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were to be 'knawlegit in iugment of ye iiii borowis yt richt or wroung.' It was decreed by James I., and confirmed by his son in 1454, that the court should be held in Edinburgh on the day after the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel. This court of the four burghs seems to have originally been a final court of decision. In the Drummond MS. of the laws a section on processes of again calling of a doom contains this clause: Quhar domis off burgh sal be discussyt. Item all domys yt ar falsyt in ony burgh off ye kyngs or in ony other burgh off regale sal be discussit be foir ye gryt chamerlain off scotland or his deputs in ye court off ye four burrowis and yar sal tak finaly end.'s

Also the court of the four burghs and the parliament are classed together in an exception as to the procedure to be followed when doom was given in absence of party. Another source gives an addition to the statement that dooms falsed in burgh courts shall be discussed in the court of the four burghs: 'bot gif ye actioun depend betuix ane burgh and ane lord of regalitie for yan It aw to be discussit in ye parliament.'5 But an act of 1503 which decrees that appeals from bailies within burghs are to be made to the chamberlain in the court of the four burghs also provides that a doom falsed in that court has process to the court immediately superior, and this, from the earlier part of the act, appears to be to 'thretty or fourty persons more or fewer deputed by the king with power as it were in a Parliament."" This act also changed the old law about appeals by allowing the party who appealed fifteen days in which to consider his process, after which he was to present it to the chamberlain, who was 'to sett ane Court of the four burrowis on XV dais and mak the said dume to be discussit.' At the same time the prescribed formula for the falsing of dooms was changed to a less forcible expression: 'I am grettumly hurt and Iniurit be ye said dume thairfor I appele.' 8

There seem to be only two references to proceedings of this court, both in the Acts of the Lords of the Council in Civil Causes and both in 1478. In the first case a summons was

1 Leges Scotorum Antiquae, Advocates' Library, MS. 25. 4. 16. f. 210.

2 Convention Records, i. 542-3.

3 Drummond MS. (Gen. Register House).

4 Harleian MS. 4700, f. 275 (Brit. Mus.).

6 Acts, Scotland, ii. 246.

7 Stair, Institutions of the Law of Scotland, Book IV. 8 Acts, Scotland, ii. 246.

5 Ibid. f. 275.

i.

19, 20.

made by John of Spens and his spouse against John of Haddington, bailie of Perth, for his 'wrongous and inordinate' conduct during the hearing of their case. The chamberlain Iwas ordained to call both the bailie and the others before him in the chamberlain ayre or in the court of the four burghs.1 An act had been passed in 1475 ordaining that all parties complaining of the judge ordinary's administration of justice should come and pleanzie to the King and his Council, upon the Judge; and likewise on the Party, and in that case he shall have Summons baith on the Judge and on the Party, to compear before the King and his Council, and there have Justice and Reformation.' In the case cited complaint was made to the council of the injustice of the bailie, and the hearing of the case was referred to the chamberlain, the final court in burghal affairs. The second case concerned an attempt by one Robert of 'donyng' to take advantage of Marjorie, daughter of umquhile Gilbert Browne, by taking action upon a decree given in the burgh of Perth, on which appeal had in the meantime been made to the court of the four burghs by Gilbert, before his death. The lords decreed that Robert was not to occupy the land until the doom was discussed there. There was here no appeal from the chamberlain's jurisdiction.

Mention is made of sending commissioners to the court from Edinburgh in 1484; from Lanark in 1490, when thirty-four shillings was paid to the 'balyeis to the Court of iiii Burrowis'; in 1503, when thirty-two shillings was expended for wax and collacion to seill the commission to the court off (Four Burghis),' and to the 'commissaris at raid'; and, again, for riding to the court when it was continued; and in 1507, when they again attended twice. There are no later allusions to the court, though that does not necessarily prove that it ceased to exist. There was a rising in Edinburgh in 1527 against the High Chamberlain, John, Lord Fleming, when sitting in judgment in the Tolbooth of our foresaid Burgh in the execution of his office of Chamberlain.' He may possibly have been presiding at a meeting of the court of the four burghs. But the importance of the office of

1 Acts of the Lords of the Council in Civil Causes, 24.

2 Stair, op. cit. Book IV. i. 14.

3 Acts of the Lords of the Council in Civil Causes, 19-20.

4 Edinburgh Burgh Records (Scottish Burgh Records Society), i. 50.

5 Records of Lanark, 7, 13, 17-18.

• Edinburgh Charters (Scottish Burgh Records Society), 205-8.

chamberlain, and probably of his jurisdiction, were declining, and the institution of the College of Justice in 1537 made considerable changes in the administration of the law. After this the process used in the court of the four burghs came to an end, for Stair says that then all Appeals of falsing of Dooms did entirely fall in desuetude and ceased.' It seems likely, therefore, that the court of the four burghs, as a body with judicial functions, ceased to exist in the early part of the sixteenth century.

