, 32, 33, 36, 58, 62, 63, 99, 124 ; Act.
Parl. Scot., vol. i., pref., pp. 79, 85.)
Ysaac of Banevin, the second witness, appears, with Walter,
Prior of St. Andrews, as a witness to a charter of the Church of
Fowlis, by William Maule of Fowlis. (Regist. Priorat. S. Andree,
p. 41.)
Adam of Banevin, his nephew, is found as a witness to charters
a According to Lhuyd, " Sgol6g " is a farmer, a husbandman. O'Reilly in his Irish Dictionary gives Scolog, Scolog, a petty farmer, and Bullet in Memoires sur la Langux Celtique says " Sgolog, laboreur, fermier, metayer paysan.'' " In the old manuscripts the letter c occurs frequently where they now use g." Lhuyd, Archoeolog. Britann. Pref. Tit. x. Oxford, 1707.
b Spelmanni Gloss, voce Corba.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 23
of the " Abbs," or hereditary lay abbots of Edzell, and of their Angus neighbours, John of Montfort, and Hugh Malherbe the younger. (Regist. Vet. de Aberbroth., pp. 42, 47, 48, 49.)
Hugh de Benne, or Bennef, appears as a witness to charters of Earl Gilliechrist of Angus, Bishop Matthew of Aberdeen, Bernard Fitz- William Fitz-Bernard, and John de Montfort. (Regist. Vet de Aberbroth , pp. 29, 30, 31, 32, 45, 47, 136.)
If we could be assured that the name of the witness, Andrew de Bas, had been quite correctly transcribed, we should be helped to the surname of Hugh, Bishop of St. Andrews, which does not seem to be elsewhere recorded.
" Master Ysaac," and " Hugh the Steward," may, perhaps, be identified with persons of the same name, who appear on record at the same time in deeds relating to St. Andrews. (Regist Priorat. S. Andree, pp. 154/156.)
ffixtracts from ISanm OTourt
The Court Books of the Baronies of Skene and Leys are pre- served in the Charter Room at Crathes ; and the Minutes of the Court of the Barony of Whitehaugh form part of the Collections in the Charter Room at Whitehaugh. The Extracts now printed il- lustrate the working of these little feudal courts in their ordinary business ; while some of the entries reflect considerable light on various customs of the day.
The judgments of the Baron Baillie seem often to be rather arbitrary ; but, at times, he appears to have had to deal with rude
L>4 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
materials. Here is his mode of remedying one cause of com- plaint :—
Nov. 26, 1660. The. said day, forsamekill as the Stewart within the place gawe in ane complaint, schawing therein that he was oft and diuers tymes reprowed for presenting to the tabill of ewill baikin bread, and declaired that he was nocht abill to amend the same for want of barme to the batches at all tyms. Thairfore, the baillie hawing takin consideratiounfor remeid thairofin tyme comeing, and finding that thair is ane gryt pluralitie of brewars within the laird's awin lands, decernit the haill brewars, per vices, ilk ane in thair tourne, to gift weeklie to the Stewart, or to any wther he sould happin to send for the same, ane quart of barme, for mak- ing and baiking of sufficient bread ; and quhosoewir refuises, being desyrit to send the same, sould pey to the stewart the pryce of ane quart of aill, in reddie money, to by the samen ; and quhosoewir failles in manner forsaid, ordaineis the officier to poynd presentlie for the samen. And it is heirby declaired that ilk brewar that sends in the barme sail hawe thrie loawes for the samen.8
J0t0c*Uanou0 Barters ani
These documents have been printed from the Collections of the Honourable Harry Maule of Kelly, youngest son of George, second Earl of Panmure, by whom they were made, at various periods, between the years 1700 and 1730. In many cases, the transcripts were made from the original documents ; and where the case was otherwise, the source whence the copy was derived is almost always given. It is to be regretted that these transcripts are not so accu- rate, in all respects, as could be desired ; and that, in some cases, slight inaccuracies have occurred in printing the documents, by a too rigid adherence to the copy. The collection, however, is so curious and important, and the chance of getting access to the original papers belonging to so many different owners, for the pur- pose of collation, so small, that it was thought better to print the
a p. 231.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 25
documents from Mr. Maule's copies, rather than run the risk of wanting them altogether. It will be seen that, besides other ori- ginal Charters, the present Collection contains Documents from the Charter Chests of Lord Torphichen, Lord Gray, the Duke of Douglas, the Earl of Errol, Stirling of Keir, Lord Lovat, Lord Panmure, the Earl of Mar, Lord Elphinstone, Lord Pitsligo, Bishop Halyburton, and the Earl of Wigton.
No. XXXI. preserves to us a specimen of those numerous herit- able hereditary offices which existed in feudal times, being a retour of the service of Alexander Lindsay, as heir of his father, Richard Lindsay, in the shop and office of blacksmith of the Lordship of Brechin, dated 29th April, 1514. By it the inquest, selected from the Barons of the Shire, reports, on oath, that the late Richard Lindsay and his forefathers were common smiths of the workshop of the Lordship of Brechin, and of good and laudable custom, had received for the said office hereditarily nine firlots of good meal of every plough and mill of the tenants of the following towns, viz. : Balnabroch, Kindrokat, Petpollocks, Pettinde, Hauch of Brechin, Brichtiemill, Pettintoschall, Balbirny, with the Mill of Kincraig and Loachland ; and one fleece of an old sheep yearly, of every one of the tenants of the said towns, for the working of a forge, by use and wont of the tenants ; and also common pasturage, in the Long Haugh of Brechin, for two cows and a horse.
No. XXXII. is a Tack, dated 3rd Sept., 1521, by the Abbot and Convent of Cupar, to John Pylmoir and his wife and their heir male, for their lives, and to the survivor of them, of a toft, yard, and two crofts, and is principally remarkable for the traces which
26 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
it presents of that spirit of improvement in the Convent, which has been remarked of their brethren at Kinloss about the same time.a The Tenants were " to put the said toft yard and crofts till all possibyl policy in biggyn of gud and sufficiand yeird houses for haw, chawmerys, and stabuls to resave and herbry to the nowmer of xij. or xvi. horses, honestly as efferis for horse meit and manns meit, sua that of resoun thai be sein no fait in thaim ; plantand frut tris . . . with their defensours ; and thai sail keip gud nighburhed and the lands fra guld ; and thai sail keip our medowis, wards, and broumerparks fra thaimself and thair catel under pain as efferis."b
No. XXXV. is a Deed, by which Malcolm, Lord Fleming, founded and endowed the Collegiate Church of Biggar, and affords us a fair specimen of what was, for a time, the fashionable mode of development of the piety of the wealthier classes.
By it, with consent of the Archbishop of Glasgow, the Dean and Chapter of Glasgow, and, on the customary narrative of motives, his Lordship founded a College or Collegiate Church, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, with endowments for a provost, eight canons or prebendaries, four choristers, and six poor men. The first pre- bendary was to be stiled the Prebendary of the Hospital of St. Leonard, and was to be master of the singing school, and instruct the boys of the said college, and others who might attend, in plain chant, pricksong, and discant, and be skilled in playing the organ for divine service. The second prebendary was to be teacher of grammar, and be sufficiently instructed in grammar. The third prebendary was to be sacrist of the College. He was to ring the
a Quart. Review, No. cxliv., p. 396, b p. 293.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 27
bells, light the candles on the high altar and the two aisles, and the altar of the crucifix. He was also to prepare the vestments and ornaments of these altars, and wash and clean them, and, when necessary, repair them ; and, after being thus washed and mended, he was to place them on the said altars, and cover them, as the season might require. This prebendary was also to furnish bread and wine for the celebration of mass at the College throughout the year. The fourth prebendary was to be the instructor of the poor in said College, and administrator of their food and other dues. The duties of the other prebendaries are not specified. The eighth was to be vicar pensionary of the said College Church, and, along with the others, was to make continual residence, and perform divine service in the choir, unless when he might be engaged in the administration of the sacraments to the parishioners. The four boys were to have shaven crowns, and to wear gowns of a blue co- lour;1 like those worn by the singing boys of the metropolitan church of Glasgow. The six poor men, or beidmen, were to dwell in the hospital and garden founded for them. If possible, they were to be taken from the founder's Baronies of Bigar and the Lengze ; and each was to have, yearly, a white gown of woollen cloth, with a white hood, and were to be present daily at high mass, and all vespers sung in said Church ; and, after the founder's death, were to sit at his tomb, and that of his parents, and devoutly pray for the souls of the founder and his wife, and those of his forefathers and successors. An endowment is provided for each member of the foundation, besides which the provost and prebendaries were to have manses and gar-
* " Blodei coloris"—blue, according to Ducange. Cowell and other English Glossarists derive the word from the Saxon blod (blood), and translate it crimson.
28 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
dens in a convenient place near to the Church. By order of the founder, the following round of religious services was to be observed by the members of his College. First, a mass of the blessed Virgin was to be said before the commencement of matins between six and seven o'clock, and that during the summer and winter seasons ; high mass was to be sung daily after ten o'clock to the Gregorian Chant, or descant with music on the organ, as the season requires. Likewise a third mass to be said immediately after the consecration and elevation of the host at high mass. On every Monday a mass of requiem was to be sung for the souls of the founder, his wife and relations, and the faithful departed, as also on the greater double feasts commonly observed by the clergy and people. On Tuesday was to be sung, immediately after matins, a mass in honour of St. Anne, mother of the blessed Virgin. On Wednesday, at the same time, a mass in honour of St. Nicholas and St. Ninian. On Thursday, a mass in honour of the body of Christ On Friday, the mass of the five wounds of Christ, and on Saturday, after matins, mass of the feast of the compassion of the blessed Virgin.3 It was also enjoined on him who celebrated high mass that, immediately after the service was concluded, he should come to the founder's tomb, habited in his stole and alb, and say the Psalm de profundis, with the usual collects, prayers, and sprinkling of holy water. The prebends were required to make personal residence, and to perform the prescribed services in their habits— namely, clean linen surplices, with red hoods, trimmed with fur.
The founder of this religious institution was Malcolm, third
a " Compassion of the Virgin, or our Lady of Pity. The Friday in Passion week." Chronology of History by Sir Harris Nicolas, p. 118.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 29
Lord Fleming, who succeeded his father in the family estates, and in the office of Great Chamberlain of Scotland, in the year 1524. After a life of active political service, he was slain at the Battle of Pinkie, on 10th September, 1547, while yet in the vigour of his manhood. Early in that year, which proved to be his last, he made his will, which is printed in No. XXXVI. of the Miscellaneous Contracts. This document contains a list, (with the value of each article) of his extensive moveable estate, which, however, formed but a small part of his wealth. He had been married to Joanna Stewart, a natural daughter of James IV. ; and he ordains her " to be principall intromittar with all my guddis, moveabill and un- movabill,"a except " gif she maries, or uses ony man in marage, or by marage." The following clause, in reference to the Collegiate Church of Biggar, and relative erections, shows that they had not yet been completed : " And I leif all vestments that was indued to the Kirk of Biggar, and Colledge of the samin ; and all other pro- fits whilk belangs to themselves, as the erection of the Colledge bears, to the utility and profite of the sainen, ay, and while the Kirk, College, alemosineress, and mansion-house be beggit and putt
in their own places, as the erection of the said College bears ; and ordinis vc merks of my own proper guddis to be tane to buy vestments and bigging of the said College and mansions, chalices, or any other necessar things that is needfull for the said College, and ordenis instantly eftir the completing of the said College, to bear my father's cymeter fra the plaue of Boghall to the College,5 whilk sail be born the xii. day of October in the solemnest gate that can be deviset baith to the honour of God.e
a p. 309. b p. 3U. c It appears, indeed, that the whole of the buildings were not completed when the work
30 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
IJrtebes.
The Selections printed under this title a have been made from a volume among the Records of the Burgh of Aberdeen, commencing in 1637, and coming down to the year 1705. During the above period, and especially during the reign of Charles I., many descendants of Aberdeenshire families settled in Sweden, Poland, and Russia. It generally happened that the settler in a foreign country was desirous of obtaining a certificate of his descent, by some recognised authority, with the view of establishing the fact in the eyes of strangers. The process seems to have consisted in the appearance of two or more friends before some of the Magistrates of Aberdeen, and giving oath to a statement of pedigree. The value of such certificates will be found to be very various. In some, the statement of the witnesses are distinct and coherent ; but, in others, they consist of mere vague assertion. Their prin- cipal value consists in their preserving to us the names of many members of well-known families, and furnishing us with occasional incidental notices which are historically interesting.1"
was interrupted by the Reformation. " The Collegiate Church, whi( parish, stood in the village of Biggar. It was built in the form of
which was that also of the of a cross, and is still in
use." " In the year 1555 the perpetual vicarage of the parish church of Saint Mary and Saint Bruoc, at Dunrod, was added to the endowments, at the instance of Master John Stevenson, (precentor of Glasgow, vicar of Dunrod, and the first provost of our Lady Col- lege of Biggar), with consent of the patrons the canons regular of Holyrood, and of the ordi- nary of the diocese. The Bishop's charter bears to be granted in consideration of the singular zeal and pious aifection towards God and the Catholic Church, which were shewn in these unhappy days of Lutheranism, by a some time noble and mighty Lord, Malcom Lord Flemying, who at his own charge built a stately church in the village of Biggar, dedi- cated to our Lady of the Assumption, and commonly called the College of Saint Mary of Biggar." (Origines Parochiales, p. 133).
a These documents might be more accurately termed Attestations of Propinquity.
h The Birth Brieves now printed are of the same class with the V Bore Brieve," granted by the Scottish Parliament, in 1686, to Charles Colbert, Marquis of Seignelay, as
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 31
to tfje ^robost, Bailies, auto OTouncil of
These documents have been selected from a large mass of offi- cial papers in the Town-House, relating to the affairs of the Burgh, which have been recently arranged.
The first is an order from King James VI., in which he inti- mates his intention of " being with ane army in theyse pairtes," and desires the Magistrates that they " faill not to caus be maid reddy and preparit all kyndis of prouisions and viueris necessar for the interteanement of ws and our army." The expense attending his Majesty's reception will be found in the accounts printed in this volume,3 from which it also appears that the Town was obliged to contribute some aid to the object which principally drew his Ma- jesty to the North, — viz., the chastisement of the Earls of Errol and Huntly : " Item, to Robert Stewart, for tuentie stane weycht of pulder, furneist be him to the toun, to the douncasting of Strathbogie and Slanis, 213 lib. 6s. Sd." " Item, gevin to John Frasser, measone, and uthir measonis, craft ism en, and pionaris with him, for thair expensis in being at the douncasting of Strathbogie and Slanis, 86 lib."b
No. IV. is a Petition from the Burgh to his Majesty, setting forth that they had recently become bound not to have any inter-
a descendant of the Cuthberts of Castlehill, near Inverness, and as a connection of all the more ancient families of Scotland. The Preamble in the Parliamentary warrant for the Bore Brieve recites the reasons for its being granted, and the same motives might be al- leged by the parties requiring our Birth Brieves.
» pp. 59, 60. b pp. 61-2.
32 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
course with the Earl of Huntly, " and now the said Erll being re- turnit within this realme, and in conference with the Presbiterie of Abirdene, quhilk is kepit within our burgh, for his reconsiliatioun to the kirk, we, for feir of incurring of your Maiesteis wraith, . . . dar na resett him within oure burgh, and hes alreddy refuised to grant him any resett or supplie within the same." " And seing it is luiked for be all men that the said Erll sail conforme himselff to all things quhilk sal be requirit of him, and sail obtene himselff re- laxt fra the sentence of excommunicatioun," they therefore en- treated to be released from their Bond, and their request was con- ditionally granted by the License in their favour being No. V. of the Missives. The result justified the expectation of the Magis- trates, as appears from the " Forme of the Erie of Huntlie receav- ing to the Church,"3 described in a letter from Mr. T. Mollison to " his gossop, Mr. R. Paip, aduocat, befoir the Lordis," 28th June, 1597, and some entries in the accounts printed in this vo- lume furnish us with the expense of the proceedings adopted on that occasion, and seem to justify Mr. Mollisone's remark in wind- ing up his account, that " at ewin nathing but wauchting." " For sex quartis wyne to ministrat the sacrament of the Lordis Supper, quhen the Erlis of Huntlye and Erroll war absoluit of their excom- municatioun, 4 lib. 16s. Item for bread to the communioun at the same tyme, 12s. Item debursit upon wyne, spycerie, and glassis at the croce at the receaving of the Erles of Huntly and Erroll to his Majesties pace, as followis, viz., for aucht quartis wyne at xvi. s. the quart is 6 lib. 8s. Item for auchtene glassis cassin at the croce, at 20s. the dussene, 1 lib. 10s. Item for ane
a Miscellany of Sp. Club, Preface, p. Ixii.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 33
dussoun buistis, scorchettis counfeittis, and succer almonds, at aucht s. the buist, is 4 lib. 1 6s. Item to John Laying for naillis to fassin the tapestrie about the croce, 2s "a No. VII. contains a wise and fatherly advice from King James to the Magistrates, in which he recommends to them the care of the commonwealth of which they were members, and their own particular estate, so " that the inconveniencie you may susteane be our absence may be repairit be your industrie and greater diligence in seiking and fol- lowing furth all lauchfull treadis, that be the example of vther weill governit commounwelthis may help or enriche you ; and quhat help or furtherance ye will crave fra this estate, it sail not be inlaiking ; and becaus obedience to justice is ane of the best meanis to bread quietnes, wee recommend vnto you that honorable cair ye aucht to haue of all thame quhom we haue established in any pouer, sie thair directionis put in executioun as our will, put vp your suittis and peticionis vnto thame quhom we haue directed cairfully to luik vpoun all thingis, may procure peace, welth, and guid ordour, and may keep all sort of personis fra wrong or oppressioun." b
In No. XII, and XIII. will be found a few scraps of information from Provost Alexander Jaffray, dated from the Hague in April and May, 1648. Jaffray was one of the Commissioners appointed by Parliament to treat with Charles II., and the state of matters which he records will hardly allow us to wonder that the confer- ence was attended with no substantial result.
c " We haue not head that swcesse in owr imployment heir withe the King that we wold wossed, by reasone of awill counsall that
pp. 121-2. b p. 375. c pp. 379-SO.
d
34 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
ar abowt him. He is schortlie to goe for France to meit withe his mother. Till then he will not resolwe what to doe. I heir ther is sum troubles amonge yow pretending for his serwice, but I wowld they ar not his frindes, and he hes publicklie to ws dis- cleamed anie powr or commissione from him to them, or that he will giwe anie swche powr other by sea or land aganast Scotland. I heartellie wosse that anie that lowes religione, the Kinge, or ther owen good, keepe themselwes free of anie accessione, or giwing co wnti nance to swche wnhape men. I trwst I sail not neeid to desire yow to be cairefulle that nothinge of this kynd escape anie of our nightboures ; but, on the contrarie, that they schowe them- selwes wolling in ewrie thing to the cowntreys serwice. This vas promised librallie by me in ther names ; and I know they sail newer repent it. On Doreslaws sent heir from England to corres- pond betwixt that parlament and the esteates heir, and to mak way for ane embasadrie from them was (for his being accessorie to the leat Kinges deathe) yesternight, in his Iwdging killed, It is not knowen by whome, but that they war Englichemen. The peace in France is not sewre, neew trwbles reysinge ther againe."
Jaffray was despatched on the same mission in the subsequent year, but in his diary he afterwards records his regret for sharing in these transactions. " We did sinfully both entangle the nation and ourselves, and that poor young prince, making him sign and swear a Covenant which we knew he hated in his heart ; where I must confess, to my apprehension, our sin was more than his. I had so clear convictions of this that I spoke of it to the King my- self, desiring him not to subscribe the Convenant if in his con- science he was not satisfied."
By the Act of the Scottish Parliament, sentencing the great
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 35
Marquis of Montrose to be hanged and quartered, it was decreed that " one lyge and foote " of their unfortunate victim should be placed on the " porte of Aberdeine."a It appears that a hand of the murdered Marquis had been substituted, and that when Charles II. visited the Burgh in 1650, it was sticking on a pinnacle of the Tolbooth, opposite to which the Monarch lodged on that occasions Sometime prior to the Restoration this member of the Marquis was taken down and interred in the Church of St. Nicholas, and now when that event had occurred, it was disinterred, and amid a concourse of citizens, " in ther best armes," was carried to the Town-House with sound of trumpet and beat of drum, there to re- main till orders should be received for carrying the limb to Edin- burgh,0 thus anticipating, as it were, on a small scale, in the one
a Sir James Balfour's Works, vol. IV., p. 12,
b Historical Discourses upon several occasions. By Sir Edward Walker, Knight Garter, &c. London, 1705, fol. p. 160. Sir Edward was an attendant on Charles II., speaking of whom he says : — " He was lodged in a merchant's house opposite to the Tolbooth, on which was affixed one of the hands of the most incomparable Montross." Quoted in Book of Bon-accord, p. 78.
c The following Minute of Council describes the curious proceedings referred to in the text : —
25 Februar, 1661.
The said day, the counsell haveing informatione from Doctor James Lesly, Doctor of Medicine, that it was signified to him from Edinburgh, by Capitane George Melvill, that it wes the desyr of ane noble and potent Earle, James, Marques of Montrose, that that dis- memberit part of the bodie of the lait murtherit Marques of Montrose, his father, suld be soucht out of the place of the Church of this Burghe, wher the samen wes interrit efter it wes taken doune from of the pinacle was put up by the enimies of the said Marques, and that the samen suld be taken up and preservit, till order suld come for transporting the samen to the bodie ; and the Magistrates and Councell haveing givin order for the forsaid effect, and report being maid to them that the said member wes fund out in the place of the said Church wher it had beine interrit ; and, being most willing and desyrous to tack up and preserve the same in the most decent and convenient maner culd be gone about — Have appointit, and does appoint the inhabitants of the burghe to be warnit be beat of drum and sound of trumpet, for conveining this day, about twelff a clok, in ther best armes and array, for accompanieing the Magistrates and Councell to the Church, for tacking wp the said member. And that the samen be taken wp and put in ane coffin, to be coverit with ane reid crimpsone velvit cloth, and caried be Harie Grahame, sone to the Laird of Mpr- phye, from the Church doun the Braid Street to the Toun's publict house, accompanied with
36 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
member the splendid pageant which witnessed the final and, as it has been termed, " the true funerals of Montrose," in the Cathedral Church of St. Giles soon afterwards.
