and accustomed, purely and simply, as a free burgh, and a market in the same with free and full power of buying and selling victuals, wine, wax, linen and woollen cloth, wool, flesh, fish, skins, and hides, and of tanning the skins and hides, of fishing, and of brewing. They shall have also full and free power to make and elect bailiffs, sergeants, and other officers, to continue them, depose them, and in their places to elect and appoint one or more; to hold courts; to administer burgh laws; to enact reasonable statutes; to duly punish offenders, and, if need be, to expel the same; to levy fines; to expose for sale, weigh, and measure merchandise of all kinds, and to do and exercise all other and singular acts and offices which by law or custom affect the said burgh, to proclaim and hold every year, on the feast of St. Katherine the Virgin, [Nov. 25] a fair within the said burgh, to levy, exact, and receive escheats and fines therefrom, and to duly punish delinquents in the same, together with the other liberties, conveniences, and easements, all and singular, which'by right or custom pertain to the aforesaid burgh, and which we possess and are capable of granting them, according to the form and tenor of the charter of the late most serene prince, of good memory, King Alexander, which, at the prompting of love, was graciously granted to us and our successors anent the said burgh, and which is preserved in our archives. Our said Newburgh to be held and had with all its pertinents as a free burgh, and the market in the same every Tuesday of each week throughout the year, and for ever, by our aforesaid burgesses and their heirs and successors, of us and our successors, in fee and heritage for ever, as freely, quietly, fully, honourably, well, and in peace, as we and our predecessors possessed and had it by all and singular its ancient right meiths and marches, and with its other just pertinents of every kind pertaining to the said Newburgh, or which can of right pertain to it in any way in future, and as freely and quietly as any like burgh within the realm of Scotland is given, granted, or possessed, the said burgesses, their heirs, and successors doing homage to us and our successors, and making three suits of court in the year at our three head-courts to be held within the said burgh, and also the said burgesses, their heirs, and successors, rendering to us and our successors yearly at the usual and customary terms the burgh rents, to wit, six pence of the current money for every rod or perch of land, reserving to us and our successors the justice and chamberlain ayres, together with the customs pertaining in the said burgh. Likewise we will that no stranger (extraneus) from outside the said burgh, tarrying there [?], should be received or admitted as a burgess (lawful heirs excepted) unless our consent thereto is expressly sought and also obtained. In testimony of which thing the common seal of our chapter was attached to the presents, at our said monastery, at the hour of the chapter, on the twenty-fourth day of the month of May, in the year of our Lord MCCCCLVII., etc. 'Quod ff. R. K.' [fol. 2.] CLIII Instrumentum Saysine terre quondam Magistri In dei nomine, Amen. per hoc presens publicum instrumentum cunctis pateat evidenter quod anno ab incarnacione eadem millesimo quadringentesimo septuagesimo nono, die vero mensis Martii vicesimo sexto, indictione duodecima, pontificatus Sanctissimi in Christo patris ac domini nostri, domini sixti divina providencia pape quarti, anno octavo in plena curia burgali novi burgi tenta apud ipsum burgum, infra capellam ejusdem, per probos viros, Michaelem de Inch et Alexandrum Michelsen dicti burgi ballivos, comparuit discretus vir Magister Thomas Rossy, vicarius ecclesie de Inchthur, Sancti Andree diocesis, qui nec metu ductus nec coactus, nec in aliquo errore, ut asseruit, lapsus, set ex sua certa scientia ac mera et spontanea voluntate universas et singulas terras suas et domum suam lapideam desuper constructam et erectam, cum earundem pertinenciis vniuersis infra dictum burgum ex parte boreali eiusdem, inter terras stephani caluart ad occidentem ab vna, et terras arabiles dominorum abbatis et conuentus monasterii de Lundoris ad orientem partibus ab altera Jacentes, in manibus predictorum balliuorum per tradicionem cuiusdam parue virgule sursum dedit, pureque et simpliciter resignauit; saluo tamen sibi dicto magistro thome dictarum terrarum et domus cum pertinenciis pro toto tempore suo libero tenemento. Quaquidem resignacione, sic, ut premittitur, facta et admissa, prefati balliui, finita dicta curia, ad dictas terras et domum cum pertinenciis, recto tramite, vnacum me notario publico et testibus subscriptis, accesserunt, et ibidem Michael, balliuus predictus, de dictis terris et domo cum earundem pertinenciis statum et saisinam hereditariam Religiosis viris fratribus Andree Wyntoun, suppriori dicti monasterii, et Johanni Cambal, monachis eiusdem loci professis, tanquam veris et legittimis procuratoribus pro toto conuentu eiusdem monasterii in prefata curia per dictos balliuos ad hoc specialiter admissis, secundum formam dicte resignacionis et tenorem carte per dictum magistrum thomam eis desuper confecte, per terre et lapidis in eorum manibus donacionem, vt moris est in burgo, saluo iure cuiuslibet, tradidit et deliberauit, ac eosdem procuratores nomine et ex parte tocius dicti conuentus in realem actualem et corporalem possessionem traduxit, et realiter inuestiuit de eisdem: Super quibus omnibus et singulis prefatus supprior, nomine et ex parte tocius dicti conuentus, a me notario publico infrascripto sibi fieri peciit vnum seu plura publicum vel publica Instrumentum seu Instrumenta. Acta erant hec anno, mense, die, Indiccione, locis, et pontificatu quibus supra hora