During the fifteenth century, however, other functions were acquired by the court. In 1405, according to Skene, the only authority for this statement, in the court of the four burghs held at Stirling it was ordained that two or three burgesses from each of the king's burghs south of the Spey should compear' yearly 'to the Convention of the foure Burghes,' in the Scots version, or 'ad dictum Parliamentum quatuor burgorum,' 'to trait, ordaine and determe vpon all thingis concerning the vtilitie of the common well of all the Kings burghs, their liberties and court.' 2 Then follow six chapters relating to burgh affairs, but Professor Innes says that the manuscript from which they are taken does not ascribe them to the court of the four burghs, and one of them deals with the Templars, whose order was dissolved in 1312.3 There is no mention of the chamberlain's presence. Then in 1454, in confirmation of an ordinance by James I., James II. granted to Edinburgh that the chamberlain should hold the court of the parliament of the four burghs there, to determine sentences given or gainsaid in the burgh courts; to give measures of the ell, firlot or boll, stoup and stone to the lieges; Necnon omnia alia et singula facienda et exercenda que in huiusmodi Curia Parliamenti secundum leges statuta et Burgorum consuetudines sunt tractanda subeunda et finaliter determinanda.' And in 1500 there is a record of a meeting of the Court of Parliament of Four Burghs at Edinburgh, where it was ordained by the chamberlain, with advice of his assessors and commissioners of burghs, that acts of parliament about craftsmen using merchandise within burgh should be observed; that no one who was not a burgess should 'pas in Flanderis nor France with merchandice'; that no one should have the freedom of the burgh nor haunt merchandice' 1 Stair, op. cit. Book IV. i. 31. 2 Ancient Laws, I. iv. 156-8. 3 Acts, Scotland, i. 51.

4 Convention Records, i. 542-3. Each of the four burghs, in the sixteenth century and later, kept one of the standard measures. Edinburgh had the ell, Stirling the stoup, Lanark the stone, Linlithgow the firlot.

unless he resided in the burgh. After this, until the regular records of the convention begin in 1552, there are mentions of commissioners being convened together, and being convened by command of the king's letters, dealing with regulations for foreign trade and making provision for guarding the privileges of the burghs and the burgesses, but there are no more records of the proceedings of the parliament of the court of the four burghs nor references to the presence of the chamberlain at any meeting of the commissioners.

From these fragments it seems that the court had three aspects. In its judicial capacity appeals were heard from decisions in burgh courts and from the chamberlain's ayre. Secondly, it had powers of administration, giving the weights and measures to the burghs. Thirdly, ordinances and regulations were made in the court. Perhaps it is permissible to conclude that the difference in function corresponds with a difference in title, for the court, as a law court, seems to have been always known as the court of the four burghs, while the meetings which made ordinances appear by the records of 1405, 1454, and 1500 to have been called the parliament of the court of the four burghs. The chamberlain was always present, except that there was no mention of him in 1405. It is difficult to be certain about the constitution of the court. According to Skene, others than the four burghs were represented, but the letters patent of James II. expressly specified Edinburgh, Lanark, Linlithgow and Stirling, while the entry of 1500 mentioned only the Commissaris of oure Burrowis.' Comparing what we know of the functions of this court with those of the convention, we find that the principal difference was that the convention had not the power as a court of justice which the court of the four burghs had possessed. Otherwise the functions of the convention were wider, for it assessed taxation, carried on negotiations concerning foreign trade, represented the burghs in consultations with and recommendations to the king and the council, and exercised larger powers in burghal administration than the records show that the parliament of the court of the burghs had done. But before the convention, as it appears in the latter part of the sixteenth century, began to be held, there are a few records of meetings of burgesses belonging to others than the four burghs, meeting independently of the chamberlain, sometimes before or during parliament, and exercising some of those functions of the convention which the

1Ibid. i. 505-6. See Sir James Marwick's Preface to the Convention Records, i., i.-viii.

court did not apparently possess or use. Perhaps Skene's clause may have referred to some gathering of this kind, and also the ordinance in 1466 giving power to certain lords 'til authorize ratify and apprufe or til annull as thai think expedient and profitable al actis and statutis avisit and commonit in the sessionis of burowis for the gude of merchandice and proffit of the Realme.'1 And also the act of 1487 authorising commissioners of all burghs to convene together once a year at Inverkeithing, with full commission to 'comoun and trete apoun the welefare of merchandis the gude Rewle and statutis for the commoun proffit of borowis and to provide for Remede apoun the scaith and Iniuris sustenit within burowis' 2 seems likely to have referred to these assemblies. This was one of several acts that the haill commissionaris of burrowis desyris to be ratifyit and apprevit in this present parliament.' The act of 1581 declared that it was found necessary by oure souerane lord and his hines predicessouris That the commissionaris of burrowis convene at sic tymes as they suld think guid in quhat burgh they thocht maist expedient with full commissioun: To treat vpoun the weilfair of merchandis merchandice guid rewle and statutis for the commone profite of burrowis.' These statutes seem to refer to a different body from the court where the chamberlain presided, to a body representing a greater number of burghs and exercising wider powers.

On one occasion the commissioners of the burghs in parliament gave a decree about the course to be followed when burgh lands were waste and not distrainable for the king's farm of the burgh, a proceeding something like the record of the ordinance of the burgesses of the four burghs in 1295. The burgh commissioners, too, seem to have occasionally had questions submitted to them as arbitrators, as in 1443, when, at a general council held at Stirling the commissioners of Ayr and Irvine, 'oblisand thame to hald ferme ande stabill perpetuale tymis to cum quhat the sade commissaris of the lafe of the burghs... sall decrete in that mater,' appeared before the commissioners of Edinburgh, Perth, Stirling, Lanark, Montrose, Dundee, Cupar, Inverkeithing and Aberdeen, who gave decree about the claims of the merchants of Irvine to sell certain goods in Ayr on the market day. This was 1 Acts, Scotland, ii. 85. 2 Ibid. ii. 179.

3 Ibid. iii. 224.

+ Muniments of the Royal Burgh of Irvine (Ayrshire and Galloway Archaeological Association), 23-4. There is no record of this in the Acts of the Parliament, (1429-30).

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