No XVII. is a Letter from the second Marquis of Montrose, in which he thanks the Provost and Magistrates " for their having witht much solemnitie reased that member of my father's which was erected in your cittie," and desires them to deliver the same to the lairds of Morphie and Fintrie, or to any having ther warrant."
No. XVIII. is a Letter from the Laird of Fintrie, dated 9th April, 1661, giving authority to the bearer of it to receive the dis- membered hand, which had been resting in the Town-House for about six weeks.
Bocuments relating to ©rfenes an5
These documents (with the exception of No. I., which is now in the General Register House, Edinburgh,) are in the possession of George Petrie, Esquire, Clerk of Supply at Kirkwall, by whom they were kindly communicated to the Editor, and will be found to contain various points of interest connected with the ancient his-
the Magistrats and Counsell, and with the inhabitants of the toune goeing before in armes to the Toun's publict house with sound of trumpet and beat of drum, ther to be kepit under custodie of the Magistrats in the hich Counsell Hous, till such tyme as order suld be sent for transporting theroff, and appoints the inhabitants to discharge their guns, and shoot volies at and about the morcat croce at their comeing thervnto, and delyverie of the said member to the Magistrats. (Council Register, vol. liv., 248-9.)
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 37
tory of Orkney, and the usages of its inhabitants. The Members will be pleased to receive the following remarks on the subject, prepared by Mr. Petrie at the request of the Editor : —
The Attestations and Decreets of the Lawmen of Orkney go far to illustrate the nature and mode of administration of the ancient laws of the Islands ; and, as most of their early records have been destroyed or lost, these documents are now the more valuable.
The Islands of Orkney and Zetland were for many centuries under the do- minion of Norway, and were governed by its laws and usages. In 1468, on the marriage of James III. of Scotland with Margaret, daughter of Christian I. of Denmark, these Islands were mortgaged to Scotland by the Danish King, in se- curity of his daughter's dowry ; but it was expressly stipulated that their ancient laws and customs were to be maintained inviolable. This important condition was specially referred to in subsequent leases and grants of the Islands by the Scottish Government, and in 1567 it was declared by the Estates of Parliament that Ork- ney and Zetland should be subject to "yair awin lawis," and not to "ye comone law of vis realme." Even in the times of Earls Robert and Patrick Stew- art, the maintenance of the " cuntre lawis" and usages, which was enjoined in their charters, was generally observed by them, although too often rendered subservient to their own avaricious purposes. It was not until the year 1611, that the Privy Council, taking advantage of the charge of oppression and tyranny against Earl Patrick Stewart, made it a pretext for " discharging" and annulling the ancient laws, and substituting for them the laws of Scotland, in direct viola- tion of the conditions of the mortgage.
Although there is now no copy existing of the primitive code, yet there is suffi- cient evidence to show that the laws were, both in their nature and administration, characterized by great simplicity, and differed essentially from those of Scotland. One important feature in them was the law of heritage, which provided that, on the death " of ony landit man haveand land within the said cuntrey, ... the haill landis and heritage appertaning to him in his lyftyme, immediately after his deceis, war equallie and lauchfullie (to be) divydit amangis his haill bairnis, als- well sones as dochteris, comptand alwayis twa sistars partis for ane brotheris pairt ; and being sua divydit, the eldest brother (to have) na farder prerogative aboue the rest of his brether, except the first choise of the pairtis and parcellis of the landis divydit." a
The book which contained the ancient laws was called " the Law Buik," and
a See Appendix to Pcterkin's Notes, p. 96.
38 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
reference is made to it in several manuscripts still extant. It is probable, how- ever, that the " Law Buik" was not a mere transcript of the laws, as has been often supposed ; but that it also comprised a Register of the Decreets of the Law- men. It appears, in short, to have been the Record of Court, containing a copy of the " cuntre lawis," to which the Lawman and the Rothismen or Assize were enabled at once to refer. This may be inferred from a Decreet, dated 27th April, 1509, fixing the Marches between two conterminous properties, in which " the Lawman of Orkney, and the wirdiest and best of ye landgoderytt, landytt men, and Roythismen, fyndis be ye lawbuik, ye dyk steith yt strekis fra ye nether dame of Saba to ye march stane att standis att ye sowith wast end of Meissegere wass, is, and sail be meyrch,"a &c. In this case, the Marches seem to have been judicially ascertained on a former occasion, and a record of the facts preserved in the " Law Buik," to which reference was made by the Lawman at the date of the " finding" above quoted.
The jurisdiction of the Lawman, at least subsequent to the mortgage of the Island, extended over Orkney and Zetland — a substitute, with the designation of Head Fold or Foud, being appointed to act in Zetland in the absence of the Law- man. There were also the " Roythismen," or " Rothismen," who acted as As- sessors in the Head Court or Lawting. Each Parish also had a Sub-Foud, who held Courts, and maintained order in his district, in which he was assisted by the Lawrightmen or Laerichmen. The decisions of the Sub-Foud were subject to re- view in the Lawting or Head Court, in which the Lawman presided.
The Lawting was held at stated periods, at Kirkwall in Orkney, and at TVng- waliin Zetland; and the Decreet of the Lawman in 1510, & and other existing documents show that the Sub-Fouds and Lawrightmen also sat in the Lawting, along with the Lawman and Rothismen.
But there is a circumstance respecting the district or Sub-Foudry Courts, which is peculiarly interesting as connecting them with the standing stones.
In some of the Parishes and Islands a single standing stone is still seen in a central or commanding position. It may be difficult or impossible now to ascer- tain the purpose for which these large undressed blocks of stone were originally erected. It may have been to commemorate a victory, or to point out the spot where a warrior fell, or the ashes of a chief were interred. But, although their earlier history is shrouded in mystery, yet it is very interesting to know that in later times these standing stones became the places of public resort, where the Sub-Foudry Courts were held, and intimations relative to sales of lands and simi- lar transactions were given, with the same view to publicity that similar intimations are now made at market-crosses and church-doors. Evidence of this curious cir- cumstance is found in manuscripts discovered in Kirkwall about four years ago.
a MS. in possession of G. Petrie. & p. 394.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 39
Thus, in a " Dome dempt at Kirkwall, on Tuesday, in the Lawting," in June, 1514, by "Nicoll Haw, Lawman of Zetland and Orkney for the tyine," affirming a sale of land by Nicol Fraser or Frysell, which was challenged by his brother, Alexander Fraser, it is stated, that the " said Nicol diver and syndrie tymis come to the said Alexander, and offerit him the bying of all and haill his rychtis and his fatheris heritag befoir ony utheris, and he refusit it all tymis ;a and, thaire- after, he come before the best and wirthiest in the cuntre, and diuers and sindrie tymis in courtti? and heid stanes."b Again, it is stated in another MS., dated at Kirkwall, 1st May, 1550, that, " sein it meritable is to furthschaw ye veri tie quh air- throw ye hyding thairoff generis prejudice, harm, and skaith to ye righteous. Than it is yat I, ye forsaid Edward to ... makke knawin yt I and my spous, Jonet of Ska, quhom God assoilzie, at tyng and stein diuerss days and yeris in the burght of Kirkwall, and in to landwardt quhair it effeirit, we maid it knawin yat Barnard of Kamsto and his aris had tayne and violentlie possedit four merkis land, and ane half wt ye profeits yir mony zeris pertening to my said wyffis mother, Kath- eren of Papley," c &c. And, in a third manuscript, or rather a fragment of one, which appears to have been the minutes of a Sub-Foudry or Bailie Court, held in the parish of Ssint Andrews, the preamble runs thus — " Ane staine haldin at Tankarnes."d The only part of the date which remains is the words, " fyfty Hi zeris ;" but it is probable that it was 1553. Now these extracts go to prove that, while the intimation of the sale of lands was made in Kirkwall, in the "Tyng" or Head Court, it was also necessary, when the property lay in a landward parish, to give notice of the seller's intention at the stein, in the parish in which the lands were situated. And, although it may be said that the " staine," as shown by the last extract, simply meant the Sub-Foudry Court of the parish, yet this makes it all the more evident that these Courts had at least formerly been held at the standing stone or Heid Stane, and that the one was so associated with the other, that a " Court" and a " Staine" became synony- mous terms.
3 " There was also another important udal law, for the due execution of which the foude of each parish was made responsible. No one could sell land, unless upon most urgent claims of poverty, or unless the land was first offered to the nearest of the seller's kindred ; a right of redemption remaining for them a considerable period after the sale had been ef- fected." Dr. Hibbert, on the Tings of Orkney and Shetland, apud Archseolog., Scot. vol. iii., p. 171, where he quotes the law book of Norway. " Will a man sell his odal-land ?, Then shall he summon all the odal-born (his kindred) and notify to them that he is to sell such odal-land, making them the first offer, if they will buy, and have no impediment, such as the want of money, and the like ; also, he shall proclaim, or cause to be proclaimed, in the public market, that he is to sell such odal-land, and shall again offer it to his own kindred, the odal-born, whether known or unknown ; but first to those who stand in nearest degree of relation to him, whether male or female, that so the affair may come to their knowledge, even though they should not be there present."— [ED.]
b MS. in possession of G. Petrie. c Ibid. d Ibid.
40 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
It has been remarked as a curious circumstance, that the At- testation by the Lawman of Orkney,3 which is dated in 1438, should be conceived in the Scottish language at a period thirty years before the transference of Orkney to the Scottish dominion, but it doubtless had happened that Scotch colonization had been gradually leavening the Norse element for some time previous to this event.
It may be well to refer at this place to No. XVIII. of the " Miscellaneous Charters and Contracts "b printed from the Pan- mure Transcript, as bearing on a point of Orkney history. The document, which is dated 10th Nov., 1422, bears to be an attesta- tion by the Lawman of Orkney, two canons of the Church of St. Magnus, and four burgesses of Kirkwall of the descent and good name of James of Cragy, laird of Hupe. It is there set forth that the said James of Cragy was married to Margaret, daughter of Elizabeth of Stratherne, by Henry Sinclair, sometime Earl of Orkney, and that the said Elizabeth was a daughter of the late Malise of Stratherne, formerly Earl of Orkney.
About twenty-four years after the date of this Instrument there was prepared a " Diploma, or Deduction, concerning the genealo- gies of the ancient Counts of Orkney, from their first creation to the fifteenth century, drawn up from the most authentic records by Thomas, Bishop of Orkney, with the assistance of his clergy and others, in consequence of an order from Eric, King of Denmark, to investigate the right of William Sinclair to the Earldom."0 In this Diploma it is stated that Malise, Earl of Stratherne, succeeded to the Earldoms of Orkney and Shetland as lawful heir, apparently
a p. 391. b p. 257.
c The Diploma is printed in the appendix to Barry's History of Orkney.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 41
of his mother, Farther, that Malise first married a daughter of the Earl of Menteith, by whom he had a daughter, Matilda, who was married to Weiland [but more probably Robert] de Ard, the father of Alexander de Ard : That Alexander de Ard succeeded Earl Malise in the principal messuage of the Earldom of Caithness including the title, together with lands in Orkney, and that he disposed of the Earldom of Caithness to King Robert II. It is there also stated that Earl Malise took for his second wife a daughter of Hugh, Earl of Ross, by whom he had four daughters, of whom the eldest was married to Sir William Sinclair ; the second to Uere Ginsill of Swethick ; the third, with a certain person, " Gothurno le Spere, " and the fourth died without heirs. Sir William Sinclair, it is added, had by his marriage with the eldest daughter a son, Sir Henry Sinclair, who made certain agreements with Haco, King of Norway, and enjoyed thereby the Earldom of Orkney.
The point of difference between the two Deeds arises thus : In the Diploma it is stated that it was Sir William Sinclair to whom one of the four daughters of Earl Malise de Stratherne, sometime Earl of Orkney, was married, while in the Attestation to James of Cragy it is stated, that Elizabeth, daughter of the said Malise, was married to Sir Henry Sinclair, also sometime Earl of Orkney. If this last statement is correct, it would then appear that Sir Henry's claim to the Earldom, when he obtained the title from King Haco, was in right of his wife, and not, as has been generally stated, in right of his mother.
The whole subject of the succession, however, is obscure, and it is difficult to adjust satisfactorily all the facts which have been ascertained from different sources.
42 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
The Attestation to James of Cragy also furnishes us with a Bishop of Orkney hitherto unnoticed. It appears, from various documents, that there was a Bishop John, in 1397, and the next prelate who is mentioned is Thomas de Tulloch, whom we find flourishing in 1422. The Attestation takes notice of a Bishop Patrick, who must have come to the See between the above Bishops, John and Thomas ; and it refers to his canonical title, and the many dis- turbances and injuries which he suffered during his incumbency, in all which he received the firm support of James of Cragy.
No. VI. is a curious missive to Torquil M'Leod from Queen Mary, dated at Inverary, 23d July, 1563. By it, after referring to a report, that " sum of the His ar desirous to haue you allyat to thame be mareage ;" she adds, " and becaus ye haue that honor to be of the Stewarth blude, we thocht expedient to gif you advertis- ment that it is our will and plesheur that ye allyat yourself to na party in mareage without our advyss, and quhill we declair our opinioun and mynd to yourself thairin."a
The following statement by Gregory, in his " History of the Western Highlands and Isles "b serves to explain the relationship which gave to Torquil M'Leod a tincture of the '* Stewarth blude," as well as his share in the stormy fortunes and early death which distinguished so many members of that Royal House. " Rode- rick of Ruari Macleod, the Baron of Lewis, and heir male of his ancient house, was first married to Janet, daughter of John M'Kenzie of Kintail. The alleged issue of this marriage was a son, Torquil, — afterwards, from his residence among his mother's relations in Strathconuan, surnamed Connanach. The Lady of
a The letter is given in fac simile, b pp. 209-10.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 43
Lewis, however, having eloped with John M'Gillechallum of Rasay, chieftain of a powerful branch of the Siol Torquil, was divorced by her husband, who, at the same time, disowned and disinherited Torquil Connanach, alleging that the latter was not his son, but the son of the Breve or Celtic Judge of the Lewis. Ruari Mac- leod married secondly, in 1541, Barbara Stewart, daughter of Andrew Lord Avondale, and by this lady had a son, likewise named Torquil, and surnamed Oighre, or the Heir, to distinguish him from Torquil Connanach. The latter being supported by the Mackenzies, a feud between the two clans was the result. Nor did the quarrel thus begun end, but with the total destruction of the family of Lewis. Sometime in or before the year 1566, Torquil Oighre, a young chief of great promise, was, with many of his attendants, drowned in a tempest when sailing from Lewis to Sky. As he left no male issue, this event gave fresh spirit to the supporters of Torquil Connanach and to that individual himself, who had now married a daughter of the Laird Glengarry." The letter of Queen Mary must have been addressed to Torquil Oighre shortly before his death.
Statutes antr Eatos of tije (grammar £>cf)oot of
— 1553.
These Rules occur in a volume in the Library of King's College, containing several Treatises on Grammar, by John Vaus, the first Professor of Humanity in that seminary, of which the first is " IN
44 THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
PRIMAM Doctrinalis Alexandrini de nominum ac verborum decliri- ationibus atque formationibus partem, ab Jodoco Badio Ascensio recognitam, Magistri Joannis Vaus, natione Scoti et percelebris Abredonensium Academie Grammatici, Commentarii ; ab eodem Ascensio itidem recogniti atque impress!. Paris, MDXXIT." The second is the Rudiments of the Art of Grammar, by Mr. John Vaus, printed at Paris in 1553.a At the end of it are the " Statutes," now printed, followed by a Letter from Alexander Skeyne — " Ju- ventuti Abredonensi Grammaticis studiosse," dated Paris, 15 kalend Julii, 1553, and the following Hexastichon by Ferrerius : —
Sint procul ambages, manibusque teratur ubique, Iste liber, format qui bene Grammaticum Theiophilus noster prasclari muneris autbor, Ista suis pueris scripsit Aberdoniae. Vausius boec primum dederat, vestigia pone, Theiopbilus sequitur : doctiis uterque. Vale.
The last Treatise is entitled, " Cicero Poeta etiam elegans, ne- durn inept us Fuisse, contra vulgatam Grammatistarum opinionem asseritur ; inibique versiculus ille cantatissimus : —
0 fortunatam natam me Consule Romam diligenter, expensus,
Joanne Ferrerio, Pedemontano authore. Parisiis, ex officina, Michaelis Vaxosani, MDXL."
The Statutes give us a lively picture of the rules adopted in carrying on a classical school three centuries ago. It appears that the scholars were forbidden to speak to each other in the vernacu-
a RUDIMENT A ARTIS GRAMMATICS, per Jo. VAUS SCOTUM selecta, et in duo divisa. — Prima pars dat literarum, syllabarum et dictionem prima libamina partim latine, par- tim vulgi lignae tradita. Secunda docet usum dictionum ad orationes congruas statuendas, secundum septendecim congruitatis formulas; unde omnis grammaticse artis oratio dependet. Parisiis, ex officina Roberti Masselin, 1553.
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 45
lar, but all were to speak in the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, or Irish tongues.*
The Editor takes this opportunity of returning his thanks for the readiness with which he has been allowed the use of records and documents, both by public bodies and private individuals, in the preparation of the volume ; and he cannot doubt that the Members will join with him in recognising and acknowledging the favour conferred on the Club, by Mr. Chalmers and Mr. Robertson, for the valuable papers contributed by them, in illustration of some of the documents in the present volume, and which are printed as an Appendix to the Preface.
JOHN STUART.
ABERDEEN, November, 1852.
p. 400.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
No. I.
REMARKS ON THE LAW OF THE BURGHS CONCERNING DELIVERY OF LANDS WITHIN BURGH.
BY P. CHALMERS, ESQ. OF ALDBAR.
" Per illam legem burgorum per quam dicitur," &c. In accordance with that law of the Burghs, by which it is said, " let delivery of lands in Burghs be made with charters and outcry," " cum cartis et clam ore."
These words are not found in any of the ; Leges Burgorum' of Scotland ; and, therefore, we must look elsewhere for their explanation. These Burgh laws, how- ever, by no means afford a complete code of Scotch burgal law, even as it existed at the date of their compilation ; perhaps this collection may be more in the nature of rules of law and practice, deduced from decisions of the court of Four Burghs on questions arising before it, together with additions and alterations suggested by experience, or rendered necessary by increasing extent and complexity of trans- actions ; drawing largely too from England and France, the substratum being the common law, of which there was probably no written text in any of the countries.
But the explanation of the words in question may perhaps be found in " La clameur des Lignagers" of the consuetudinary law of Normandy. This custom is supposed by Houard,* who illustrated the Norman Law by that of England and Scotland, to have arisen in the 12th century, to meet the inconvenience that must have flowed from the inalienability of Burgal land and heritage (heirship), which could only be sold on proof of extreme poverty, if, indeed, it could have been
* Dictionnaire de Droit Normand, sub voce ; and Anciennes Loix des Francois, tome ler, p. 256, et passim. 4to, Rouen, 1779,
50 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
sold at all before that date. In heritage were included the principal tools used in the trade of a burgess, and certain articles of his household furniture ; the buildings on the land of a burgess were generally laid out to suit the wants of his particular calling, and as this calling was usually (if not necessarily, by law) here- ditary, descending from father to son, and as his family was bound to support him in sickness, in poverty, and in old age, so the law provided that the land and heri- tage should not be alienated from the family ; and, therefore, gave to this the right, up to the seventh degree of kindred inclusive, to reclaim, from a purchaser, that land or heritage if sold. If there were no limit in time, as there seems to have been none, to the exercise of this right, it followed that no purchaser could be assured of a valid title to his purchase. The 'clameur des Lignagers' met this by providing, that a burgess desiring to sell his land or heritage, should give notice of his intention to do so at three successive ' plaeita' or courts of the Burgh, held at intervals of fifteen days ; and, having proved extreme poverty,* should call his kindred (lignagers) to appear for their interest, and should offer the pro- perty to them. If no objections were made, the court named a day for the sale, to which the kindred were cited ; the sale was made in the presence of the Mayor or the chief Magistrate, along with twelve notable men or councillors-]- (echevins) specially summoned ; the proceedings at the three courts were recited, proof being given that the notices of sale, and offers of the property to the kindred, had been duly made ; the property was again offered to the kindred, and if no claimant ap- peared, the sale was made and proclaimed. If the sale so made were not challenged within year and day, by one having right, the purchaser's title was completed, and could not afterwards be disturbed by the kindred, except on proof of fraud or col- lusion in the sale. In Winchester there seems to have been a special sealj with which charters of feofment were sealed, or countersealed, by the Alderman (in whose custody they had remained) on expiry of year and day without challenge, and after three days notice given.
There can be little doubt that the right of reclamation and redemption by kindred, was common to the Burgh laws of England and Scotland, as well as of Normandy ; but Houard is of opinion that it did not exist in any of them before the 12th century, because it is not found in the laws of William the Conqueror,
* In Scotland, proof of poverty was not required in the sale of conquest land in- burgh ; the offer kindred was sufficient in this case ; but it is probable that the exception was made at a later
t In Normandy, twelve councillors (echevins) ; but in Scotland they seem to have been twelve neighbours, four from either side of the tenement, and four dwelling opposite to it : at least, these are required for preliminary proof of poverty, without which there could be no sale. Leg. Burg. c.
, Skene ; cvii. apud Acta Parl. (Thomson's Acts.) See also the latter, App. v., p, 356, " De
ysina in burgo," according to the law and assise of King David, A.D. 1169 ; but David died in 1153;
illiam came to the throne in 1165 ; the Scots version omits the year.
t Archaeological Journal, No. 33, pp. 80, 89, where there is a drawing of the seal.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 51
nor in the law of Normandy of his time, the only ' retraits' traceable then being ' le feodal' and * le conventional,' but he finds traces of it in the laws of the Scotch Burghs,* compiled at a later date. On this supposition, burgage land would, be- fore the 1 2th century, have, on alienation, escheated to the King, under la clameur feodale, or to the community as holding intermediately between the king and the individual burgesses ; probably to the former, because the rents of the perticates (parvi redditus)-(- were paid to him.
The mode of proceeding in clameur dcs lignagers, simple at first, and without writing, as is shown J in the provision for proof in case of the death of all who had been present, gradually came to be encumbered with the formalities of charters, precepts of sasine, notarial instruments, and minute observances, varying with the particular circumstances of the transaction, and eventually, perhaps, took the shape of the well-known forms of later times. Is it too much to suppose that we see, in the present case, the law or practice in a state of transition, when the two modes of transferring land in Burghs may have co-existed, one before an assize, without writing, the other still retaining the presence of the assize, as essential to the validity of transfer, but accompanied with the delivery of a written charter in its presence, " cum cartis et clamore in traditione terrarum in burgis."