vndecima vel eocirca ante meridiem, presentibus ibidem dicto magistro thoma, Johanne Wrycht, Stephano crukschank, Patricio Coule, Jacobo Philip, Nicholao Grynlaw, Dauid arbroth, Alano arbroth, Thoma Wyntoun, Jacobo Kok, Johanne Wemis et Willelmo Zung, cum diuersis aliis testibus, ad premissa vocatis specialiter et rogatis. (Abstract) 'INSTRUMENT of SASINE of the LAND of the late MASTER THOMAS ROSSY, lying in NEWBURGH.' IN the name of God. Amen. By this present public instrument let it be clearly manifest to all that in the year of the same Incarnation 1 one thousand, four hundred, and seventy-nine, on the twenty-sixth day of the month of March, the twelfth indiction, the eighth year of the pontificate of our Most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord Sixtus iv. by Divine Providence, Pope, in the full burgh-court of Newburgh, held at the same burgh, within the chapel of the same, by the good men Michael of Inch and Alexander Michelson, bailiffs 2 of the said burgh, compeared the discreet man, Master Thomas Rossy, vicar of the church of Inchthur, in the diocese of St. Andrews, who not led nor forced by fear, nor, as he asserted, having fallen into any error, but of his certain knowledge and pure and spontaneous inclination, gave back into the hands of the aforesaid bailiffs by the delivery of a small twig, and purely and simply resigned, all and singular his lands and his house of stone erected and built thereon, with all pertinents of the same within the said burgh, at the northern part of the same, lying between the lands of Stephen Calvart and the arable lands of my lords the abbot and convent of Lundoris to the east, yet saving to himself, the said Master Thomas, the freehold of the said lands and house with their 1 The text reads ab incarnacione eadem, but compare the opening of CLI., where we find the reading ab incarnacione ejusdem. 2 The word 'bailies' would in this Charter represent perhaps more nearly the officer meant. P [fol. 1.] pertinents for the whole of his time. On the resignation being made and admitted, as stated above, the aforesaid bailiffs, on the said court having been finished, went by the straight road, together with me, notary public, and the witnesses underwritten, to the said lands and house with their pertinents, and there Michael, the bailiff aforesaid, gave and delivered, by the giving of earth and stone into their hands, as the custom is in the burgh, state and heritable sasine of the said lands and house with the pertinents of the same to the religious, Brothers Andrew Wyntoun, sub-prior of the said monastery, and John Cambal, being professed monks of the same place, as to true and lawful procurators for the whole convent of the same monastery, specially admitted by the said bailiffs in the aforesaid court, for this purpose, according to the form of the said resignation and the tenor of the charter executed thereanent by the said Master Thomas, and put the same procurators in the name and on the part of the whole said convent, into real, actual, and corporal possession, and gave them real investiture of the same. On which things, all and singular, the aforesaid sub-prior, in the name and on the part of the whole said convent, craved of me, the notary public underwritten, that a public instrument or public instruments should be made for them. These things were done in the year, month, day, indiction, places, and pontificate as declared above, at the eleventh hour, or thereabouts, before noon. There being present at the same place the said Master Thomas, John Wrycht, Stephen Crukschank, Patrick Coule, James Philip, Nicholas Grynlaw, David Arbroth, Alan Arbroth. Thomas Wyntoun, James Kok, John Wemis, and William Zung, with divers other witnesses specially called and summoned to the premisses. CLIV [Fragmentum Instrumenti Publici.'] IN Dei nomine amen; per hoc presens publicum instrumentum cunctis secunda Indictione vija pontificatus sanctissimi in christo patris ac domini nostri et testium subscriptorum presencia personaliter constitutus discretus uir du singulos procuratores suos super consilii infrascripta potestate cum permittandi Reuocando et quos extunc Reuocantur de Butyll, archidiaconum candide case, sacri palacij.2 predictam 1 After some hesitation the editor has added this, which is an unintelligible fragment of a notarial instrument, apparently used as a fly-leaf. The end of each line is wanting. See Notes and Illustrations. 2 A word follows here which cannot be deciphered. See Notes and Illustrations. Carric Ricardum Cady et dominum Johannem de actores factores et negociorum suorum auchynleke a gestores d.d. resigna predictam quam secundum fac parochialem de Kynnetlys Roberto de Dryden, Rectore dicte ecclesie de mukart, in supradicti uel alterius cuiuscunque ab eodem monasterio propria animam iurandum et juramentum niaca prauitas uel illicita pactio ac in ipsius constitucionis Et generaliter si particulariter interesset eciam si talis huc que in iudicum . . . stipulanti tanquam persone publice et nomine omnium faciendum sub ypotheca a aliquis in premissis duxerit Idem dominus hugo a me notario publico singulis premissis Sancti Andree sub anno die mense Indiccione et pontificatu testimonium omnium et singulorum [FRAGMENT of a PUBLIC INSTRUMENT. NOTE. The sense of this fragment cannot be gathered, the document having been cut lengthwise, so that the latter part of each line is wanting. Indeed it seems highly probable from the discoloration of the parchment that the leaf had been at one time pasted down on the oaken board which formed the front cover of the little volume. The verso side is blank. Some conjectures as to some of the persons named will be found in the Notes and Illustrations. One of them was, almost certainly, at a later date, Bishop of Galloway.] |