The claim itself, which has given occasion to these remarks, is one of redemption by next of kin, but is encumbered with specialties. Stripped of these it is as follows : — A, claiming to be heir of B, asserts her right to a tenement of land of which C is in possession in security for a sum of money lent to B ; C's only title being corporeal institution, following on a personal (?) bond (literas obligatorias). To avoid litigation, C agrees to pay a certain sum to A, on condition that she con- veys to him all right that she has, or pretends to, in the tenement in question. In order that A may carry out this agreement, it is necessary that she should prove her burgess descent, and that she is of lawful age (15 years) according to the Burgh laws of Scotland, to enable her to sell the lands. Also, that she should offer the tenement to her next of kin, at three several courts (placita) of the Burgh, held at intervals of fifteen days. Here D and E appear, claiming to be of kin.
* Leg. Burg. Skene, cap. ix, xi, xxiii, xlv, xcvi, c, cxxvii. See also clep, a call, a form of claim in criminal causes — Skene de Verborum Significatione. Also, the second statutes of King Robert the First, chap, xx, 7, " Item, it is to wit, that this is the forme in dischargeing of poynds, that the debtour sail have his cattell poynded, or anie other poynd restored to him, and the probation readie at hand, with clep and call" (clamore.)— Regiam Majestalem, Skene. Translation, Reprint, Edin. 1774, p. 363.
f The parvi redditus were payable to the King, and each burgess owed the King such suit and service as was due from a perticate of land ; but as a burgess could obtain possession of land within burgh without a writ from the King's Chancery, but on institution by the bailie of the burgh, it may be inferred that the community held intermediately between the King and the individual burgess. These parvi redditus were compounded for in the reign of David II. for a certain annual sum, fixed for ever, payable by the burgh.
J Leg. Burg, cxxvii, Skene.
52 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
It is found that D is not of kin of the blood ; but E is declared to be A's next of kin, and being offered the tenement on condition of paying to C the money he had lent upon it, together with that he had agreed to pay to A (and, also, to take the burden of her support during life, if he should take the property ?) renounces all right or claim. None other of kin appearing, A demands that C shall be put in possession, in terms of her charter granted to him. On this, the Bailies rise in court and proceed along with the assize to the tenement, and there, causing the charter to be read, sasine is given to C in the usual form, in presence of the assise, " (vicinitate) congregata testante." A then delivers her charter to C, (putting an end to the process of litigation,) according to that law of the Burghs, by which it is said, " cum cartis et clamore in traditione terrarum in burgis," with charters and outcry in delivery of lands in burghs.
C then offers to E, as next of kin to A, the option of redeeming the land on re- payment within one year of the sums he had paid to B and A.
In the Register of the Bishopric of Glasgow, there are two instances of the offer to kindred of burgal tenements within the Bishops Burgh, previous to sale, thus confirmatory, so far, of the statement that the great lords, ecclesiastic and lay, speedily followed the King's example in extending the privileges of their burgesses ; for Houard holds that this droit des lignagers does not belong to bur- gage tenure proper, but is a privilege granted to burgesses, distinguishing between burgage tenure and burgess rights (bourgage et bourgeoisie), a want of attention to which distinction had, he says, led the reformers of the Norman law into much confusion.
These Glasgow charters* are found under the reigns of Alexander III., and Queen Margaret, being of earlier date than the present case. In both instances the sale is preceded by proof of poverty on the testimony of credible and sufficient men (of burgess rank ?) and is made with the express consent of the seller's next heir. In the first it is probable that the intention to sell had been opposed by some party, for the offer of the lands to the next relations and friends (propin- quioribus parentibus raeis et amicisf) is made in the court of Glasgow at the three principal placita (head courts of the Burgh) of the year, as well as at other placita according to the law and custom of the Burgh. Sasine is given in presence of the Provosts and Bailies of Glasgow, and of twelve burgesses, and others of the said city. In the second case, the sale follows the third offering in three courts (pla- citis) of the Burgh, " ut moris eat," and the seller and his heir bind themselves by oath, and bind their heirs, to pay a penalty of one hundred shillings sterling
* Reg. Ep. Glasguensis, pp. 197, 198. Ban. and Maitland Clubs' Book.
t In Scotland, the word friend implies kindred or affinity in the person spoken of; a near friend is a near relation or connexion.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 53
towards the repair of the Church of Glasgow, (fabricae ecclesias) if they shall at- tempt to set aside the sale.
Do we see our upset price and sale by roup in this offering of property to the kindred of the seller? The primary meaning of roup is, to shout, to cry aloud, and Cotgrave translates the French " vendre a Tencant" by " to sell by Port-sale, or out-rope," and " Incant as Encant ; an out-crie of goods." Outcry is still used in some parts of England and Ireland in this sense, as is uit-roepen in some of the northern languages. Uitroep in Dutch, proclamation, publication ; " Jets bij open- baaren uitroep verkoopen," to sell anything by public sale.
(Lois des Francois. Tom 1.)
" DANS les Loix de Guillaume le Conquerant, on ne voit d' autre Retrait admis que le feodal on le conventionnel. On peut done assurer que le lignager n' existoit point de son temps en France ni en Normandie. En effet, quoique Charlemagne eut defendu, par la Loi des Saxons, d' aliener son bien avant de 1' avoir offert a ses proches ; ni ses Capitulaires, ni les loix de ses Successeurs ne contiennent rien qui ait rapport au droit de Retrait. Mar- culphe meme, dans differentes Formules, dispense de la tradition des parens pour la vali- dite des donations. Mais en consultant les Loix des Bourgs d' Ecosse, lesquelles ont etc tirees du Droit Coutumier Anglois, il me paroit qu' on peu fixer P epoque et determiner le motif de 1' usage du Retrait lignager, tel que nous pratiquons encore. L' etablissement des bourgeoisies a en pour but, en France comme en Angleterre, d' etendre le commerce, d' affoiblir 1' autorite des Seigneurs. II convenoit done que les possessions fussent, dans les Villes, plus stables et plus independantes que celles que les Seigneurs donnoient en Fief. Les fonds qu' un pere de famille acqueroit dans la ville ou il avoit obtenu le droit de Bourgeoisie, etoient batis et distribues selon les besoins de la profession qu' il exercjoit. Perpetuer ces fonds dans les families, c' etoit consequemment le moyen le plus sur d' en- gager ceux qui la composoient a se livrer tous au meme genre de travail ; et comme, par une suite de cette idee, un Bourgeois ne pouvoit disposer de son mobilier, sans reserver a ses heritier ou a ses enfans, les principaux outils et ustensiles de son metier et du menage ; de meme, il n' avoit la liberte d' aliener sa maison que dans le cas de necessite, et lorsqu' aucun de ses parens ne vouloit lui procurer la subsistance et 1' entretien. La loi du Retrait est done une loi de Bourgage dans les pays coutumiers de France, et en particulier dans la Normandie, et a proportion de ce que les Villes se sont multipliers dans une une Province, cette loi a du avoir plus de vogue/'
Anciennes Loix des Francois, conservees dans les Coutumes Anglaises, recuillies par Littleton, &c. Par M. Houard, Avocat au Parlement, &c. &c. Tome premier, p. 256, 4to, Rouen, 1779.
Dictionnaire de la Coutume de Normandie*
" Nous avons cru devoir distinguer les clameurs d' avec les retraits, et sous ce dernier mot, traiter des retraits faits de biens echus aux possesseurs par succession sous celui de
9
54 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
elameur, il ne sera done parle que du droit qu' ont les Seigneurs on les lignagers d' expro- prier un possesseur de fonds ou de rentes qu' il a achete.
L' origine des clameurs prises en ce dernier sens doit etre fixee au douzieme siecle ; ce fut alors que les Bourgeoisies des Villes s' establirent, pour accrediter cet etablissement, si propre a affoiblir 1' autorite des Seigneurs, il convenoit que les possessions fussent dans les Villes affranchies du vasselage, et plus stables, et plus independantes qu' elles ne 1' etoient dans les Seigneuries. De la les fonds qu' un pere de famille acquerait dans une Ville, devant passer a ses enfants qui ordinairement exercoient sa meme profession, etoient batis et distribues selon les besoms de cette profession ; et il etoit de 1' equite que le Bourgeois n' en disposat pas, ni de ses principaux outils en faveur d' etrangers sans necessite, et tant que ses enfants ne lui refusoient point les besoins et les commodites de la vie.
Quand les Seigneurs, a 1' instar des Souverains, eurent etablis des bourgeoisies dans leurs terres, pour prevenir la totale emigration de leurs vassaux, ils admirent aussi la elameur on revendication des alienations en faveur des parents de leurs hommes, et ils ne se reserverent le retour des fonds vendus qu' a defaut des lignagers qui en reprissent la possession ; les formalites des clameurs pour les lignagers etoient extremement simples.
Le proprietaire declaroit dans trois plaids successifs du Bourg ou de la Ville ou les fonds etoient assis, plaids que se tenoient de 15 jours en 15 jours, qu' il etoit determine a vendre ; il faisoit sommer ses parents de s'y trouver ; s' ils ne comparoissoient pas, la vente s' effectuoit, 1' acquereur entroit en possession en presence de douze Echevins et du juge majeur ou Maire, et apres 1* an et jour expire, sa propriete etoit a P abri de toute reclama- tion. Si, posterieurement a ce delai, quelque parent troubloit P acquereur, il etoit oblige d' etablir la fraude : par exemple que P heriiage n' avoit pas etc legalement propose a la famille.
On ne distinguoit done alors que deux sortes des clameurs, la lignagere et la feodale. Depuis se sont introduites celles a droit conventionel et a droit de lettre lue." Houard, Dictionnaire de la Coutume de Normandie. Tom 1. p. 242, 4to, Rouen, 1780.
In illustration of the right of reclamation by kindred, I may mention that in conversation with a member of the Odelsthing of Norway, some years ago, I was told that the Odel lands in that country might, if sold, be reclaimed from the purchaser or his successors by any of the kindred of the seller, whether through male or female line, (heirs whatsoever) at any time on repayment of the original purchase money, so that the more such lands were improved, the greater became the temptation to the kindred of the seller to reclaim them. He himself had known lands to be so reclaimed after having been held by descendants of the purchaser through several generations. Attempts had been made in the Storthing to open such lands to commerce, but, up to that time, without success. A purchaser who was of kin to the seller might, however, obtain a valid title ; probably by some such proceeding as we see in this case. Instances of sale of Odal lands in Orkney and Shetland, may be seen in the printed collection of " Deeds relating to
APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
55
Orkney and Zetland, 1433 to 1581." Number XIII. of that collection is a charter of Opgestrie in which a woman and her husband make choice of certain of their bairns in whose favour they resign their lands, on condition of their receiving maintenance for life. Opgestrie* was the resignation or transfer of Odal lands to one's kindred, on condition of being lodged, fed, clothed, and otherwise taken care of during life.
Much light may probably be thrown on the ancient burgh or town (villa) laws of Europe by a careful study of the laws and customs of the village communities still subsisting in India, some of which societies bear so close a resemblance to those of our Saxon ancestors as to make it certain that their laws are derived from a common origin. It is to be hoped that Mr. Campbell, who has lately given us such interesting information on the subject, may be induced to treat it more fully than he had occasion to do in his recent publication-}- ; showing in what parts of India the system exists in its greatest purity, and its modifications in different parts of that wide country, and making patent to the public some of the hidden know- ledge contained in ''Blue-books.9
It is necessary that I should apologise for having ventured at all upon the fore- going remarks on a subject with which I have so little acquaintance. — P. C.
* See Hibbert's account of Orkney and Shetland, &c. t Modern India : a Sketch of the System of Civil Government. Bengal Civil Service. London, 1852.
By George Campbell, Esq.
ON SCHOLASTIC OFFICES IN THE SCOTTISH CHURCH IN THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.
IT is proposed to show, by the incidental light of contemporary charter and chro- nicle, that three offices or grades of a scholastic kind — the Scoloc, the Master of the Schools, and the Ferleiginn — obtained in the ancient Scottish Church, and sur- vived the great civil and ecclesiastical revolution which was begun by St. Margaret, and followed out, but not completed, by the three Kings, her sons.
I. THE SCOLOC.
The lowest order was that of the Scoloc. We are happily not left to conjecture the meaning of the name. A writer of the twelfth century, Reginald of Durham, sometimes also called Reginald of Coldingham, takes occasion, in his lively ' Book of the Miracles of St. Cuthbert,' to relate certain incidents which befel the famous St. Aelred of Rievaux, in the year 1164, during a journey into Pictland — that is, Galloway, it would seem, or perhaps, more generally, the provinces of Scotland lying to the south of the Forth and the Clyde. The saintly Abbot happened to be at ' Cuthbrictis Khirche,' or Kirkcudbright, as it is now called, on the feast-day of its great patron. A bull, the marvel of the parish for his strength and ferocity, was dragged to the church, bound with cords, to be offered as an alms and oblation to St. Cuthbert. ' The clerks of the church,' says Reginald, l the Scolofthes, as they are called in the Pictish speech,' * irreverently proposed that the bull should be baited in the churchyard. It was in vain that the elder and wiser of their number remonstrated against the profanity. ' There is no Cuthbert here,' was the scoffing
* The words of the original are : ' clerici illi, qui in ecclesia ilia commorantur, qui Pictomm lingua Scollofthes cognominantur.' If Reginald of Durham had chanced to he disinterred before the Pictish controversy wore itself out, these words might have become as famous as the passage in Bede, ' qui sermone Pictorum Peanfahel appellatur,' which led to the memorable strife between Sir Arthur W ardour and the Laird of Monkbarns.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 57
answer, ' nor is this a place to show his power, for all his stone chapel.' With this the speaker unbound the bull, and began to bait him with the rest. The sequel need scarcely be told. The bull broke loose, and rushed upon his assailants, but hurt no one ' except only the scholar aforesaid (praedictum scolasticum solummodo).' This would be enough of itself to show that Reginald, or his informant, St. Aelred, understood ' the clerks ' or * scollofthes ' of Kirkcudbright, to be ' scholars/ But, as if to place his meaning beyond doubt, he inscribes the chapter with the rubric ' Of a certain Pictish scholar (de scholastico quodam Pictorum), who rashly broke the peace of St. Cuthbert's cemetery, by a bull-bait upon St. Cuthbert's day ; and of the retribution which befel him.'*
The use of 'scholar' or * scholasticus ' in the sense of an ecclesiastical 'clerk/ was by no means peculiar to Scotland. Du Cange has collected abundant instances of such a meaning. * Scholars in country churches (scholares in ecclesiis rurali- bus)', he says, ' were commonly called clerks (clerici).1 l Clerks (clerici) were vulgarly styled scholars ( Scholar -esj.' He quotes a capitulary of Charlemagne to show their office. ' Let priests have their scholars (scholarios) so trained and taught,' was the injunction of the great restorer of letters in the west, ' that when accident hinders their own presence in the church at Tierce, Sext, Nones, or Vespers, their scholars (ipsi scholarii) may sound the bell and perform the service.' The Norman chronicler of the eleventh century, Dudon de Saint Quentin, writes : ' The scholars (schotastici) babble as they bear the candlesticks and crosses before the canons.'f Our Scotch * scoloc ' had probably nothing peculiar but the form into which his name was corrupted. There is ample evidence that * scoloc ' and ' scholar ' were convertible terras.
Ellon was of old the capital of the earldom of Buchan. Here, on a green mount rising from the bank of the Ythan, those ancient Earls administered justice, received the homage of their liegemen, and took investiture of their great fief. J The parish
* Reginald! Dunelmensis Libellus de Adrnirandis Beati Cuthberti Virtu tibus, cap. Ixxxv., p. 179. Lond. 1835. (Surtees Soc.)
The editor — the Reverend James Raine, I believe, the admirable author of ' The History of North Durham,' a -work of invaluable use to the Scottish antiquary, — in his glossary (p. 335), explains ' scollofthes' as ' the Pictish word for clerici, scholars, or students.'
We may infer that 'scoloc' was, in Reginald's time, sounded with a guttural gli, as if written 'scoloeh' or 'scologh.' With most Englishmen at the present day, 'loch' .becomes either 'lock' or ' lofth,' We find even Scotsmen ' native and to the manner born/ like Hector Boece, transforming ' Bannockburn' into ' Bannafborn.' (Hect. Boet. Scot. Hist. lib. xiv. fol. 302. edit. Paris, 1575.)
t Du Cange, Glossar. in vocc. ' scholares,' ' clerici,' ' scholares,' ' scholasticus.'
The Abbot of Cambuskenneth, writing in the beginning of the sixteenth century, records the con- temporary endowment of a ' scholastic chaplain' (scolasticum capellanum) at Dunkeld. (Vit. Episcop. Dunkeld., p. 59.) The constitutions of Bishop Elphinstone of Aberdeen, in 1506, make provision 'ne calices asportentur extra chorum per seculares seu garsiones laicos aut scolares.' (Regist. Episcop. Aberd. vol. ii. p. 105.) In Bishop Kennedy's foundation charter of St. Salvator's College at St. An- drews, in 1458, we have ' sex erunt scholares sive clerici, sed pauperes.' (Rep. of Royal Commission on Scot. Univ., p. 387, evidence, vol. iii. p. 271.)
| Collect on Aberdeen and Banff, p. 408 ; Lord Hailes' Addit. Sutherland Case, pp. 61, 64 ; Inqui- sit. Special, vicecom. Aberd. nn. 139, 261, 293, 367, 497 ; New Statist. Ace. Scot. (Aberd.) p. 903.
58 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
church, participating, as would seem to have been the custom,* in the metropolitan dignity of the place, appears to have had an endowment for the maintenance of four Scolocs. We first hear of them in the year 1265, when Gameline, Bishop of St. Andrew's, ' let his land of Ellon, in Buchan, which the Scolocs of Ellon hold (quam Scoloci de Elon tenent),' in lease to Alexander Curayn, Earl of Buchan, for a yearly rent of two marks of silver. The Earl bound himself to perform the military service due from the lands ; to be leal and faithful to the Bishop and church of St. Andrew's ; and, at the expiry of the lease, which was for three lives, to restore the land to the See, ' by its right marches, with all its appurtenances, as the Scolocs now hold it (sicut Scoloci earn nunc tenentj\ More than a century afterwards, in the year 1387, the land which had been thus leased became the subject of an inquest, made at the parish church of Ellon, by Walter, Bishop of St. Andrew's, with consent of the Bishop of Aberdeen, the ordinary of the diocese. The ' good men and true of the country/ who were sworn of the inquest, declared ' that the church lands of Ellon, which are called the Scolog lands, are of the yearly value of fifteen pounds thirteen shillings and four pence sterling, and were worth of old twenty pounds, and there are due from them, to the Lord Bishop of St. Andrew's, the over-lord, sixteen shillings yearly ;' that the Bishop may put bailifs in the lands at his pleasure, who may hold courts, at which all the folk of the land are bound to appear, suits there to follow or defend, and judgement to undergo, as of right and use is : ' that custom was, that the heir of any Scolog de- ceased (''Scologi defuncti,' l Scolagii defunct?) should be entered in His heritage by the bailif of the lands, without letter of inquest from the over-lord' ' But here- upon,' says the record, * in face of the witnesses, after their declaration of inquest, Dame Anabel of Liddel, one of the tenants of the lands aforesaid, being there per- sonally present, affirmed that she had entered into her land, being a portion of the lauds aforesaid, by letter of inquest, and had given a seisin ox, after the
* Thus, at Muthill, the capital of the Earldom of Stratherne, there was a Priory of Keldees. (Carte Monialium de Northberwic, pp. 7, 12 ; Crawford's Officers of State, p. 6 ; Palgrave's Illust. Hist. Scot. vol. i. p. 320 ; Liber Insule Missarum, p. xxxvii. ; Regist. Episcop. Moravien, pp. 469, 470.) The ' chemys,' or chief messuage of the Earldom of Menteith, was at Inch-Ma-Colmock, or St. Col- mock's Isle, a religious seat of unascertained antiquity. (Riddell's Inq. into Scotch Peerage Law, vol. ii. pp. 990—1002.) The capital of the Earldom of Athol was at Rait, and the charter of the Bishop of Dunkeld, which confirms the place to the Canons of Scone, takes care to record the fact : ' Rath que est capud comitatus.' (Lib. Eccl. S. Trinitat. de Scon, p. 35.) The first monastic founda- tion, of the reformed order, made in Albany or proper Scotland, was at Scone, ' in principal! sede regni nostri,' says the charter of the Maiden King, who, next to the royal founder, was its chief bene- factor. (Lib. Ecc. S. Trinit. de Scon, p. 5.)
t Collections on the Shires of Aberdeen and BanflF, pp. 311, 312.
The ' land of Helen which Slothagth held' appears in the possession of the See of St. Andrews, in the end of the twelfth century. (Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, p. 59.) Bishop Richard granted it to the canons, in exchange for Portmoak, by the name of ' Helin terram scilicet Sluthagh.' (Id. p. 140.) The grant was confirmed by Bishop Hugh, whose charter writes ' et Elin quam Sluthadi tenuit ;' and by Bishop Roger, who describes it as ' terram Elin quarn Slodah tenuit.' (Id. pp. 146, 152.) But it may be doubted, perhaps, if there be sufficient evidence of the identity of this Elin with Ellon in Buchan.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 59
manner of the country, which ox one there present affirmed that he had re- ceived ; and the Lord Bishop protested that he was then in possession of this right, namely, that the heir of every Scolog f cujuslibet Scolgi,' * cuiuslibet Scolagij?) should enter to his heritage by inquest and seisin thereupon following, after the manner and common use of the realm.'* After this interruption, the record bears that the men of inquest declared that the quarter, or fourth part of the lands aforesaid, which had belonged to the deceased Megot, daughter of the deceased David of Ferley, were now in the Bishop's hands, by reason of the non-presenta- tion of an heir; 'that, from the lands aforesaid, there are to be found, for the parish church of Ellon, four clerks (clerici) with copes and surplices, able to read and sing sufficiently; that the quarter, or fourth part of Easter Ellon, is bound to find a house for the scholars (pro scolaribus) at Ellon ; that the quarter, or fourth part of Candellan is bound, twice in every year, to find twenty-four wax candles for 'the park' or 'perk,'f before the high altar; and that the quarter, or fourth part of Ferley aforesaid, is bound to find a smithy (fabrinam) at Ellon.'
The inquest, which has been thus recited, reaches us in two copies, the one de- rived from the Great Register of the Archbishopric of St. Andrew's, J the other engrossed in the Red Book of the Bishopric of Aberdeen.§ One point of difference between them is instructive, as proving the identity of ' Scoloc' and ' Scholar.' Where the scribe of St. Andrew's writes ' the church lands of Ellon, called the Scolog lands/ his brother of Aberdeen has ' the church lands of Ellon, called the Scholar lands.' Nor is this a mere clerical error or unauthorised freedom. The conveyances of the lands which remain in the charter-room at Ellon, show that the popular speech of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had transformed ' Scolog' into ' Scholar/ Thus, in 1472-3, Symon Bannerman of Elsick sells to Gilbert Hay, the son of the Knight of Dronlaw, his eighth part of the lands of Argeith, held in chief of his Lord of St. Andrew's, and ' lying in the schoolry of Ellon (in scolaria de Ellon)' binding himself to free the purchaser ' of all secular service, exaction, or demand, due from the lands, either to the over-lord or to the
* On the point which seems to have been here in dispute, reference may be made to the Regist. Episcop. Morav., p. 379.
f The words of the record are ' super lie park coram magno altari.' In Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, we have ' park ' for a pole or perch, with an instance of its use in that sense from Bishop Gawain Douglas' translation of the ^Eneid. The ' Glossary of Architecture ' gives ' perch, perk, and pearch' as ' an old name sometimes given to a bracket or corbel,' and adds that ' the large wax candles used in Roman Catholic churches were formerly sometimes called pearches.' Carpentier explains ' parchia ' as ' trabecula in aedibus sacris ubi cerei accenduntur. He gives ' pertica ' with much the same meaning. (Glossarium, vol. iii. coll. 171, 256.)
It is to be observed that the word which is written 'lie park' in the copy of the Ellon inquest, taken from the St. Andrews' Register, is written ' le pern' in the copy preserved in the Aberdeen Register.
J Collections on the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, pp. 310, 311.
§ Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, vol. i. pp. 177, 178.
60 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
church of Ellon.' The same description of ' in scolaria de Ellon' is repeated in a charter of 1506, and in precepts of clare constat of 1556 and 1562,* the older designation of ' the Scoloc lands' having now, it would seem, become obsolete.
Looking to the Ellon inquest of 1387, it would seem that the lands, originally set apart for the maintenance of the ' Scolocs/ had undergone much the same fate with the possessions of so many greater religious foundations in Scotland. Take, for example, the ancient abbeys of Abernethy and Brechin, as we see them in the charters of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.f Their endowments had been divided into two parts. The larger and better portion, together with the name of Abbot, had been usurped by laymen, who transmitted the benefice and title as a heritage to their children. What remained, with the name of Prior, was possessed by ecclesias- tics, who discharged, probably perfunctorily enough, the duties, for the per- formance of which the whole revenues had been originally assigned by the founders. Such was the condition into which most, or all of the ancient monas- teries of Scotland had fallen before the twelfth century.^ The same kind of abuse
* Deeds in the Ellon Charter Chest.
f Most of the deeds necessary to understand the state both of Abernethy and of Brechin will be found in the Registrum Vetus de Aberbrothoc.
I See the Quarterly Review, vol. Ixxxv. no. clxix. pp. 117, 118. (June, 1849.)
The abuse which prevailed in our Scottish abbeys before the twelfth century may be illustrated by a few sentences from the passage in which the learned Deputy Keeper of the Recordspaints the greatabuse of bestowing abbeys as lay-benefices, which obtained in France in the ninth century. ' We can best,' says Sir Francis Palgrave, ' exemplify the Carlovingian corruptions, by contemplating a great com- mander on Blenheim field. If you ascended the rock of Chiusa, and reached the mysterious tower of San' Michele, where you passed between the ranged corpses, stationed as warders of the portal, sculptured with zodiacal signs, and asked for the Abbot, the monks informed you that you would find him in Marlborough's camp ; for it was as Monseigneur VAbbe de Savoie that Prince Eugene made his earliest campaigns, he being at that time commendatory abbot of that and another of the most vener- able monasteries of ancient Lombardy, situated in the district to which, from its position, the name of ' Piedmonte ' was subsequently assigned. Such were the 'lay-abbots,' whom we have so often no- ticed, who held the most important monasteries in the Carlovingian G-auls — a motley groupe of stout soldiers, clever statesmen, delicate young princes, half-acknowledged husbands of princesses, or hus- bands fully declared, courtiers most in favour with the monarch, partizans who were to be conciliated by favours, or claimants who were to be satisfied — constituted the class who usually obtained these excellent pieces of preferment, which, in many respects, were more advantageous than any secular domain. Sometimes these abbots commendatory were in minor orders, but very frequently mere laymen, like those we have already noticed of Sithiu or Centulla. Outwardly the abbey did not appear to be changed. You heard of an abbot as you now do of the noble or reverend ' master ' of this or that ' hospital,' realising the fines and rents, according to the valuations and currency of Queen Victoria, and staving oflf the ' brethren,' by tendering their stipends in the nominal pence of Plantagenet. The Count was not in the abbey, he might be fighting against the Northmen, or en- joying himself in the palace : truly, there was a prior presiding in the refectory, and the monks were chanting in the choir, but the real spirit of the institution was of course fleeting away.' (Hist, of Normandy and England, vol. i. pp. 184, 185.)
Sir Francis Palgrave was not the first to illustrate the condition of the 'lay-abbot' of the Dark Ages, by reference to the usage of more recent times. Sir Henry Spelman sums up the explanation of ' Abba Comes,' in his glossary, by an allusion to the contemporary practice in Scotland, as in- stanced in the well-known Edward Bruce, Abbot of Kinloss. Our ' Tulchan Bishops' might have furnished another case, not much less in point. But, indeed, examples are only too abundant. ' An idea,' says Mr. Riddell, ' had been fostered after the Reformation, that the acquisition of a dignified churoh patrimony placed the disponee in the shoes of his predecessors, and not only gave him, to- gether with the lands, a seat and vote in Parliament, but also their style and dignity. This conclu- sion, which even prevailed in the seventeenth century, being practically indulged in, induced ludit -
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 61
seems to have established itself, in many cases, in the humbler endowments of the vil- lage churches. One who was a layman, in all except his shaven crown, inherited the
rous results Mere youths, and trafficking and abandoned laics, figured under the
masquerade of 'holy and reverend fathers,' and in the imposing guise of Abbots, Priors, Commenda- tors, having seat and vote in Parliament, Postulates, Provosts, Archpriests, Rectors, Parsons, with every epithet the most sacred and revered.' (Peerage and Consistorial Law of Scotland, vol. i. pp. 239, 240 ; Case of the Earl of Balcarres claiming the Earldom of Crawford, pp. 215, 216, 222.) He adduces an instance in which a lad of thirteen figures in legal record as Prior of Coldstream. Such boy ecclesiastics were not unknown before the Reformation. In the year 1550, we find the canonry of Menmuir, in the cathedral church of Dunkeld, held by a stripling of eighteen. He was the bastard of a canon of the same cathedral ; and the Pope, while dispensing with his youth and spurious birth, specially forbade that he should say mass at the same altar with his father, or succeed him in his benefices. (Lib. Officialis S. Andree, pp. xxviii., xxix., xlviii., xlix.)
In the chief monasteries of Scotland and the north of England, during the eleventh century, a grosser abuse prevailed than any which seems to have existed among the Carlovingian abbeys. Not only was the Abbot's office in the hands of a layman, but the monks had become hereditary, marry- ing wives, and transmitting their monastic profession and benefice to their children. Let Symeon of Durham describe the degeneracy into which the brethren of St. Cuthbert had lapsed : ' Tradita sibi districtione paulatim postposita, ecclesiasticam disciplinam odio habuerunt remissioris vitae illecebras
secuti Seculariter itaque omnino viventes carni et sanguini inserviebant, filios et
filias generantes : quorum posteri per successionem in ecclesia Dunelmensi fuerunt nimis remisse viventes, nee ullam nisi carnalem vitam quam ducebant scientes, nee scire volentes. Clerici voca- bantur, sed nee habitu nee conversatione clericatum praetendebant ; ordinem psalmorum in canendis horis secundum regulam Sancti Benedict! institutum tenuerunt, hoc solum a primis institutoribus Monachorum per paternam traditionem sibi transmissum servantes.' (Lib. de Exordio Dunhel- inensis Ecclesiae, pp. 3, 4 ; Reginald. Dunelm. Lib. de Virt. S. Cuthberti, pp. 28, 29.) The strong arm of the Conqueror, and the reforming zeal of Pope Gregory VII., purged Durham of its hereditary clergy, 'nomen tantum Canonicorumhabentes,sed in nullo Canonicorum regulam sequentes.' (Symeon. Lib. de Exord. Dun. Eccl., p. 224.) But they survived for nearly a century afterwards in the eccle- siastical capital of Scotland.
The ' Historia Bead Reguli,' written about the year 1144, shows us their condition : ' Sublatis vero a present! vita Sanctis, qui cum reliquiis Beati Apostoli advenerant, et eorum discipulis atque imita- toribus, cultus ibi religiosus deperierat, sicut et gens barbara et inculta fuerat. Habebantur in ecclesia Sancti Andreae tredecim per successionem carnalem quos Keledeos appellant, qui secundum suam aestimationem et hominum traditionem, magis quam secundum sanctorum statuta patrum, vivebant. Sed et adhuc similiter vivunt, et quaedam habent communia pauciora scilicet et de- teriora, quaedam vero propria plura scilicet et potiora. . . . Personae septem fuerunt obligationes altaris inter se dividentes, quarum septem portionum unam tantum habebat episcopus, et hospitale unam : quinque vero reliquae in quinque caeteros dividebantur, qui nullo omnino altari vel ecclesiae impendebant servitium, praeterquam peregrines et hospites, cum plures quam sex adventarunt, more suo hospitio suscipiebant, sortem mittentes quis quos vel quot reciperet : hospitale sane semper sex, et infra, suscipiebat. . . . Personae autem supra memoratae redditus et possessiones proprias habe- bant ; quas, cum e vita decederent, uxores eorum, quas publice tenebant, filii quoque vel filiae, pro- pinqui vel generi, inter se dividebant, nihilominus et altaris oblationes, cui non deserviebant, quod puduisset dicere, si non libuisset eis facere. Nee potuit tantum auferri malum, usque ad teinpus felicis memoriae Regis Alexandri.' (Pinkerton's Enquiry into Hist, of Scot., vol. i, pp. 462-464 edit. 1814 ; Sir Robert Sibbald's Hist, of Fife, pp. 176-181, edit. 1803.) Cf. Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, pp. 123, 125, 129, 152.
The lay abbot was common throughout Wales and Ireland, towards the end of the twelfth century. We have him painted by an eye-witness, who drew to the life. The lively Gerald de Barri thus de- scribes what he saw at Llanbadarn-fawr, near Aberystwith, when he visited that ancient monastery, in the year 1188, in the train of Archbishop Baldwin, then preaching the Crusade: ' Notandum autem, quod haec ecclesia, sicut et aliae per Hiberniam et Walliam plures, Abbatem laicum habet. Usus enim inolevit et prava consuetudo, ut viri in parochia potentes, primo tanquam oeconomi sen potius ecclesiarum patroni et defensores a clero constituti : postea processu temporis aucta cupidine totum sibi jus usurparent : et terras omnes cum exteriore possessione sibi impudenter appropriarent : solum altaria cum decimis et obventionibus clero relinquentes : et haec ipsa filius suis clericis et cognatis assignantes. Tales itaque defensores seu potius ecclesiarum destructores Abbates se vocari fecere, et tarn nomen indebitum quam rem quoque sibi assignari praesumpsere. In hoc statu ecclesiam hanc invenimus capite destitutam, veteri quodam et inveterate dierum malorum (cui nomen Eden Oen filius Gwaithvoed) se Abbatem gerentem, et filiis ejusdem altari incumbentibus.
. . Jactat autem gens haec et generatio prava Episcopum quendam ecclesiae istius (quia cathedralis
62 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
parsonage, and was called the parson, leaving the spiritual duties to be discharged by a priest, who was paid for his services by the dues and oblations of his flock.* So also it appears to have been with the Scolocs. We see at Ellon that the Scoloc lands, divided into four parts, were inherited by as many laymen — the Scoloc's office in the church being performed by substitutes, whom the Scoloc lands were bound to provide.
* Scolocs' present themselves elsewhere in Scotland than at Kirkcudbright and at Ellon. They are found, at the close of the twelfth century, sharing the pos- sessions of the church of Arbuthnott, in the Mearns. Here, as at Ellon, the lands which they occupied held of the See of St. Andrew's ; and here, as at Ellon and at Kirkcudbright, the church in which they served would seem to have been had in more than common reverence. It was dedicated to St. Ternan, ' Archbishop of
aliquando fuerat) a decessoribus suis interemptum : et hac praecipue allegatione in loco eodem jus sibi vendicant et proprietatem. Elegimus itque has potius enormitates ad praesens sub dissimula- tione transire, quam (nullo ibidem querimoniain deponente) gentem iniquam exasperare.' (Giraldus Cambrensis, Itiner. Cambriae, lib. ii, cap. iiii.)
rum quae nunc Scotia dicitur, quam in ceteris regionibus, sit : et quomodo contigerit quod tantae abbatiae ibi factae antiquitus fuerint, quas multi adhuc seculares viri jure hereditario possident.' (Pinkert., Enquir. Hist. Scot., vol. i, p. 498, edit. 1814.)
* Mr. Hallam refers to an instance of an hereditary parsonage in England, where it was found by an assize, in the year 1194, that there had been no presentation to the church, the parsons having held it from father to son. (Supplemental Notes to Hist, of Middle Ages, p. 193.)
The abuse was rank in Scotland. It seems not to have been until the reign of King Alexander I., (A.D. 1107 — A.D. 1124), that the church's right of collation was established. The Prior of St. Serf's writes : —
' Than ordanyd wes als, that the Kyng,
Na na lawyd patrowne, be staff na ryng,
Suld mak fra thine collatyowne,
Or suld gyve institutyowne
Of byschaprykis, or abbasyis,
Or ony kyrkis benefyis ;
Bot barly that the patrowne
Suld gyve hys presentatyowne.'
(Wyntown, Cronykil of Scotland, book vi, cap. v ; vol. i, p. 287.) This provision must have greatly restrained the evil ; but it seems to have taken such root, that even in the diocese of Glasgow, certainly not the least civilised province of Scotland in that age, Pope Urban III., between the years 1185 and 1187, while he condemned the hereditary succession of the son to the father's church, permitted the Bishop, at his discretion, to overlook the irregularity : ' Preterea filios sacerdotum paternas ecclesias qui hereditario jure sibi vendicantes et eis contra statuta canonum et sancte ecclesie libertatem taliter incubantes, sublato appellationis obstaculo, ab ecclesiis in quibus patres eorum ante ipsos proximo ministrarunt, nostra fretus auctoritate removeas : nisi forte aliquem propter pro- batam honestatem et diutinam possessionem sub dissimulacione videris transeundum.' (Regist, Episcop. Grlasg., vol. i, p. 59.)
The Scottish Church, even in the beginning of the thirteenth century, had to enact, by a solemn canon, that rectors of churches should be ordained : ' Item, irrefragabili constitutione sancimus ut rectores ecclesiarum ad primes ordines veniant ordinandi ; ita quod quam cito fieri poterit commode ordinentur.' (Regist. Episcop. Aberd., vol. ii, p. 34.) The practice of the Irish Church, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, may best illustrate this canon. In the diocese of Derry, we are told, parsonages were held for years by persons not in orders, and even when they were ordained, they did not perform divine service. Dr. Reeves has collected abundant instances from the dioceses of Armagh, Connor, and Dromore, of rectors of parishes being ordained deacons and sub-deacons.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 63
the Picts/ and appears to have had some provision for chaplains, until the Reformation. When the light of record first breaks upon the banks of the Bervie water in the last days of St. David, or in the following reign of his grandson, the Maiden King, the manor of Arbuthnott is seen divided between the church and the crown. The primatial see of Albany, l the bishopric of the Scots,' as it still wrote its titles, had the advowson of the church, with the church land, or * kirk town/ This ecclesiastical territory was held of the Bishop by certain ' tenants called parsons (tenentes qui dicebantur persone)' — laymen, it would seem, who had the name and revenues of the parson, but did not possess the sacerdotal function* — and who had sub-tenants under them, having houses of their own, and
(Primate Colton's Visitation, A.D. 1397, pp. 118, 119.) In Scotland, after a lapse of three or four centuries, the Reformation again brought round the cycle of lay parsons, as in the instance, which recent inquiries have made familiar, of Mr. John Lindsay, the boy parson of Menmuir, Lochlee, and Lethnot. (Mr. RiddelPs Crawford Case, pp. 215, 222; Lord Lindsay's Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i, p. 334.) Again, the ecclesiastical power had to struggle for the right of collation. It was not until the year 1592 that Parliament consented that ' all presentations to benefices be directed to the par- ticular presbyteries, with full power to them to give collation thereupon.' (Act. Parl. Scot., vol. iii, p. 542.) The act which immediately follows this in the statute book is entitled, ' anent deposition of unqualified persons from their functions and benefices.'
Laymen long afterwards maintained hereditary possession of some of the minor ecclesiastical offices. Thus, in 1609, when the Bishops were formally restored to their consistorial jurisdiction, the * heritable right of the commissariat within the bounds of Argyle' was specially reserved to the Earl of Argyle. (Act. Parl. Scot., vol. iv, pp. 430, 431.) The office of commissary, or judge of the eccle- siastical courts of Orkney, was, in the same way, hereditary in the Earls of Morton. (Inquisit. Special., vicecom. Orkney, no. 60.) The Earl of Eglinton, in 1661, was served heir to his father in the offices of clerk of the parish churches of Ardrossan, Dreghorne, Beith, Torbolton, Eastwood, and Eaglesham. (Inquisit. Special, vicecom. Ayr, no. 510 ; vicecom. Renfrew, no. 159.) The bell and alms of St. Kessog, ' campana et elemosina Sancti Kessagii,' had been hereditary in the family of Buchanan of that Ilk, for about a century before the year 1602. (Inquisit. Special, vicecom. Stirling, nn. 8, 37 ; Buchanan's Ancient Scottish Surnames, p. 176, edit. 1820.) They passed, together with St. Kessog's chapel, to the Earls of Perth, before the year 1612, and, along with the holy bell of St. Lolan, 'sacra campana Sancti Lolani,' continued to be included in their feudal investitures until the year 1675. (Inquisit. Special, vicecom. Perth, nn. 708, 880, 1094 ; Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol. iii, pp. xxiii-iv.)
* While the inquest speaks of these so-called ' Parsons of Arbuthnott,' it discloses to us, at the same time, the existence of a ' Priest of Arbuthnott' — ' hospitatus est cum Helia sacerdote de Aberbuthenot.' (Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol. v, pp. 211, 212.) A charter, of about the year 1170, describes the parson of Inverness as being both a priest and a parson — ' Thome sacerdoti ejusdem ecclesiae personae. (Regist. Vet. de Aberbr'othoc, p. 24,) So, in a charter of about the year 1140, we have an, abbot described as ' priest and abbot,' — ' Duftah sacerdos et abbas.' (Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, p. 118.) Neither every parson, nor every abbot, was a priest. Nay, every abbot was not even a monk. One of our oldest writings distinguishes a Keldee of St. Serf's Inch, as being both monk and abbot — ' Ronanus monachus et abbas.' (Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, p. 113.) The passage proceeds to furnish, perhaps, the only instance to be found in our Scottish records of the abuse of the 'precarium,' so well known on the continent. (M. Guizot, Essais sur 1'Hist. de France, iv. essai, cap. i, § ii, pp. 92-96, edit. Paris, 1845.)
Not every abbot, it has been seen, was a monk, nor did every abbot always take or receive the name of abbot. It is as ' Horm the son of Hugh,' ' Orm of Abernithi,' ' Laurence the son of Horm,' ' Laurence of Abernethi,' ' Patrick de Abernethyn,' ' Patrick the son of Laurence,' that the lay abbots of Abernethy meet us in record. Their monastic character and style appear only when it is necessary that the King or the Bishop should distinguish the peculiarjtenure of their inheritance. (Regist. Vet. de Aberbroth. 216, 268, 319 ; Lib. Eccl. Regist. de Dunfermelyn, x more common style than either ' Leod, abbot of Brechin,' or ' Leod the abbot.' (Act. Parl. Scot., vol. i, p. 47 ; Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, pp. 182, 187 ; Regist. de Dunfermelyn, p. 8.) His grandson,
64 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
cattle, which they pastured on the common. The fixed rent or ' conveth/ due to the See, would seem to have been two or three cows ; and, small as the tribute was, the poverty of the occupants was such, that the Bishop did not always enforce its payment. He appears, like the Irish prelates of more recent times,* to have found his chief profit in the right of hospitality, or refection, lodging, and atten- dance, which he exacted for himself and for his servants, whenever they visited the neighbourhood. Such was the tenure of the church land. The lay manor of Arbuthnott was farmed from the crown by a steward or thane, until King Malcolm bestowed it in property upon Osbert Olifard, the Crusader. He, too, possessed by a
however, seldom or never appears without his abbatial style. (Regist. Vet. de Aberbroth., pp. 7, 1, 50, 134 ; Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, p. 118.) Elsewhere we see the ' abbot' of the middle of the
Monifod ;' while his successor, half a century afterwards, designates himself * Michael of Monifuth, lord of the Abbacy of that Ilk.' (Regist. Vet. de Aberbroth., pp. 330, 331, 34, 82, 190, 278.) The looseness of description which prevails in our earlier charters, doubtless prevents our identification of more than one lay abbot of whom we should like to know more — e. g. ' Ewen the abbot,' who witnesses a charter of Bishop Richard of St. Andrew's ; and that nameless « Abbot of the Keldees of St. Andrew's,' who witnesses an indenture between Bishop Hugh of St. Andrew's, and Earl Dun- can of Fife. (Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, pp. 133, 353.)
* The record which Dr. Reeves has so well edited of the ' Acts of Archbishop Colton, in his metro- politan visitation of the Diocese of Derry, A.D. 1397,' shows us how this right of hospitality was en- forced : ' Tandem vero idem dominus Archiepiscopus cum sua comitiva ad villam de Ardstraha adveniens, vocatis coram eo vicario et herenacis ville predicte, eis mandavit ut de necessariis homi- nuin et equorum, necnon de sufficient! vigilia pro corpore, bonis, et rebus ipsius Archiepiscopi et comitive sue, celeriter providerent. Qui, ejus mandatis obedienter annuentes, panem, butyrum, lac, et carnes, focalia, stramina atque blada pro equis, umanque domui ubi homines et equi dicti domini Archiepiscopi inhospitati fuerunt, juxta numerum hominum et equorum in domibus ipsis inhospita- torum, communions sumptibus herenacorum et incolarum ipsius ville, apportari et ministrari fece- runt ; et vigilias hominum per diversas partes ville predicte, et precipue circa domum ubi prefatus dominus Archiepiscopus inhospitabatur, cum magna diligentia statuerunt.' We have an ample commentary on the custom, in a statement addressed by Montgomery, Bishop of Derry, to King James VI. : ' These censuales terrae, or copyehold lands which payed rent, yeelded also unto the byshops certayne intertaynements, which they call refectiones, and were of the nature of cosherings, once or twyce every quarter of a yeare, or oftener yf occasion of more frequent visitation were offered, or other busynes of the church or tenents requyred of the byshops presence. And indeed by these refections did the byshops chiefely mayntayne themselves and their followers, spending the most part of the yeare in this wandring kynde of lyfe among their tenents, and receaving from them meate and drink for 100, and som tymes 200 people, that followed the Bishop; and in respect of tenants charge this waye, the byshops imposed very small rents upon the lands . . . ly ving not by their rents but by their refections ; in such sort that a tenant which payed not above a noble in rent, spent in entertayning the byshop and his followers, ten pounds, or twenty marks yearely. . . . The lands belonging to these byshopricks laye not by whole manors togither in one place, but were devyded in every parishe neere the church ... so that the byshops did, una et eadem opera, both visit the churches, and keep their temporall courts for determining of controversies among their tenents, for which purpose they had their officials and seneschals, neyther did any temporall officer meddle in any matters concerning the church tenents, but left them unto the byshops seneschals.' (Primate Colton's Visitation, A.D. 1397, pp. 9-12, 117, 118. Dub. 1850. Irish Archaeol. Soc.) Dr. Reeves cites a passage from Bede, which shows that the arrangement here described was not much dissimilar from that which St. Aidan established among his Northumbrian converts : ' In hac [villa regia non longe ab Bebbanburgh] habens ecclesiain et cubiculum, saepius ibidem diverti ac manere, atque inde ad praedicandum circumquaque exire consueverat : quod ipsum et in aliis villis regis facere solebat, utpote nil propriae possessionis, excepta ecclesia sua et adjacentibus agellis habens.' (Hist. Eccl. Gent. Angl. lib. iii, cap. 17.)
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 65
steward or thane. His successor, Walter, gave the land to Hugh of Swinton, the progenitor of all the Arbuthnotts. These occupied the manor themselves, and, although they were its lords, seem to have still been styled, in common speech, its thanes. Their claims soon began to clash with those of the Bishop. Although the church land and its inhabitants belonged to the See of St. Andrew's, the lay lord of Arbuthnott had certain rights over them. Every house in the ' kirk town' was bound to give him yearly ten cheeses, made of the whole milk at midsummer, and to furnish three men for gathering his corns in harvest. The Bishop seems also to have paid him a certain ' cane' or rent. He had, besides, an equal share with the Bishop in the ' merchets' and ' bloodwits,' the fines for marriage and bloodshed, levied from the men of the lands, although these were amenable only to the Bishop's courts. Not content with these dues, the new lords of Arbuthnott began to remove the old occupants, and to till the land themselves. The usurpa- tion was resisted, although somewhat tardily it would seem, and became the subject of an inquest before a synod of the Scottish Church, which found for the Bishop. It is in the evidence which was adduced on this occasion that we meet with the Scolocs. The notices are only incidental, the object of the in- quiry being rather to determine the rights of the lay lord, than to ascertain by whom the ' kirk town' was possessed, or what services were due from the land to the parish church to which it was attached. The first witness, John of Hastings, had been Sheriff and Forester of the Mearns, in the time of Bishop Richard (A.D. 1163 — A.D. 1178), and of Osbert Olifard. ' He had seen many Scolocs upon the land in dispute, to wit, Arbuthnott, and when the folk of that land were troubled about any matter touching the Sheriff or Forester, the bailifs of the Lord Bishop came to him with the King's writ, and re-pledged them, as the Bishop's men, to the Bishop's court.' Ysaac of Banever, who, for six years, had farmed the lay manor as a thane, under the Olifards, affirmed that Hugh of Swinton, after the death of Bishop Hugh (A.D. 1188), and the village patriot, Gilli Andres the cripple, 're- moved divers Scolocs from the kirk town, one after another ; that such as he left were ejected by his son Duncan ; and that the same Duncan, after the Scolocs were thus expelled, began to till the land.' The witness Felix had, more than once, seen Bishop Arnold (A.D. 1160 — A.D. 1162), and Bishop Richard (A.D. 1163 — A.D. 1178), as guests in his father's house at Arbuthnott, who held his land of them, and with the Scolocs who belonged to the land, ministered to the Bishop's wants. He added that Hugh of Benne or Bennef (who, after Ysaac of Banever, farmed the lay manor as a thane), and Duncan of Arbuthnott * removed the natives and Scolocs from the land.' Maurice, the priest, spoke nearly in the same words of the removal of ' the natives and Scolocs from the land.' Andrew of Bas, the brother of Bishop Hugh, of pious memory, declared that, after the days of Bishop
66 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
Roger (A.D. 1188 — A.D. 1202), ' Duncan of Arbuthnott removed the Scolocs altogether from the land, and, save the Bishop, was the first to till the land.'*
The * Scolocs thus disappeared from Arbuthnott in the first years of the thirteenth century. But in the same neighbourhood, and much about the same time, on a per- ambulation of the lands of Balfeth, about the year 1190,| we find <Duf Scolok of Fetheressau'— a church dedicated to St. Caran, a bishop and confessor in the north, with a dependent chapel, and a * kirk town' which, like that of Arbuthnott, held of the Bishop of St Andrew's.^ Elsewhere we have traces of Scolocs at a later period. Thus ' Ri Scoloc' appears on an assize of marches in Fife in the year 1230.§ ' Richard Scoloc' is witness to a transaction between the Prior of St. Andrew's and Serlo de Lascelles, in the year 1280.|| The Benedictines of Dunfermline, in the fourteenth century, occasionally recorded the pedigrees of their bondmen. One of these genealogies relates that Patrick Scurfarauche begat Alan Gilgrewer, who begat John Scoloc the elder, who begat John Scoloc the younger, who begat John
, who had three sons, Adam Johnson, John Bel, and one whose name,
through decay of the parchment, cannot now be read.** The surnameff of * Scoloc' was here obviously personal or official, for, although it was borne by two, or perhaps three generations of bondmen, we see that they neither inherited it from their fore- fathers, nor transmitted it to their children. That the Scoloc begat sons and daugh- ters, and was of servile condition, was not inconsistent with his ecclesiastical function in Scotland, during that age. Even so late as the year 1251, we find Pope Innocent IV. pleading for the rights which * married clerks' were accustomed to enjoy in the Scottish realm ;JJ and not many years before we see the Bishop of
* Miscellany of the Spalding Club, vol. v, pp. 209-213.
t Regist. Vet. 8. Thome de Aberbroth., p. 60 ; F. Douglas' East Coast of Scot., p. 272, edit. 1782.
+ Breviar. Aberdonense, Prop. SS., pro temp. hyem. fol. xxiii ; Martine's Reliquiae Divi Andreae, pp. 119, 121 ; Regist. Priorat. 8. Andree, pp. 37, 408.
§ Registrum de Dunfermelyn, p. 111.
j! Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, p. 346.
** Registrum de Dunfermelyn, p. 221 ; Dalyell's Monastic Antiquities, pp. 44, 45.
tf The name of Scoloc or Scolaige is found in Ireland, but apparently as a Christian name. Thus it is recorded, that in the year 1011, « Scholagius filius Clercheni, nobilis presbyter Ardmachanus, et alii numeri seniores et studiosi Ardmachani interierunt.' (Colgan, Trias Thaumaturga, p. 298 ; Lanigan, Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, vol. iii, p. 411.) Again, in the year 1067, the Annals of the Four Masters record the death of 'Scolaige M'Indrecht' 'aircindeac' of Mucknoe and Dunlethglas. (O'Connor, Rer. Hibern. Script., vol. iii, p. 627; Dr. Reeves's Eccl. Antiq. of Down and Connor, p. 146.)
£ Registrum Episcopatus Moraviensis, p. 336; Lord Hailes' Annals of Scot., vol. i, pp. 163, 344, edit. 1776.
The Pontiff's words are : ' Clerici vero uxorati ejusdem regni, qui clericalem deferentes ton- suram clerical! gaudere solent privilegio, et cum bonis suis sub eccleaiastice protectionis manere presidio ab antique, solite immunitatis beneficiis exuuntur, et sub nova rediguntur onera servitutis.' So common do sueh married clerks appear to have been, that a statute of King William the Lion made special provision for the freedom of the sons of chaplains : ' QuoJ filius capellani respondeat at homo liber quam diu pater suus vivit scilicet ad omnem libertatem sed post mortem sui patris amittet suam libertatem.' (Act. Parl. Scot., vol. i, p. 58.)
Gerald de Barri shows us the prevalence of the same state of things in Ireland, towards the end of the
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 67
Murray stipulating in a covenant with the Lord of Badenaeh, that • as to the ;n of the land, the Bishop and his successors should have ail the (pmttet derico*) and two laymen, to wit, Gylle Mallouock MacNakeeigelle and Sythaeh MaeMallon : these deric and ky natives the Bishop of Murray and
children, and all their posterity, and the chattels of their children'* We should, perhaps, recognise a Scoloc in that 'Gffle-Mor Seoigo,' the 'native liegeman' of the prior sad convent of St. Andrew's, on their lands of Tarland, in Cromar, who, isiflkljvsjrJtt^JMliMrisHHt^
son of M. sossrlinu Earl of Mar, in considfnifcisi of the yearly payment of a pound of wax at Lady-Day in harrest, and on condition that, whensoever they should be redaisaed, both he aad hw children, ad all their suhstoee, should re- tarn to the prior and oua?emi as their natire men, to dwell in saeh rrsimsjsjHf place as should be allotted to them.f It inay hare been their appropriation of old to the support of ' Scoloca' that gare name to ' SeoHowland' in Fife,t to the i Annandale,§ to die lands of Scowlag in BnteJ and to the ' Scolla- at HoDymusk, in Mar .»
[fcy SL Bo«fa«, (Epirt. Bo«fecii
AbenL m. 210, 324.
68 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
II. — THE MASTER OF THE SCHOOLS.
The function of ' Rector' or ' Magister Scolarum,' the second scholastic grade, which we discover in Scotland, is sufficiently explained by its name.
It first meets us in the beginning of the twelfth century, before the death, it would seem, of King Alexander L, in the year 1124, when ' Berbeadh, the rector of the schools of Abernethy (rector scolarum de Abyrnethyn)' is enumerated among those who witnessed the confirmation of the grant which the son of St. Margaret, ' Edel- rad, Abbot of Dunkeld, and Earl of Fife,' made to St. Serf and the Keldee hermits in the Isle of Lochleven, of the lands of Admore.*
The * Master of the Schools of St. Andrew's (magister scolarum civitatis Sancti Andreae)' appears, between the years 1211 and 1216, along with 'the poor scholars' of the city,f in a deed which there will be occasion to recapitulate here- after, when speaking of the third and highest of the scholastic offices.
About the year 1213, we find 'Adam, Master of the Schools of Perth (magister scolarum de Pert)' associated with the Archdeacons of Dunkeld and Dunblane, as judges delegated by Pope Innocent III. for determining the controversy between the monks of Paisley and William the clerk of Sanquhar, as to the church of Prestwic.J There are still older notices of the schools of Perth. Between the years 1152 and 1159, Robert, Bishop of St. Andrew's, confirmed to the monks of Dunfermline ' the church of Perth, and that of Stirling, and the schools.' One after another, Bishops Arnold, Richard, and William, renewed the confirmation ;
* Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, p. 116. The union of the Earldom of Fife and the Abbey of Dun- keld, in the person of Edelrad, is not the only instance of an intimate relation between the two localities. One of our earliest notices of a religious house at Dunkeld — a passage in the Annals of Ulster in the year 865— is a record of the death of ' Tuathal MacArtguso, high bishop of Forthrich, and abbot of Dunkeld.' (Collect, de Reb. Alban., pp. 258, 259.) When the abbey of Dunkeld last meets us in record, in the beginning of the thirteenth century, its ' rights in Fife and Forthrich' are specially reserved. (Regist. de Dunfermelyn, pp. 6, 20, 29, 41, 47.) They are said to have been ultimately transferred to the Bishopric which was founded or restored on the ruins of the ancient abbey. (Vit. Dunkeld. Episcop., p. 6.) The extent of jurisdiction which that Bishopric possessed in Fife and Forthrich is remarkable, as indeed the territorial constitution of the diocese (dating, it is said, like that of Brechin, which it resembled, from no more remote era than the beginning of the twelfth century) seems altogether anomalous. Made up, in great measure, of disjected parishes, it stretched from the West Isles to the mouth of the Frith of Forth, from the heart of the Merse to the gates of Brechin. The venerable monastery of Dull — the reputed retreat of St. Cuthbert in the seventh century, and in later times the hereditary benefice of our princes — fell naturally within its limits. But, when it gave up Argyll for the diocese of a new Bishop, it retained the old religious foundation of Ardchattan, in its allegiance. It invaded the Norse diocese of the Isles, to grasp the hallowed territory of lona. It advanced its borders into Anglo-Saxon Lothian, to embrace the site of the ancient abbey of Abercorn, whence Trumwin, in the seventh century, ruled that Nor- thumbrian bishopric of the Picts beyond the Forth, whose limits we may, perhaps, conjecture to have been nearly those of Forthrich. The circumstances which determined the boundaries of our dio- ceses, have not yet received the consideration which is their due. This is not the only point of interest on which we may expect to derive essential help from the completion of Mr. Innes's ' Origines Parochiales Scotiae.'
t Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, pp. 316-318.
J Registrum Monasterii de Passelet, p. 229.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
69
and, by a special charter, between the years 1163 and 1172, Bishop Richard granted 4 to the church of the Holy Trinity of Dunferraline, the school of Perth and the school of Stirling, and all the schools which belong to the said church, free and quit of all claim and exaction for ever.'*
The conveyance of a church to a religious house would seem to have carried the school with it, although no special mention was made of the latter. In this way the grant by St. David of the churches of the Castle, and St. Cuthbert's of Edin- burgh, appears to have transferred the school of Edinburgh to the Canons of Holy- rood. The Master was taken bound, in 1524, ' to be at high solemn festival times, with the Abbot and his successors, at mass and even-song, with his surplice upon him, to do the Abbot service within the abbey.'f
The * Master of the Schools of Ayr/ together with the Deans of Carrick and Cunningham, was, in the year 1234, appointed by the Pope to decide a dispute re- garding certain lands between the Clugniacs of Paisley, and Dufgall, the rector of Kilpatrick.J
* Master Thomas, Rector of the Schools of Roxburgh,' is among the witnesses to a deed by William, the son of Earl Patrick of Dunbar, executed in the chapter- house of the monastery of Kelso, on the morrow of the feast of St. Matthew, the apostle and evangelist, in the year 1241. § The 'churches and schools of Rox- burgh, with all their appurtenances,' had been granted to the monks of Kelso by King David I., between the years 1147 and 1152.|| The grant was confirmed by King William the Lion, between 1195 and 1199; by the Bishops of Glasgow, Herbert, Joceline, and Walter, between the years 1152 and 1232; and by Pope Innocent IV., between the years 1243 and 1254.**
In the year 1279, a controversy between the Monks of Kelso and the Vicar of Roberton, was referred to the arbitration of the Subprior of Coldingham, the Sacrist of Coldingham, and ' the Rector of the Schools of South Berwick,' or Berwick-upon-the-Tweed.ff
* Regist. de Dunfermelyn, pp. 56-58, 63, 66, 81, 418 ; Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, p. xl.
The ' church of Linlithgow, with its school,' was confirmed to the See of St. Andrew's by Pope Gregory VIII., in the year 1187, and by subsequent Popes. (Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, pp. 63, 68, 72, 77, 92, 99.)
t Liber Cart. S. Crucis de Edinburgh, pp. 256-258.
} Regist. Monast. de Passelet, pp. 164, 173, 174 ; Act. Parl. Scot., vol. i, pref. p. 87.
§ Liber S. Marie de Calchou, p. 194.
|| Liber S. Marie de Calchou, p. 5.
** Origines Parochiales Scotiae, vol. i, p. 465.
tt Liber S. Marie de Calchou, p. 278.
It need scarcely be said that Berwick was, in that age, a Scotch town. At Norham, on the opposite bank of Tweed, where there is said to have been a church before the days of St. Cuthbert, there was a school, which, in the twelfth century, was regarded as of old foundation. It was taught within the church. (Reginald. Dunelin. Libell. de Virt. S. Cuthberti, cap. Ixxiii, pp. 149, 150.)
70 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
' Master Thomas of Bennum, Rector of the Schools of Aberdeen,' appears among the witnesses to a deed by Richard, Bishop of Aberdeen, at Inverury, in the year 1262-3.* He is perhaps to be identified with the person of the same name who was Chancellor of the diocese in the year 1276-7.f According to the constitutions of the cathedral of Aberdeen, enacted in the year 1256-7, ' it was of the Chancel- lor's office that he should provide a proper master for the government of the schools of Aberdeen, able to teach the boys both grammar and logic.'f The same constitutions show us that * the Master of the Schools of Aberdeen' was required to see to the due attendance, at matins and high mass, on all the greater festivals, of four singing boys, two who carried tapers, and two who bore incense.§
In almost all our dioceses, of which we have record, the supervision of the schools seems to have belonged to the Chancellor.
The chapter of Glasgow modelled itself after that of Salisbury, where, in the middle of the thirteenth century, the Chancellor's office was defined to be the charge of governing the schools, the repair and correction of the books, the choice of the lessons or readings, the keeping of the chapter seal, the framing of letters and charters, and the like.f; In the end of the fifteenth century, we find the Chan- cellor of Glasgow successfully asserting * that, from time immemorial, he and his predecessors had had the unquestioned right of instituting and removing the Master of the Grammar School of Glasgow, and of taking care, rule, and oversight of the same, so that, without leave of the Chancellor for the time being, it was not lawful for any one to hold a grammar school, or, publicly or privately, to teach
* Regist. Vet. de Aberbroth., p. 193.
f Regist. Episcop. Aberdon., vol. ii, p. 278.
J Regist. Episcop. Aberdon., vol. ii, p. 45.
' The reader, who does not require such an explanation, will, I hope, excuse my saying, for the sake of others, that the ' ars grammatica' comprehended something much beyond what the words would now suggest. Indeed, they might, perhaps, be more properly translated ' classical,' or, what is the same thing, ' profane literature.' The Grammaticus was, as his name imported, a man of letters — those letters, however, to borrow the words of Augustine, ' non quas primi magistri, sed quas docent qui grammatici vocantur.' (Maitland's Dark Ages, p. 179.)
§ Regist. Episcop. Aberdonen., vol. ii, p. 49.
The deed is preserved by which the Chancellor of Aberdeen gave institution to the Master of the Schools of Aberdeen in the year 1418. It sets forth that ' ad dignitatem Cancellarie predicte collacio beneficii Magistri Scolarum burgi de Aberdene pleno jure noscitur pertinere.' The presentation to the office was with the provost and corporation of the burgh : institution was given by gift of the Chancellor's cap, 'per donacionem birreti mei.' (Extracts from the Burgh Records of Aberdeen, vol. i, pp. 4, 5; Kennedy's Annals of Aberdeen, vol. ii, p. 122.) In 1509, the Master of the Schools seems to hare been both presented and collated by the provost and corporation, institution being given ' by gift of a pair of beads.' But the appointment seems to have been called in question, and we hear of an appeal to the court of Rome. (Extracts from the Burgh Records of Aberdeen, vol. i, pp. 80, 97, 98, 107.) In 1538, we see the Chancellor contending for the right of presentation, while the provost and corporation acknowledged his right of collation. (Id. pp. 151, 152.) The presentee of the provost and corporation appears to have obtained possession in the end. (Id. pp. 202, 231.) In 1550, the provost and corporation presented, and the Chancellor instituted. (Id. p. 277.)
|| Regist. Episcop. Glasg.. vol. i, p. 170.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 71
and instruct scholars in grammar, or youth in letters, within the aforesaid city or university.'*
Dunkeld, like Glasgow, took the constitutions of Sarum for its type.f Its an- nalist, writing in the beginning of the sixteenth century, relates that the Chancel- lor of that day, ' not unmindful of his office, had endowed a scholastic chaplain (sco- lasticum capellanum perpetuum) who was to serve St. George's church, and be Master of the Grammar School (et scolam grammaticalem recturum.\y The same Chancellor, it is added, contemplated another foundation for the promotion of grammatical learning (* si servetur, ecclesiae doctos grammaticam dabit.'§)
The chapter of Murray copied from Lincoln, where the Chancellor had the rule of ' the schools of theology,' and ' the disposal of all the schools in the diocese, those of the prebends excepted, and this privilege, that without his leave no one could teach in the city of Lincoln. '|| This was the usage of the beginning of the thirteenth century. In the end of the fifteenth, we have an ordinance of the chapter of Murray, that ' a common school (generalis scola) shall be erected and built at Elgin by those who are bound to erect and build the same ; and that the Chancellor shall appoint and ordain a fit person to rule and govern the same, and to teach those who resort to it, and instruct them in grammar.' In the mean- time the parson of Kincardine, in Strathspey, was to be cited to showby what right he held the office of Master of the School.**
The cathedral constitutions of Brechin gave the oversight of the song school to the Cantor, of the grammar school to the Chancellor. With consent of these digni- taries, it was provided that the college of choristers, founded in 1429, should have two chaplains, one to teach the music school, on the part of the Cantor, the other to teach the grammar school, on the part of the Chancellor. The choristers, it may be observed, were tonsured. The foundation charter requires quod quilibet pue~ rorum habeat tonsuram bene latam et rotund am durante tempore sue ministrationis in ecclesia,\\
* Munimenta Almae Universitatis Glasg., vol. i ; Regist. Episcop. Glasg., vol. ii, pp. 490-1.
t Vit. Dunkeld. Episcop., p. 9 ; Miscell. of Spalding Club, vol. ii, p. 366.
\ Du Cange gives ' Magister Scolarum' as one of the meanings of Scholasticus.' So also Warton interprets ' Scholasticus' as ' a master in the ecclesiastical schools.' (Hist. Eng. Poet., dissert ii, vol. i, p. cxiv. edit. 1840.) We have mention of the ' Magister Scolarium' of Durham, in the year 1510. (Ancient Rites of Durham, pp. 125, 127. Surtees Soc.)
§ Vit. Dunkeld. Episcop., p. 59.
|| Regist. Episcop. Morav., pp. 58, 59.
** Regist. Episcop. Morav., p. 270.
ft Regist. Episcopat, Brechin., append. Cartae Origin., pp. 25, 26, 48, 49.
72 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
III. THE FERLEIGINN, SCHOLASTICUS, OR LECTURER.
What the Chancellor became in the English and Scoto-English churches, from about the twelfth century, the Ferleiginn seems to have been in the Irish and Scoto-Irish churches of an earlier age.
Colgan describes the office as it obtained in Ireland, first under the name of * Scribriidh' or * Scribhneoir,' that is, * Scribe or Writer,' and subsequently, from about the middle of the tenth century, more commonly under the name of Ferlei- ginn, Lecturer, or Scholastic, literally, Man of Learning.* Almost every cathe- dral or conventual church of note, in the sister island, seems to have had its Ferlei- ginn, whose duty it was to see to the transcription of manuscripts, and copying of deeds, and to rule or teach the schools.-j- The Irish annals abound in notices of these Scribes or Lecturers.}: Not the least famous of their number was the monk whom Alcuin addresses as ' Colcus lector in Scotia,' and whose death is thus recorded by the Four Masters under the year 789 : * Colgu ua Duineacda ferleigind Cluana-mac- nois' — 'Colgu O'Donoghoe, Lecturer of Clorimacnois.'§ The office was not un-
* ' The word,' says Dr. Reeves, 'is derived from FEAR, vir, and LEGINN, cruditionisS (Eccl. Antiq. of Down and Connor, p. 145.)
f ' Quia viri qui id munus [scribendi] priscis saeculis obibant, erant singulariter eruditi, ea vox successu temporis usurpata est ad denotandam personam quamlibet ecclesiasticam, cui ex officio in- cumbebat, non solum transcribere antiqua monumenta, sed insuper eadem apprime callere et profi- ted publice, docendo, et nova opera in lucem edendo. Solebat enim in quolibet monasterio celebri et cathedralibus ecclesiis esse aliquis ex monachis aut clericis, singularis eruditionis, cui non solum incumbebat munus publicae lectionis sustinendae, verum etiam penitius rimandi, observandi, et aliis elucidandi patrias antiquitates, eisque hysterias, aut annales sui temporis subtexere. Et hinc tern- pore primitivae nostrae ecclesiae et paene usque ad medium noni saeculi vocabatur Scribnidh vel Scribhneoir, id est, Scriba vel Scriptor. Sed in ecclesiis cathedralibus nomen illud videtur a medio decimi saeculi et deinceps transiise in aliud nomen, nempe Fearleginn, id est, Praelector vel potius Scholasticus. Quod autem haec nominis mutatio sic contigerit duo argumenta mihi reddunt satis pro- babile. Primum, quod in Annalibus Dungallensibus seu Quatuor Magistrorum legam eundem nunc Scholasticum, nunc Scribam appellari. . . . Sesundum est, quod inter viros illustres ecclesiarum cathedralium et celebrium monasteriorum advertain annumeratos Scribas usque ad definitum tempus, v. g. usque ad medium vel aliquando usque ad finem prope decimi saeculi, nulla interea, vel satis parca, Scholasticorum facta mentione : deinceps vero Scholasticos, nulla, aut sane rara, Scrib- arum facta mentione, continue in iisdem Annalibus recenseri. . . . Ex hiis constat non solum munus et nomen Scribae in Scholastici officium et nomen desivisse, sed et insuper solum Scribae nomen fuisse apud Hibernosin usu usque ad initium circiter saeculi decimi; et solum nomen Scho- lastici post vel paulo ante finem eiusdem saeculi : utrumque autem indiffe renter, saltern in diversis locis, toto pene illo saeculo.' (Colgan, Trias Thamauturga, pp. 631, 632.)
Dr. Reeves quotes an Irish canon of the eighth century, which ranks the Scribe next after the Bishop and the Abbot. (Eccl. Antiq. of Down and Connor, pp. 149, 150.)
Our earliest Scotch charter, that of King Duncan, the son of Malcolm, at Durham, exhibits the cross of ' Grenton the Scribe,' beside the crosses of the princes of the blood, and the other magnates of the northern court. (Diplomat. Scot.; Raine's North Durham, append. ; Sir James Dalrymple's Collect, p. 229.) We have the name of a still earlier scribe of Scotland, ' Thana, the son of Duda- brach,' who wrote at ' Migdele' between the years 839 and 842, when ' Pherath, the son of Bergeth,' was King of the Picts. (Pinkerton, Enq. into Hist, of Scot., vol. i, p. 462, edit. 1814.)
J Lanigan enumerates the deaths of about twenty, during the first half of the eleventh century. (Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, vol. iii, pp. 431, 432.)
§ Dr. Reeves's Eccl. Antiq. of Down and Connor, pp. 145, 146.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 73
known in England and France. Du Cange adduces instances of its occurrence in the conventual church of Lindisfarne, the lona of the Northumbrian shores, and in the cathedral church of Auxerre, in Burgundy, the seat of the ancient bishopric and monastery of St. German.'*
We read, in the Annals of Ulster, that, in the year 1011, ' Muredach O'Crican, successor (combarba) of Columkille, and Lecturer (fer leighinn) of Armagh, slept in Ohrist.'-j- The ' coarb of Columba' seems generally to have inherited the rights of that saint both in Erin and in Albany. The same chronicles relate that, in the year 1034, ' MacNia O'Uchtan, Lecturer (fer leighinn} of Kells, was drowned while on his voyage to Albany, with the books of Columkille, and three of the reliques of Patrick ; and thirty of his men were drowned with him/J
About a century afterwards, we meet the Ferleiginn or Lecturer of loua. Thus the Annals of Ulster record, under the year 1164 : ' The holy brotherhood of Hy, that is, the arch-priest Augustin, and the Lecturer (ferleiginn) Dubside, and the disertach Mac Gilla Duib, and the chief of the Keldees§ (cenn na Ceileude) Mac-
* Du Cange, Glossar. in yoce ' Lector.' ' Les chanceliers des chapitres,' says M. Natalis de Wailly, 'sont appeles sigilliferi, registratores, et le plus souvent cancellarii. Ceux des abbayes prennent les noms de copiste (amanuensis}, de lecteur, de scolastique ou ecolatre.' (Elements de Paleographie, tome i, p. 212. Paris, 1838.)
f Collectan. de Rebus Albanicis, pp. 270, 271 ; Lanigan, Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, vol. iii, p. 411.
J Collect, de Rebus Albanicis, pp. 272, 273 ; Lanigan, Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, p. 431. The Annals of Ulster record, under the year 1040, the death of ' Maol Muire O'Uchtan, combarba of Columkille.' (Collect, de Rebus Alban., pp. 272, 273.)
§ This is not the only passage which might be adduced against Dr. Lanigan's somewhat too sweep- ing assertion, that ' it happens, unluckily for the fanciful theory of the Culdees being derived from Columkille, that in none of the lives of that saint, nor in Bede, who very often treats of the Colum- bian order and monks, nor in the whole history of the monastery of Hy and of its dependencies, is the name of Culdees, or any name tantamount to it, once mentioned.' (Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, vol. iv, p. 296.) We find Keldees at lona, in a list of Scottish bishoprics and abbeys which Mr. Stevenson has printed from a MS. of the thirteenth century. (Scalacronica, p. 242.) But both these are late instances ; and there seems no reason to qualify what Dr. Lanigan has said as to the absence of all contemporary or nearly contemporary mention of Culdees in connection with St. Columba and his disciples.
The ' disertach,' of whom the text makes mention, as one of the spiritual chiefs of lona, was perhaps a hermit or superior of a community of hermits. ' Disert,' says Dr. Reeves, 'is merely an Irish form of the Latin desertum. It primarily signified ' a sequestered place,' and was afterwards applied to the church erected in such a spot ; hence it came to signify ' a hermitage :' as a prefix to the names of churches it was exceedingly common.' (Primate Colton's Visitation, p. 120.) Of our Scotch ' Diserts,' that which is now best known. ' Dysart,' in Fife, first appears as the retreat of St. Servan, the saint to whom the foundation of Keldee Hermits inLochleven was dedicated. (Wyntown's Cronykil, book v, chap, xii, 1., 1170; Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, pp. 113-117 ; Breviar. Aberd., prop, sanct. fol. xv, Jul. 1.)
Our Scottish charters, of the twelfth and two following centuries, abound in notices of Hermits — e. g., Lib. Insulae Missarum, p. 4; Regist. Episcopat. Glasg., vol. i, p. 89; Regist. Episcopat. Morav., pp. 4, 32 ; Miscell. of Spalding Club, vol. ii, p. 307 ; Genealogic. Deduct, of Fam. of Rose of Kil- ravock, p. 118. We have glimpses of the eremitical life of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Joan, de Fordun, Scotichronicon, lib. v, cap. xxxvii ; and in the Chronica de Mailros, pp. 188, 189. So recently as the year 1606, ' the advowson of the office of hermitage of the chapel of St. Lawrence the Martyr, on the lands of Overkelwood,' in Dumfriesshire, continued to be enumerated among the hereditary rights of the family of Gledstanis of Craigs. (Inquisit. Special, vicecom. Dumfries, no. 36.) Seven hermits appear in the train of St. Rule. (Pinkert. Enq. Hist. Scot., vol. i, p. 461.) Nor is this, or what is recorded of the Isle of Lochleven, the only reason for supposing that the brother- hood of the Keldees contained an eremitical order. Joceline of Furness, writing towards the end of
74 APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
Forcellaig, and the other good men of Hy, go to the successor (comarba) of Columkille, Flatherty MacBrolcain, to take the abbey (abdaine) of Hy, by the counsel of Somerled, and the men of Argyll and Innisgall, and, with the consent of the successor (comarba) of Patrick [that is, the Archbishop of Armagh], and the King of Erin, O'Lochlainn, and the chiefs of the race of Eoghan.'*
A Lecturer presents himself in the genealogy of the Macintoshes, which Mr. Skene has printed from a Gaelic MS. of the fifteenth century. It traces the de- scent of Gillie Chatan, the great progenitor of the Clan Chattan, from ' Gilbert, the son of Diarmaid, called the Lecturer (fear legin.')-\-
the twelfth century, says of the disciples of St. Mungo, as they survived in the traditions of Cumbria : 'More primitivae ecclesiae, sub Apostolis et eorum successoribus, nichil prpprium possi- dentes, satis sobrie, juste, et pie, et continentissime viventes, in singulis tamen casulis exquierant et sapientiam maturaverant, sicut et ipse Sanctus Kentegernus commorabatur, unde et Clerici Singulares et vulgo Calledei nuncupabantur.' (Vit. S. Kentegerni, cap. xx.) Strathclyde was a Welsh dominion ; and it is to be remarked that the Keldees who survived in Wales, at the close of the twelfth century, were believed to derive their name from the celibacy which they practised, before it was yet universal in the British churches. Gerald de Barri writes of the island of Bardsey, on the coast of Caernarvon, ( quam monaohi inhabitant religiossiini, quos Caelibes vel Colideos vocant.' (Girald. Cambrensis, Itiner. Cambriae, lib. ii, cap. vi.) Contrast these solitary, self-denying, Keldees with the married Keldees of St. Andrew's, as these good easy canons have been shown in a previous note.
There was a distinction between the hermit and the anchorite. We seem to have had both in Scotland. It was the latter and more austere recluse that was held in such regard by St. Mar- garet, as her confessor Turgot tells us : ' Quo tempore in regno Scottorum plurimi, per diversa loca separatis inclusi cellulis, per magnam vitae districtionem, in carne non secundum carnem vive- bant. Angelicam enirn in terris conversationem ducebant. In his Regina Christum venerari, diligere, suoque crebrius adventu et alloquio visitare, atque illorum se precibus satagebat commen- dare. Et cum non impetrare posset, ut ab ea terrenum aliquid vellent accipere, petebat obnoxius, ut ei aliquid eleemosynae vel misericordiae faciendum dignarentur praecipere. Nee mora : quid- quid illorum voluntatis erat, devota implevit : vel pauperes ab egestate recreando, vel quosque afflictos a miseriis quibus oppressi fuerant relevando,' (Pinkert. Vit. Antiq. Sanct. Scot., p. 345.)
On the anchorites or ' indusi' of Ireland, see Harris, Sir J., Ware's Works, vol. ii, pp. 233-236; Lanigan's Eccl. Hist, of Ireland, vol. iv, p. 402. Both hermit and anchorite were in great re- pute in Wales, at the end of the twelfth century : ' Heremitas et Anachoritas abstinentiae inajoris magisque spirituales alibi non videas.' (Girald us Cambrensis, Cambriae Descript., cap. xviii.)
* I am indebted for this instructive passage to a friend, peculiarly accomplished in CeUic learn- ing, William Forbes Skene, Esq., who transcribed it from the MS. Annals of Ulster at Dublin.
It was in the year in which this transaction took place, that Somerled made his last great rising against the King of Scots. (Chronica de Mailros, p. 79.) Not long afterwards, we find the Scotch King granting to the canons of Holvrood the churches in Galloway, which belonged to Icolmkill. (Lib. Cart. S. Crucis, p. 41.)
t Collect, de Rebus Albanicis, pp. 52, 53. Mr. Skene first interpreted fear legin in this place as ' the Leinster man ;' but he permits me to say that he ia now satisfied that it means ' lecturer' or ' reader.'
The Clan Chattan was peculiarly a ghostly tribe. It took its distinctive appellation from a saint —that kinsman of St. Blane, who was patron of Aberuthven in Stratherne, and gave name to Ard- chattan and Kilchattan in Lorn, to Kilchattan in Bute, to Kilchattan in Gigha, and to other churches in the West Isles. The sept was the hereditary keeper of a sacred stone, on which oaths were taken, by which the sick were healed, and armies put to flight ; and while, as we have seen the whole clan sprung from the loins of a Ferleiginn, the name of one of the two races into which it was divided proclaimed a second descent from a parson. It was not the only tribe which boasted a spiritual pedigree.
The name of the MacNabs attests their monastic origin, ' their first descent being from an Abbot,' says a writer, recording the tradition of the seventeenth century. (Patrick Gordon's Britanes Distemper, p. 97, Aberd. 1844. Spalding Club.)
The surname of the Earl of Ross, in the reign of King Alexander II., was Macintagart, that is, ( son of the pri ™ t,' — his descendants went to battle in the shirt of St. Duthac, in the same manner
APPENDIX TO PREFACE.
75
We have a more instructive record of the Lecturer of St. Andrew's. Between the year 1211 and the year 1216, a controversy arose between Simon, Prior of St. Andrew's, and his convent, on the one part, and ' Master Patrick, Master of the
as the Queens of the Scots clothed themselves, in their hour of travail, in the shirt of St. Margaret — and the lineage of what seems to have been a still earlier dynasty of those great northern earls, may perhaps be traced to the coarb or lay Abbot of St. Maolrubha's ancient monastery of Aper- crusan or Applecross.
The line of the lay Abbots of Brechin disappears from record about the middle of the thir- teenth century.
But the race of the lay Abbots of Abernethy, ennobled by the title of Lord Abernethy, in the middle of the fifteenth century, still flourishes. It was to its ecclesiastical descent, doubt- less, that its chief owed the distinction which he shared with the Earl of Fife and the Priest of Wedale, of being one of the three judges of the law of Clan MacDuff— itself, perhaps, a privilege of mixed ecclesiastical and judicial origin — a right, it would seem, partly of ' sanctuary,' partly of ' regality,' distinguished from the common mass of such jurisdictions, by being personal not territo- rial, inherent in a tribe not attached to a church or barony. Another privilege enjoyed by the chief of the sept of MacDuff— that of placing the King of Scots in the royal seat at Scone, on the day of his coronation — seems also to have an ecclesiastical aspect. If the last privilege claimed for the tribe — that of leading the van of the King's host, in the day of battle — appear to be of a different character let two things be remembered ; firstly that, as the editor of Wyntown has remarked, it is doubtful if any such privilege existed; secondly, that even such a warlike function was not inconsistent with the habits of the lay abbots of the tenth, and two following centuries. Thus, the Annals of Ulster record the deaths, in battle, of Duncan, Abbot of Dunkeld, in the year 965, and of Crinan, Abbot of Dunkeld, in the year 1045. (Collect, de Reb. Alban., pp. 264, 265, 272, 273.) Hear, too, what Gerald de Barri relates of the lay Abbot of Llanbadarn-fawr: ' Contigit autem regnante Stephano, qui successit Henrico primo, militem quondam de Armorica oriundum Britannia, peragratis regioni- bus multis, ut variarum gentium tarn urbes quam mores discerneret, hue tandem forte fortuitu advectum esse. Cum itaque die quodam festive ad missae celebrationem adventum Abbatis tain clerus quam populus expectaret, demum Abbati venienti cum aliis occursans, vidit turbarn ju- venum venire circiter yiginti more gentisexpeditam, et armis mnnitam : cumque quaerenti, quisnam illorum Abbas esset, virum quendam ostenderent cum lancea longa praecedentem : intuens in eum, et admirans ait : Nunquid aliud habitum aliumve baculum Abbas iste, quam ilium, quern nunc profert, habet ? Responderunt : Kequaquam. At ille : Sat, inquit, hodie novitatis vidi, satque miraculi jam audivi. Et ab ilia statim hora reversus finem labori posuit et explorationi.' (Gir- aldus Cambrensis, Itiner. Cambriae, lib. ii, cap. iv.) If the Earls of Fife'had any privilege or place of honour in the armies of Scotland, it may possibly have been as the hereditary keepers of some consecrated banner, such as the ' Brecbennach' of St. Columkille, which King William the Lion bestowed upon the Monks of Arbroath, under whom it was held by a long line of Monymusks, Urrys, Frasers, and Irvines. (Regist. Vet. de Abcrbroth, pp. 5, 10, 73 ; Collect, on Shires of Aberd. and Banff, pp. 511-517.)
The first Earl of Fife, certainly known to record — the son of St. Margaret — was at once an Earl and an Abbot. The second, Constantine, who appears before the year 1124, was ' a great judge in Scotland,' 'vir diseretissimus,' ' magnus judex in Scotia,' ' vir discretus et facundus' — a character less likely in that age to be applied by a cloistered scribe to a layman than to an ecclesi- astic. (Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, pp. 116, 117.) The judicial function of « Mair of the King' ap- pears to have been hereditary in the Earl of Fife, in the reign of King Alexander II. (Act. Parl. Scot. vol. i. p. 68.) Tradition represented the fabulous MacDuff, as the progenitor as well of the Macintoshes as of the Abernethys — both, as we have seen, families of spiritual descent.
The old lords of Luss, now represented by the knightly house of Colquhoun, drew their origin, in the thirteenth century, from a Dean of Lennox, who probably held his dignity, along with the lands of Luss, (the patrimony, it would seem, of the ancient church or monastery of St. Kessog), by hereditary title. He appears to have transmitted some remnant of ecclesiastical immunity to his descendants. In the year 1316, King Robert I. confirms the charter, by which Earl Malcolm of the Lennox, of his devotion to St. Kessog, frees the lands of Luss from all burden of prise, caption, and carriage, and undertakes that the men dwelling upon them shall not be called upon to bear witness, either by the Earl's bailifs and Serjeants, or by the bailifs and Serjeants of the justiciar of our L^rd the King. (Cart. Comitat. de Levenax, pp. 97, 21, 22.) Similar privileges were conceded by the same Earl Malcolm to the men dwelling upon the lands of the Monks of Paisley, within his earldom. (Regist. Monast. de Passelet, pp. 203-5.)
The Dean of Lennox was not the only churchman of the diocese of St. Kentigern who left a heritage of lands to his son. We find the Dean of Clydesdale— called also the Dean of Stobo, in like
76 APPENDIX TO PKEFACE.
Schools of the city of St. Andrew's, and the poor Scholars of the same city/ on the other part, regarding the land of Garriech, and certain measures of barley which Master Patrick and the Scholars claimed from the land of Neuechi, and the ' cane' which was wont to be paid from the lands assigned to the Prior and convent, by the authority of William, Bishop of St. Andrew's, in amicable settlement of the strife between the Prior and convent, and Master Laurence, Archdeacon of St. Andrew's. Pope Innocent III. appointed the Bishop of Glasgow, the Abbot of Melrose, and the Archdeacon of Glasgow, to determine the controversy, which ' was amicably settled in this wise/ says the record, ' with the assent and good- will of the said Master Laurence, who was both Archdeacon and Lecturer (Ferleyn) of the said city. That is to say, the land of Garriech and the land which is called Neuechi, shall remain with the Prior and Convent freely and quietly for ever, in terms of the charter of Bishop Richard, of good memory ; but the Prior and Canons, and their successors, shall yearly, at the feast of St. Martin, pay to the foresaid Laurence the Lecturer (Laurentio ferlano) and his successors, at the house of the Lecturer of the said city, (in domo Ferlani ejusdem civitatis) situated within the same, for the use of the poor Scholars of the said city, the old ' cane' of the lands which they hold in their own hand . . . which * cane' [amounting to forty stones of cheese, seventy measures of barley, and a sheep] shall be levied from the tenants by the servant of the Lord Prior, accompanied by a servant of the Lecturer (uno serviente Ferlani), and shall be paid to the Lecturer (Fer- lano) in manner above written . . . Thus was agreement made between the parties, and by authority confirmed, so that neither Archdeacon, nor Lecturer (Fer- lanvLs}, nor Master of the Schools, nor poor Scholars, shall hereafter move contro- versy against the same, regarding the lands aforesaid, nor the ' cane', nor any other thing whatsoever.'*
We see here the three grades of the Scoloc, the Master of the Schools, and the Ferleiginn, exhibited together in their proper order and relation.
At St. Andrew's, the functions of Lecturer and Archdeacon were, in one in-
inanner as the Dean of Lennox was styled also Dean of Luss, from the church, which was his chief benefice or inheritance— about the end of the twelfth century, succeeded by his son in a portion of the old domain of the sanctuary of St. Machute. (Lib. de Calchou, pp. 82, 83, 270 ; Regist. Episcopat. Glasg., pp. 41,46, 73; Lib. de Melros, pp. 113, 114; Lib. Cart. S, Crucis, p. 42.) The parson of Stobo, says Mr. Innes, 'was styled Dean, and was, it would seem, in very early times hereditary, like some of the heads of the regular convents.' (Origines Parochiales Seotiae, vol. i, pref., p. xxi.) The title of Dean in Scotland, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, seems to have been applied
, ^ , , priory' was a foundation of Keldees. (Regist.
kenneth, MS. ; Carte Monialium de Northberwic, pp. 7, 12.) Elsewhere we have mention of a ' Dean of Rattray'— of a ' Dean of Fogghou'— of a ' Dean of Tiningham'— of a ' Dean of Kinghorn'— of a ' Dean of Ayr.' (Lib. Eccl. S. Trinitat. de Scon. p. 53 ; Lib. S. Marie de Calchou, p. 106; Sir J. Dalrymple's Collect. Scot. Hist. p. 293; Regist. Monast. de Passelet, p. 137.) * Regist. Priorat. S. Andree, pp. 317, 318.
APPENDIX TO PREFACE. 77
stance at least, discharged by the same person. We can trace a connection be- tween the offices elsewhere. Thus, Du Cange quotes a charter, of the year 1213, in which Hugo, the Archdeacon of Auxerre, narrates that, * to his office of Arch- deacon it belongs to provide a Lecturer for the church of Auxerre, who shall order the whole course of reading.'*
The junction of the offices of Archdeacon and Ferleiginn at St. Andrew's, may, perhaps, account in part for the absence of a Chancellor in that diocese — a point in which it resembled some of the Irish sees, such a£ Down, Connor, and Dromore, where, we are told, ' before the Reformation there does not appear to have been any dignitary connected with the cathedral, except the Archdeacon.'-j- The restoration or new foundation of the chapter of St. Andrew's, which was made in the beginning of the seventeenth century, left the metropolitan diocese of Scotland still without a Chancellor :\ an arrangement which obtains, in the Irish diocese of Meath, to this day.§
The union of the functions of Archdeacon and Ferleiginn at St. Andrew's, prob- ably led also to the somewhat unusual combination of immunities, which the Arch- deacon of St. Andrew's possessed. He had the right of election of the Master of the Schools of the metropolitan city ;|l he was Conservator of the privileges of the University ; and to him belonged the office of investiture of all persons presented to benefices within the diocese of St. Andrew's.** The nomination of the Archdeacon was with the King ;tt and it needs but, to consider the list of those who held the office, to see what its dignity and importance must have been, and to be satisfied of the care which was generally taken to choose men of learning for its duties.
JOSEPH ROBERTSON.
23. BUCCLEUCH PLACE, EDINBURGH,
1th September, 1852.
* Du Cange, Glossar. in voce ' Lector.'
Colgan, it will be remembered, translates ' Ferleiginn' by ' Scholasticus ;' and we find mention of the ' Scholasticus' of Auxerre in the year 1249. (bu Cange, Glossar. in voce ' Scholasticus.') Car- pentier cites a record to show that, in the year 1337, ' the Scholastic of the church of Lyons re- signed the said office of Scholastic.' (Glossarium, vol. iii, col. 731.)
t Dr. Reeves' Eccl. Antiq. of Down and Connor, pp. 175, 261, 262, 311, 312.
J Act. Parl. Scot., vol. iv, p. 530. It would seem, however, that a Chancellor was appointed, or contemplated, by the settlement of church affairs, made at Leith in 1571. (Wodrow's Biographical Collections, vol. i, part ii, p. 351.)
§ Dr. Reeves' Eccl. Antiq. of Down and Connor, p. 175.
|| Act. Parl. Scot., vol. iv, p. 517.
** Act. Parl. Scot., vol. iv, pp. 493, 494; Martine's Reliquiae Divi Andreae, pp. 201-207.
tf Act. Parl. Scot., vol. iv, p. 494 ; Lyon's Hist, of St. Andrew's, vol. ii, pp. 150-152.
\ci D
1 X| K>f ?
ST<0
\J
EXTRACTS
FROM THE
REGISTERS OF THE BURGH OF ABERDEEN.
4 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1317.
de Lindesey rectori ecclesie de Are tune camerario suo Scocie qui per dic- tam concessionem regis eandem occupauit et tenuit de domino rege per annos et dies Et cum processu temporis Magister Roginaldus predictus ad pacem domini regis venerat cum aliis incolis dicti regni et gratiam gaudendi ecclesiasticis bonis et mundanis impetrauerat Dictus dominus Willelmus ut pleniori iure dictam terram poteret occupare per formam conuentionis inter ipsum et predictum Magistrum Roginaldum confecte Sibi de predicto debito satisfecit et dictam terram exsolutam de manu sua recuperauit Et per eandem viam institucionis per quam idem Ma- gister Roginaldus dictam terram tenuit Predictus dominus Willelmus in eadem permansit hucusque Unde predicta Ada sub virga patris sui et infra etatem in alia parte regni extra burgum de Aberdene cum patre suo permanens de statu et mora predicti Duncani awunculi sui filii et heredis predicti Malcolmi in quibus mundi partibus extiterit diligenter et solerter explorans pro * firmitate pleniori anelans per mortem dicti duncani si contigerit in hereditatem predicti Malcolmi de Polgoueny de predicta terra tancquam proximior et apparencior heres de sanguine dicti Duncani heredis . . Et tandem extraneorum mercatorum et peregrinancium a remotis partibus insinuatione veridica laborante Dicta Ada concipiens predictum Duncanum awunculum suum viam uniuerse carnis . . Et statim cum patre suo apud Aber- dene accessit ius hereditatis in dicta terra se habere proclamando Et
Willelmi in euidenti paupertatis statu constituta assequebatur gratiam suam continue expectando ut . . paupertate compa- tiens Sibi aliquam porcionem pecunie per quam sui status media poterit
ex jure suo quod tancquam heres predicti Duncani clamabat se habere in predicta terra conferre voluerit graciose Quamvis ad hoc faciendum non tenebatur de jure de statu tamen dicte puelle compatiens et dictam terram quam pleno jure uolens gaudere quandam
pecunie porcionem ad summam . . sibi in pecunia numerata persoluit pro toto jure quod dicta puella pro se et heredibus suis in dicta terra clamabat se habere de qua summa dicta puella se bene contentam tenuit et pacatam Et tempore quo dicta Ada cum predicto domino Willelmo super venditione dicte terre et renunciatione sui juris de eadem conuenit Se coram balliuis et curia burgi proposuit sui status ino- piam exprimendo et supplicans eisdem quod de prioris in villa de Aberdene generacionis et alumpnacionis sue ceperint exordium et in
1317.] OF THE BURGH OF ABERDEEN. 5
dicta villa de Aberdene melius de perfectione sue etatis nosci vel cer- tiorari poterint quam alibi ut ipsi balliui de potestate sui officii per bonam et sufficientem assisam proborum ville per quos sue etatis per- fectio melius sciri potuit et inquiri graui sacramento interueniente se ad iriuicera super sue etatis perfectione consulerent et eandem balliuis et curie predicte deponerent . Que assisa proborum ville leuata jurata et con- stilta deposuit in veritate sui sacramenti . Interueniente in dicta assisa Marioria alumpmatrice dicte puelle et jurata cum assisa predicta quod dicta Ada etatem quindecim annorum compleuerat ad festum Sancti Martini anno etca quarto decimo et quod tune secundum leges burgo- rum Scotie perfecte fuit etatis conuencionandi contractus impignorandi vendendi et alienandi terras et possessiones quascunque.
Et sic matura etate dicte Ade per depositionem dicte assise et sue alumpmatricis juratarum facta et probata dictam terrain in plena curia burgi de Aberdene ad tria placita dicti burgi rite et secundum leges bur- gorum Scocie proximioribus amicis sanguinis sui Si qui eandem emere voluerint pro eadein vel consimili summa denariorum soluenda sibi primo secundo et tertio per Ricardum filium Randulphi attornatum suum per breue de capella domini regis constitutum optulit ad vendend * u . comparuerunt in curia Dominus Galfridus de Wellys capel- lanus . . pelliparius ostendentes quod ipsi proximiores erant heredes dicte terre . . mota fuit de Alicia Sponsa quondam Malcolmi de Polgoueny predicti et ', V. . maritagio cum predicto Malcolmo et quod ipsi tancquam proximiores ..; . hereditarie deberent gaudere computando hinc inde . . proxim ad . . mulierem Et super discussione sui juris in dicta terra
in bonam assisam proborum ville que assisa jurata et . . pelliparium ratione proximitatis sanguinis sui in de- fectu predicte ade filie ,.,.',' » ' ipsa fieri contigisset humanitus proximiorem et apparentiorem heredum • . t,, . pro parte dicti domini Galfridi deposuit ipsum nulla racione sanguinis sponse quondam predicti Malcolmi de Polgoueny . et sic dictus do- mius Galfridius a clamio dicte terre fuit exclusus prius persolu recuperans jura sua que ratione proximitatis sanguinis vel alterius juris . predicte in dicta terra pure perpetuo et simpliciter renunciauit in manus dicti domini Willelmi de Lindesey in plena curia dicti burgi de Aber- dene . qua renunciacione facta et nemine alio de sanguine venditoris
6 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1713.
predicte dictam venditionem et alienationem ad tres oblationes premissas in tribus placitis burgi predictis impugnante nee contradicente dicta Ada supplicauit balliuis dicti burgi ut ipsi cartam infeodationis sue per quam vendidit dictam terram et dictum dominum Willelmum infeo- dauit in eadem in curia sua legi facerent et secundum tenorem eiusdem saysinam inde deliberarent dicto domino Willelmo per mediam per- sonam balliui inter partes ad caput et ostium terre predicte Et sic ad in- stantiam dicte puelle surrexerunt balliui in curia et ad caput ipsius terre pergentes cum denario de intoll et denario de uttoll ab utrisque parti- bus emptoris et venditoris in manu Thome filii Reginaldi unius balliuo- rum de Aberdene tune temporis solutis eidem domino Willelmo saysi- nam dicte terre . ibidem congregata testante Et in traditione dicte say sine predicta ada cartam infeodationis sue de predicta terra confectam dicto domino Willelmo per manus suas deliberauit et sic . processum litis predictum per illam legem burgorum per quam dicitur cum cartis et clamore fiat tradicio terrarum in burgis.
Et idem dominus Willelmus postquam dicta asyssa deposuerat pro dicto Johanne pro proximiore . . sanguinis predicte Ade ad vendicandum jus in predicta terra optulit in plena curia ad omnes conuentiones inter ipsum et dictam Adam confectas super empcione et vendicione dicte terre per quod ipse Johannes omnem pecuniam quam idem soluit Ade predicte pro empcione dicte terre et de qua satisfecit magistro Reginaldo de Buchan predicto pro debito Malcolmi de Polgoueny predict! infra unum annum proximo sequentem solueret integraliter.
Die lune proximo ante festum Sancti Laurentii Johannes films Lau- rentii Carnifex et Marioria sponsa dicti Johannis et filia quondam Bricii de Cragy presentauerunt litteram de capella domini regis directo preposi- tis burgi de Aberdene que rotulo suta est qua perlecta prepositi de- derunt in mandatis [Thome] ernach sergenti dicti burgi ad citandam Emmam filiam quondam Bricii de Cragy in diem . . quin- denam ad respondendum dicto die contra predictos Johannem et Mario- riam super tenore
[Litera de capella domini Regis.] Robertus Dei gratia rex Scottorum Prepositis et balliuis burgi de
1317.]
OF THE BURGH OF ABERDEEN.
Abirden fidelibus suis salutem Mandamus vobis et precipimus quatinus Johanni filio Laurentii et Mariorie filie quondam Bricii de Cragy sponse ejus plenum rectum teneri faciatis ratione dicte sponse de una perti- cata terre cum pertinentiis jacente infra dictum burgum de Abirden ex orientali parte vici qui dicitur Galugat inter terram que fuit quondam Willelmi Fitchet ex parte australi ex parte una et terram que fuit quondam Reginaldi de Grendoun ex parte boreali ex altera Quamqui- dem perticatam terre cum pertinentiis de nobis tenere clamant heredi- tarie ratione dicte sponse Reddendo inde nobis et heredibus nostris annuatim Sex denarios argenti videlicet tres denarios ad festum Pen- tecostes et tres denarios ad festum Sancti Martini in hyeme Reddendo etiam fratribus de ordine Trinitatis de Abirden sex solidos et octo de- narios argenti per annum . . Quam quidem perticatam terre cum pertinentiis Emma filia predict! quondam Bricii de Cragy eis in- iuste deforciat sicut dicunt . . inde facientes quod pro defectu recti amplius inde iustam querimoniam non audiamus Teste me ipso apud Abirden xxviii0 die Julii anno regni nostri duodecimo.
Memorandum quod Thomas apotecarius in curia burgi comparuit tribus diebus placitorum Prestando quod tenetur in quodam redditu an- nuali tresdecem solidorum et quatuor denariorum de ilia terra jacente ex occidental! parte del Cukystoll inter terram Rogeri bouer versus boream ex una parte et terram que fuit Duncani apwart versus austrum ex altera de qua terra recognouit quod defecerant firme duorum terminorum scilicet Sancti Martini et Penthecostes ultimo preteritorum non solute qam summam promptam in manu sua habuit et se paratum ad soluen- dum optulit cuicunque jus in dicto redditu habenti et legaliter recuperare potenti.
Curia tenta die lune proximo ante festum Natiuitatis beate Marie vir- ginis in domo Andree Bissap in vico castri.
Eodem die Emma filia quondam Bricii de Cragy burgensis de Aber- dene secundo citata per Thomam Ernach sergentem burgi contra Jo- hannem filium Laurencii et marioriam filiam predicti Bricii sponse eiusdem Johannis ad respondendum eisdem Johanni et Mariorie super
8 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1317.
tenore littere regie de recto prepositis dicti burgi directe qua Emma bis pluries vocata et diuitius expectata nullo modo comparuit et idem Thomas Ernach sergens dictam citationem ad tenementum specifica- tum in dicta littera regia que suta est rotulo per ipsum legitime fuisse factam optulit se paratum ad probandum per testimonium thome marescalli de Fintreth et ade perny carnificis.
Eodem die scilicet quarto die Willelmus Duncan comparuit in curia ratione cuiusdam plegii in manibus Simonis Gelchach et Thome filii Roginaldi balliuorum burgi per ipsum inuenti de prosequendo con- tra Phillippum de Gaydouna super iniuriis sibi per predictum Phillip- pum illatis ut dicebat qui Duncanus apparentiam partis sue ad- uerse expectans et parte predicta litis pluries vocata non comparente et sergentibus burgi citationes precedentes eidem Philippo se legittime fecisse dicentibus Scilicet Thoma Ernach et Roberto Red suam pro- posuit calumpniationem dicens quod cum ipse sex annis elapsis ad firmani concessisset quandam domum suam lapideam Willelmo de Abernethy pro termino unius anni Reddendo sibi pro firma unius anni xx s. sterling- orum quam domum jacentem in vico furcarum cum pertinentiis emerat de Galfrido de Gaytouna patre quondam dicti Philippi et in qua diu ante decessum dicti Galfridi vestitus fuerat et saysitus Idem Philippus dictum Willelmum de Abernythy ne in dicta terra sic assedata pacifice morari posset perturbauit per quod dictus Willelmus Duncan suam sibi conuentionatam penitus amisit et non solum illo anno verum et quincque annis sequentibus dictus Philippus eodem modo penes ipsum et tenentes suos quibus dictam domum assedauerat imposuit impedimentum Item dicendo quod cum ipse Willelmus Duncan die Martis sex septimanis elapsis in terra sua eidem domui adiacente lutum fecisset fodiri et equum suum ad cariandum dictum lutum Idem Philippus dictum equum iniuste detinuit
et modo violento arestauit Estimando wrang et unlaw et ponendo ad dampna sua xl. s. exceptis vi. li. de principali de firmis dicte domus sex annorum preteritorum et super hoc petiit iudicium curie ex quo esset dies peremptoria qualiter deberet recedere Unde propter debilita-
tem curie balliui continuauerunt diem ilium in diem lune in quindenam proximo sequentem et idem balliui dederunt in mandatis Thome Er- nach sergenti ad citandum dictum Philippum dicto die iudicium re- cepturum.
1317.] OF THE BURGH OF ABERDEEN. 9
Curia tenta die lune proximo post festum exaltationis sancte crucis.
Eodem die Emma filia quondam Bricii de Cragy . . tertio citata . . pluries vocata et diutius expectata nullo modo com- paruit
Eodem die comparuit in plena curia Willelmus Duncan cum Alexandro Wtterleyir prolocutore suo ex una parte et Philippus de Gaytouna con- stituens Johannem de Gardropa suum prolocutorem ex altera Unde predictus Willelmus Duncan petiit rotulationem perlegi que confecta fuit in curia burgi ultimo tenta Super processu litis per ipsum mote contra predictum Philippum Qua rotulatione inspecta et in plena curia perlecta dictus Willelmus petiit a curia iudicium sibi reddi iuxta tenorem rotulationis predicte Ad quod dixit Johannes de Gardropa ex parte dicti Philippi quod ante iudicium redditum vel processum litis incoatum quod dicto Philippo verti deberet in aliquod preiudicium tempestive com- paruerat maxime ex eo quod causa principalis illius litis tangebat suam hereditatem Quare de jure non tenebatur respondere sine litera de capella domini regis Ad quod dictus Willelmus dixit quod ilia terra cum perti- nentiis de qua idem Philippus fecerat mentionem erat sua pura hereditas fideliter empta de Galfrido de Gaytouna quondam patre predicti Philippi et quod de dicta terra sine impedimento alicuius pacifice fuerat saysitus nee de dicta saysina aliquo tempore legaliter eiectus Ad quod dictus Johannes de Gardropa respondebat quod lite super eisdem querelis et articulis ante tune ut nunc inter ipsos Willelmum et Philippum habitis in dicto tolloneo coram discrete viro Magistro Stephano de Domdouer tune Camerario Scotie leuata fuit bona et sufficiens assisa proborum virorum et fidelium burgi super jure partis utriusque discutiendo que jurata assisa deposuit dictam terrain fuisse dicti Philippi ipso vero Philippo sic manente vestito de eadem Ad quod dictus Willelmus dixit quod si aliqua assisa fuerat proced . . erat inter ipsos dictum Galfridum patrem dicti Philippi et ipsum Philippum set nuncquam de suo consensu et assensu Ad quod dictus Johannes de Gardropa dixit quod et etiam ipso Willelmo Duncan in curia presente assentiente nee aliquo modo tune contradicente et ad hoc dictus Johannes de Gardropa ex parte
B
10 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1317.
dicti Philippi plegium inuenit in manibus balliuorum et ad hoc verifican- dum petiit villacum unde balliui petierunt a predicto Willelmo Duncan si in contrarium plegium vellet inuenire qui multis habitis altercationi- bus licentiam petiit consilium suum adhibendi et de consilio suo rediens tandem in forma petita per balliuos plegium inuenit Unde balliui sta- tuerunt utrique parti eorum dictum diem ad comparendum scilicet diem lune proximo post festum beati Michaelis Archangel! dicto die villacum receptur
Curia capitalis tenta die lune proximo post festum beati Michaelis Archangeli primo vocati fuerunt ruremanentes absentibus remanentibus in admerciamentis.
Burgenses rure manentes.
Roginaldus films Alani. Nigelius filius Petri.
Willelmus de Fingask. Alloas de Der.
Magister Walterus Blak water. Patricius de Achinlevyn.
Jacobus de Culletenachy. Adam de Rane.
Johannes filius Alexandri. Roginaldus de Ran. Johannes de Gardropa de Mernes.a Dominus Alexander Freser.
Willelmus de Melgedrum. Robertus More.
Ricardus Murref. Dominus Walterus Bercley.
. . . Nicholay de Salchop. Johannes filius Hugonis.
. . . Domini Johannis Flemyng Simon Fraser.
militis. Magister Stephanus.
a ' John de Wardroperisthon, son and heir of the late Andrew of Wardroperisthoun in the Marnys,' grants a Charter in favour of Sir John de Inchmartyn, knight, of all claim which he had to the lands of Wardroperisthon for a certain toft and croft, and one acre of land adjoining, in the territory of Inchemartyn, conceded to him by the said Sir John, and also for a certain toft and croft, and a certain piece of land called Cokisland, in the Myrsvd of Inchemartyn, given by the said Sir John to David, brother of the said John de Wardroperisthoun, sealed with the seal of the said John, along with the seals of Sir Gil- bert de Hay, and Sir John of Cambrun, knights ; witnesses, Maurice, bishop of Dumblane, Symon abbot of Scone, William of Mortimer, Reginald of Kynnard, and Thomas Joaan, burgess of Perth, with many others.
The said John, and David his brother, sons of the late Andrew of Wardroperisthon, grant a Charter in favour of the said Sir John de Inchemartyn of the lands of Wardroperisthon, sealed with the seals of the said John and David, and the seals of Sir Gilbert de Hay constable of Scotland, William of Montifichet, and John Gill, alderman of Perth, Dated at Perth, Monday, in the Feast of St. John the Baptist, 1331. (Charters of Lord Airhe at Cortachy Castle.)
1317.] OF THE BURGH OF ABERDEEN. 11
Johannes de Fyngask. Philippus Clericus.
Ricardus de Rossnyet. Thomas de Sancto Claro.
Johannes Bolgenach. Thomas Camerlie.
Hugo Bercley. Adam Story.
Bethinus filius Constantini. Willelmus de Berwyico.
Johannes filius Henrici. Malcolmus de Hadingtouna.
Johannes Brwnyng. Johannes filius Malcomi Bolgy.
Eodem die de precepto balliuorum leuata fuit bona et sufficiens assisa fidelium virorum burgi magno sacramento interueniente juratorum quorum nomina sunt inferius scripta de rei veritati dicenda super querelis motis inter Willelmum Duncan et Philippum de Gaytwn iuxta formam plegiorum per predictos Willelmum et Philippum in manibus dictorum balliuorum inuentorum prout in rotulatione inde confecta plenius contine- tur Qui jurati dicunt quod ilia assysa que procedebat tempore Magistri Stephani de Domdouera tune camerarii Scotie erat inter Galfridum de Gaytouna patrem dicti Philippi et ipsum Philippum et non inter ipsos Willelmum Duncan et Philippum sed ipse Willelmus presens tune fuit nee in aliquo contradixit Item dixerunt quod dicta assysa deposuit et ipsi jurati deponunt quandam partem dicte terre jacentis in vico fur- carum que se extendit in latitudine a lingno posito in muro in signum tempore constructionis domus lapidee in dicta terra versus austrum et domum quondam Thome Slech versus boream fuisse datam Galfrido de Gaytwn in libero maritagio cum Marioria Slech sponsa dicti Galfridi quondam matre predicti Philippi et sic deponunt dictam partem terre cum edificiis in dicta terra edificatis predicto Philippo ratione matris sue jure hereditario pertinere.
Eodem die Walterus filius Randulphi protestatus fuit quod non poterat recuperare feodum suum sex solidorum et octo denariorum annui redditus ipsum contingentis de quadam domo cum fornace jacente in vico del Kyrcgat quam domum Willelmus filius Gartaneti pistor de ipso tenet ad feodofirmam de duobus terminis ultimo preteritis propter insufncientiam tenementi.
a Stephanus de Domdouyr rector ecclesie de Coneueth witnesses a Charter of William de Lambirton, dated on Tuesday before the feast of St. Mary Virgin, 1300. [Reg. Priorat. Sancti Andree p. 120.] His name does not appear in the ordinary lists of great cham- berlains.
12 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1317.
Eodem die scilicet quarto die comparuerunt in curia Johannes films Laurentii carnifex et Marioria sponsa predicti Johannis filia quondam Bricii de Cragy actores ex parte una constituentes Dauid Cryn et Alex- ander Wytleyir suos prolocutores et Emma filia predicti Bricii rea ex altera petens tancquam orphana et puella infra etatem a balliuis prolocu- torem pro causa sua defendenda sibi exhiberi Unde littera regia de recto in plena curia perlecta ac multis habitis hinc inde altercationibus tandem per amicos partis utriusque interlocutum fuit super concordia inter partes facienda et de concensu partium et licentia balliuorum in hunc modum informanda videlicet quod partes predicti conuocatis eorum amicis et adu- natis probare deberent infra quattuordecim dies proximo sequentes si per alicquam viam compositionis conuenire possent in amore Et si aliquo modo infra dictum tempus non poterint concordare partes predicte sine alicqua premunitione vel citatione premissa personaliter comparere deberent coram balliuis in dicto tolloneo die lune in quindenam scilicet die lune in vigilia Sancti Luce ewangeliste et dicto die ibidem . re- moto et electis duodecim viris burgi fidedignis et non suspectis cum duobus superioribus videlicet Rogero clerico et Ricardo de Elgyn magno sacramento grauiter juratis super jure partis utriusque quo ad dictam terram in littera regia specificatam que rotulo suta est declarando et quicquid per eosdem juratos in primis inuentum fuerit et depositum tanquam iudicium redditum pro parte ius in dicta terra babente pure permaneret parte vero non habente ex tune in illo casu nuncquam exau- dienda et etiam in partes predictas conuentum fuit in plena curia et obligatum quod si contigerit aliquam partem earum actricem vel de- fendentem dicto die lune esse absentem vel aliqua premissorum que in curia fuerint concessa contradicere seu repugnare pars ilia penam amissionis dicti tenementi curreret in perpetuum et ut omnia ista firmiter seruarent inconcussa pars utracque in manu Thome filii Roginaldi balliui
Die Mercurii proximo post festum beati dionisii roginaldus de Ran filius ade de Ran comparens in curia recognouit se ad omnes redditus terras et possessiones ipsum jure hereditario contingentes ratione quon- dam alicie filie uttingi casterball sponse predicti ade matris sue jacentes infra burgum de Abirdene super resingnatione quorum vel quarum red-
1399.] OF THE BURGH OF ABERDEEN. 13
dituum terrarum vel possessionum sibi per predictum adame de Ran patrem suum factam quandam litteram patentem sigillo predict! ade sing- natam que in curia inspecta fuit et perlecta ostendebat.
Die sabati proximo ante festum sancti luce ewangeliste comparuit in tolloneo coram balliuis Johannes de Tolidef gener ade de Ran dicens quod ut intellexerat roginaldus de Ran films ade de Ran predicti se recognouerat in dicto tolloneo breui tempore elapso ad quosdam redditus terras et possessiones in diuersis vicis et locis burgi de Aberdene jacentes et ipsum ratione alicie quondam matris sue sponse ade predicti jure hereditario contingentes ut dicebat in quibus idem roginaldus nullum jus habuit aut clamium sed ipse Johannes.
llth November , 1398.
Willelmus Dicson deuenit plegius pro Hankyne de Der quod non dampnabit Hankynum Hokeum per ipsum nee per suam imprecationem in dicto neque in facto sub pena vite et membrorum et xl. s. ad usus com- munitatis sine remissione aliquali.
14th May, 1399.
Simo Lamb calumpniatus fuit per balliuos quod illegitime incarcerauit quandam mulierem de burgo auctoritate sua ratione oflficii sui vicecomitis que mulier primo debeat presentari balliuis super aliqua actione qui Simo fatebatur se sic fecisse et super hoc se posuit in voluntate balliuorum.
IQih July, 1399.
Memorandum quod decimo die mensis Julii anno quo supra Willelmus de Camera pater tune aldirmannus ville deuenit plegius balliuis ville viz* Roberto filio Dauid Johanni Scherar Simoni Benyn et Willelmo Borthwik ad conseruandum ipsos indempnes ab omni calumpnia que potest fieri per regem et camerarium pro pannis laneis worsetis et huius- modi Thome mercatoris Londonensis testibus Thoma Spryng et Willelmo Andree.
Curia legalis que debebat teneri xxviii. die mensis Julii dilata fuit propter aduentum Ducis de Rothisay usque ad octauum diem sequentem.
14 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1400.
27th January, 1400.
Johannes nlius Cristini calumpniatus quod fecit homines comitis Moraine secum venire in vilipensionem Mathei Hulk et in perturbatione et in vilipensione balliuorum et officiariorum ville, negauit calumpniam antedictam propterea adjungitur sibi ad suam acquietantiam in octauis presentis curie de dicta calumpnia.
3rd February, 1400.
Thomas Flossy vocatus legitime ad veniendum cum sua probatione contra Robertum nlium Willelmi clerici de Elon ut adiungebatur sibi in curia precedente. Non comparauit unde adiudicatus fuit in amerciamento curie Similiter dictus Robertus vocatus ad recipiendum dictam proba- tionem non comparuit, adiudicatus est etc. in amerciamento.
12th February, 1400.
Gilbertus de Kynros columpniatus quod receptat brasium et farinam in domo in preiudicium communitatis et etiam quod emit brasium et farinam in domo sua antequam presentetur ad crucem et quod detinet paruam tolloniam a firmariis eiusdem negauit dictas calumpnias adiungitur sibi ad suam acquietantiam in octauis presentis curie.
24th February, 1400.
Item Willelmus de Camera films deuenit plegius pro Johanne Land- man Johanne Clabar Petro Trew Colino Cok Thoma Atmede Johanne Dey et uno garcifero anglicis eorum naui et bonis in ea contentis quod non euadent aut recedent aliquo modo per se vel cum naui et bonis ante- dictis quod si fecerint vel unus aut plures eorum fecerint dictus Willel- mus soluet balliuis ville nomine communitatis eiusdem pro quolibet euadente tantam summam ad quantam eorum redemptio secundum esti- mationem discretorum ville se extendere dinoscatur presentibus tanquam testibus Adam de Benyn aldirmanno Johanne filio Andree Johanne Ledale Nicholao Ledale Johanne Scherar Simone Lamb Johanne Hervy quatuor balliuis et communi clerico.
12th April, 1400. Balliui inhibuerunt et absoluerunt Willelmum boyl baxter ab officio
1401.] OF THE BURGH OF ABERDEEN. 15
suo pistoris per annum quia fregit obligationem suam factam dictis balliuis de venditione panis.
In vigilia Pentecostes, 1400.
Robertus Gwelp adiudicatus est in xlviii. lib. pro concelatione firme sue erga regem una cum amerciamento curie.
19th July, 1400.
Johannes de Buchania calumpniauit Alexandrum Forglen quod iniuste ab eo duxit sex futhris petarum . Alexander predictus concessit abduc- tionem unius futhir iniuste propterea est in amerciamento curie.
Item predictus Johannes posuit se in voluntate balliuorum pro iniusta verberatione de ly Schethok commorante in Scethokisley.
Adiungitur Johanni Lambyntoun ad veniendum in octauis presentis acquietando curie se quod non perturbauit curiam maledicendo et inepta verba proferendo Matheo de Balran.
20th August, 1400.
Michael de Camera posuit se in voluntate balliuorum pro perturbatione vigilie cum Laurentio Wricht.
2nd September, 1400.
Johannes films Alani faber in amerciamento cuvie pro perturbatione vigilie pulsando campanam Sancti Fotini.
13th September, 1400.
Thomas Johannis faber in amerciamento curie quod inepte locutus fuit in presentia balliuorum Johanni Yhule.
1st October, 1400.
Et Thomas Johannis carnifex acquietabit se die Sabbati proximo future quod non procurauit nee fecit procurari dominum de Fentoun contra prepositum vel alios officiarios ville . Ista acquietantia prorogatur usque aduentum prepositi plegio Laurentio Leth.
March, 1401. Isti subscripti electi sunt per episcopum et commune consJlium ad
16 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1401.
discooperiendum et narrandum omnes discordias quas sciunt inter vicinos ville scilicet et easdem discordias pro suo posse mitigandas et cessandas ac etiam si aliqua discordia riota vel briga imposterum aceidat inter vicinos ville vel quoscunque alios infra villam Isti subscripti jurati sunt et obligati in presentia doinini episcopi ad manutenendum et supportan- dura balliuos et alios officiarios suum officium contra dictos brigatores facientes in casu quod tales dictis officiariis noluerint obedire.
In prima tenta in pretorio xvii. die mensis Septembris de anno istius libri ordinatum fuit cum communi consilio et totali consensu maioris partis communitatis ibidem congregate quod quicunque burgensis vel alius qui voluerit habere puerum sepultum in ecclesia parochiali si sit infra etatem septem annorum soluet quinque solidos et si sit inter septem annos et quindecim annos soluet sex solidos et octo denarios Et si ex- cedat quindecim annos soluet x solidos secundum quod faciunt omnes alii qui dictam etatem excedant . Et si aliquis puer habeat bona propria cuiuscunque etatis fuerit soluet x solidos.
IQth January, 1401.
Willelmus films Roberti carnifex posuit se in voluntate balliuorum quod non facit ad officium suum quod tenetur facere de jure.
\lthJanuary, 1401.
Willelmus Blyndcele senior Willelmus de Crag et Johannes Vscher calumpniati a balliuis quod ubi Thomas filius Willelmi unus balli- uorum duxit Henricum Stephani per se arrestand. et plegios legales inueniend. pro perturbatione ville cum Willelmo Yhung Blyndcele ipsi in vituperium scandalum et pudorem regis et legis ex deliberata intentione dictum balliuum perturbauerunt dictum Henricum percutientes vel volentes percutere bippenes et cultellos extrahendo unde
predict! sic calumpniati petierunt auisari qui auisati negabant quod ex deliberata intentione aliquid faciebant in scandalum vel pudorem regis legis vel balliui supradicti et de hoc ceperunt se ad suas acquietantias in die lune proximo future ut exigit ordo iuris sed de perturbatione ville posuerunt se in voluntate balliuorum.
1401.] OF THE BURGH OF ABERDEEN. 17
teh March, 1401.
Attendens ad barram Matheus de Balran conquerebatur de Patricio Baxter asserens quod panis suus non fuit sufficiens et hoc obtulit se pro- baturum si necesse esset Thomas Spryng prolocutor dicti Patricii extendebat plegium quod ex quo dictus Matheus fuit balliuus non tene- batur aliquis officiarius ville accusari tali modo dictus Matheus dictum plegium recontrariauit protestando pro rationibus faciendis cum fuerit oportunum Ista tamen differtur ad proximum diem legalem tune wardandum propter debilitatem curie.
7th March, 1401.
Eodem die accedens ad barram Johannes Bullok asseruit quod dictum fuit sibi per fidedignos quod quoddam judicium fuit contra eum datum ipso non existente in regno sed extra regnum in guerris domini nostri regis Scotie de quadam terra jacente in vico nauium unde coram balliuis et in plana curia obtulit decem solidos et octo denarios debitos ministro domus trinitatis de eadem terra de temporibus transactis Et si maior summa dicto fratri ministro dicte domus vel cuicunque alter! de dicta terra debeatur illam summam etiam obtulit soluendam tune in pretorio coram balliuis cum tempus adhuc est sibi oportunum ad solutionem dicte summe ut ipse dixit eo quod fuit extra regnum et eadem de causa dictum judicium annulletur.
1st July, 1401.
Alexander de Mernys accedens ad barram calumpniauit Mauricium filium Andree asserens quod conduxit ipsum et nauem suam a partibus Rossie usque ad portum de Abirden vel ad australem ferth cum xx. barellis de porpas et coriis et promisit pro naulo cuiusdam barelle viii. d. et pro qualibet dacer corium viii. d. qui Mauricius ut ipse dixit naui- gauit ipsum et nauem suam cum predictis bonis ad partes Orcadie contra voluntatem suam et ibidem perdidit octo de dictis barellis de porpas omnino cum dampnis et expensis suis in defectum dicti Mauricii dictus Mauricius negauit dictam calumpniam quare adiungebatur dicto Alex- andro ad veniendum in tempore quod exigit ordo iuris ad probandum dictam calumpniam fore veram.
18 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1406.
December, 1401.
In prima ienta in die veneris immediate post festum beate lucie virginis ordinatum fuit per totam communitatem quod si templarii et ipsi de regalitate pinsant laganas amodo vel pessimant forum in emptione farine tota farina et lagane reperte in eorum domibus errogabuntur pauperibus per officiarios ville cum adjutorio communitatis.
In prima tenta secundo die mensis Decembris anno etc. ccccmo primo ordinatum fuit per maiorem partem communitatis ibidem congregate quod quicunque receptat aliquos venientes de partibus australibus ubi mortali- tas tanta fuit aut eorum bona soluet sine remissione viii. s. prima vice qui tales receptat et secunda vice tales receptatores bannientur de villa.
29th May, 1402.
Thomas paris calumpniauit laurentium de buchania dicens quod iniuste verberauit famulum suum dictus laurentius negauit omnem wrang et unlaw ac etiam iniustam verberationem dicti famuli sed dixit quod fuit quidam conuentus seu contractus inter ipsum et dictum famulum factus quern conuentum in parte perimpleuit dictus thomas dixit quod nullus conuentus fuit cum famulo suo factus sed cum ipso et hoc etiam negauit dictus laurentius adiungitur dicte thome ad probandum legittime in octauis presentis curie quod contractus secum fuit factus et non cum famulo suo.
Curia legalis tenta per Camerarium 12th June, 1402.
Matheus Balram et Simon Lamb deuenerunt plegios pro Johanne Swetsoun et suis quod ille non dampnabitur per anglicos qui sunt in sua custodia et quod non erunt in talibus domibus quo possunt videre secreta ville nee statum et conuersationem burgensium.
Item quod parua custuma si debeatur de suis piscibus et aliis bonis in nauibus contentis soluetur ut de custuma custumari.
16th November, 1406.
In die immediate sequente balliui calumpniauerunt Thomam Spryng quod iniuste perturbauit curiam eo quod dispersonauit balliuum Ricardum Fichet sedentem pro judice ad quam calumpniam respondebat dicens quod non perturbauit dictum balliuum et hoc extendebat per plegios dicendo
1407.] OF THE BURGH OF ABERDEEN. 19
quod non fuit sibi balliuus quia non fuit electus per totam et integram communitatem et ipse fuerat presens in electione et contradixit et etiam plures alii contradixerunt.
Tuesday after the feast of Epiphany r, 1407.
Quo die Adam filius Thome tutor et custos altaris beati Johannis baptiste situati in ecclesia beati Nicolaij de Abirdene protestabatur pro quodam annuo redditu xiiii. s. dicto altari debito et a longis temporibus non soluto de quadam terra jacente in vico qui dicitur ly Nethirkirkgate ex australi parte eiusdem inter terram nunc Willelmi Blakburn ex parte orientali et terram quondam Christofori Haket ex parte occidentali ad quam terram veniens nichil reperiebat distringibile pro dicto annuo redditu preter terram et lapides quos presentauit in curia coram balliuis tanquam primo die huius processus.
1407.
Andreas Mirden posuit se in voluntate balliuorum pro perturbatione ville cum Johanne Gray et pro extraxione cultelli sui ad eundem.
Memorandum quod Adam filius Thome et Willelmus de Kyntor magistri ecclesie reddiderunt bonum computum fidele et finale preposito balliuis et communitati de Abirdene de omnibus receptis suis a primo die introitus sui in dicto officio usque ad sextum diem mensis Februarii de anno Domini millesimo quadringentesimo quinto quo die presentauerunt post compotum suum ut superius datum unam cedulam de debitis dicte ecclesie continentem summam vii. lib. xviii. s. . Et iiic burdis et xl. petras plumbi de cuius cedule summa burdis et plumbo predicti dicti magistri ecclesie onerabunt se in proximo computo suo reddendo.
24tk January^ 1407.
Thomas Alani Smyth in amerciamento curie quod iniuste expulit quan- dam mulierem de domo sua ii. s. per assisam.
13th February, 1407.
Johannes Henrici probabit crastina die quod cum naulauit Pigbarn fecit mentionem de dolio beati Nicolaij et Pigbarn in amerciamento curie.
20 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1451.
9th January, 1441.
Item Johannes Maar presentauit et perlegi fecit unam litteram papir- eam Alexandri de Urchart constabilarii de Foress sigillatam cum sigillo Thome Frasser domini de Lovet ad eandem per prefatum Alexandrum procurato In qua quidem littera prefatus Alexander obligabatur datis plegiis videlicet Andrea Cormok et Andrea Hostillar et Eugenio de Foress ad comparendum coram preposito et balliuis burgi de Abirdene in ista curia capitali burgi de Aberdene ad faciendum dicto Johanni Maar de quibusdam bonis que idem Johannis clamat a dicto Alexandro quod jura volunt et requirunt et tamen dictus Alexander non comparuit quare prefatus Johannes protestatus fuit pro jure suo laboribus et expenssis.
9th April, 1442.
Eodem die Willelmus Robertsoun de Elgyne primo die vocatus ad in- stantiam reuerendi in Christo patris et domini domini ingerami Dei gratia episcopi Abirdonensis occasione octo librarum grossorum monete flandrie debitorum eidem domino episcopo per dictum Willelmum non comparuit quare precipitur sergiendo quod capiat districtum a Rogero Williamesoun plegio pro dicto Willelmo etca et summoniat eundem ad . faciendum dictum Willelmum in proxima curia legali.
24th April, 1442.
Item eodem die curia auisata concessit Johanni de Douglas balliuo de Elgyne Willelmum Robertsoun conburgensem dicti burgi ad plegium ad curiam suam dicti burgi quern Willelmum procuratores reuerendi in Christo patris et Domini domini ingerami episcopi Aberdonensis calump- niarunt de octo libris grossorum monete flandrie Et prefatus Johannes balliuus assignauit partibus curiam tenendam apud Elgyne hodie ad quin- denam et dictus Willelmus dedit Johannem Gray et Andream Traile plegios quod comparebit in dicta curia responsurus et juri pariturus.
20th February, 1451.
The assiss has ordanit that John Traile to fulfill the conditioun made in his obligatioun and yherly to pay xl. s. quhill he bryng hame the blew stane til his fadre and that to be rasit be the sight and ordinance of his modre and of Sir Adam and Thomas his brethir til syng for his fadre Saul
1456.] OF THE BCJRGH OF ABERDEEN. 21
at Sanct Duthawis altar and of the three yheris bigane give it be noght payiit we ordane him to pay it at the sight of the personnes befor writtin plegio Roberto Gillespy et dictus Johannes obligauit terram quam habet de patre suo ad servandum dictum Robertum indempnem in presentia curie.
6th June, 1451.
Quo die Johannes Huntar de Culross produxit et ostendit coram pre- posito et balliuis quoddam transcriptum siue instrumentum publicum sub manu et signo Hugonis Kew de Den notarii publicii continens copiam cuiusdam carte quondam recolende memorie Dauid regis Scotorum illustris quod abbas et conuentus monasterii de Culross et homines inhabitantes terras suas liberi sint et esse debent per totum regnum Scotie ab omnibus tributis vectigalibus talliagiis theoloniis taxationibus priuatis collectionibus et omnibus aliis demandis et oneribus secularibus uniuersis Et quod nullos ipsos vexare presumat super plenariam foris- facturam regis etca unde dictus Johannes absolutus fuit et conuentus dimissus de ancoragio etca*
1st October, 1453.
Item eodem die accedens ad barram Walterus de Meldrum procurator et procuratorio nomine magistri de Torpheichin ordinis Sancti Johannis jerusalamitani protestatus fuit solempniter quod non cedat in preiudicium prefato magistro et domui antedicte saisina ilia siue intrusio quondam Walter! Giffard et nunc Willelmi Giffard filii sui et heredis in quadam parte cuiusdam terre eedem domui spectantis jacentis in vico quo itur a claue versus domum fratrum beate trinitatis inter terram dicti Willelmi Giffard ex parte oriental! et terram dicte domus de Torpheichin ex parte occidentals
12th May, 1456.
Assisa mature auisata penes calumpniam quadraginta librarum usualis monete Scotie petitarum per nobilem virum magistrum Gilbertum de Haia germanum et procuratorem magnifici et potentis domini Willelmi comitis de Erole constabularii Scotie in hac parte per suas litteras patentes specialiter deputatum ex una a Johanne Howisoun pro eo quod Agnetem de Heryne absque consensu prefati domini comitis maritauit
-2-2 EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS [1462.
partibus ex altera auditis alligationibus utriusque partis concorditer per os Johannis de Scrogs deliberauerunt dictum Johannem Howisoun quit et absolutum de dicta calumpnia.
1th October, 1457.
The samyn day it was consentit and statute be the brethir of the gilde, that of ilke brothir of the gilde that beis absent fra the gild courte ilke xv. dayis on Fridai, thai shall pay xii. d. unforgiffin ; and quhat tyme that the persounes that ar of counsale be warnyt on othir dayis than the gilde dai for gude caussis to cum to the tolbuth, and thai compeir noght, ilke man at is absent sail pay ii. s. unforgiffin for thair con- tumacie ; bot give thai haue a resonable excusation and caus of absence, that be sene sufficient to thaim that ar present in the tyme, and thir amerciamentis sal be rasit of thaim that ar noght present at nyne howris, or at quhat hour that thai be warnyt and chargit.
2nd December, 1458.
The samyn day it was appoynttit and fullely accordit betuex the