[1703/5/163]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Petition by [John Lindsay], earl of Crawford, anent the arrears due to him and his regiment, being read, it was moved that the petitioner's case be remitted to the lords commissioners of her majesty's treasury, and that he have a stay of execution at the instance of his creditors for the debts mentioned in the petition until the next session of parliament, which was agreed to, and the act thereon in his favour is as follows:
Her majesty's high commissioner and the estates of parliament, having heard the petition of John, earl of Crawford, humbly showing to them that in the year 1695 the regiment of foot, then under the command of the petitioner as colonel, being on the Scottish establishment, the petitioner was necessitated to contract with Sir George Home and his partners, and with Alexander Bruce and Patrick Chalmers, for clothing the same, and on that occasion became personally engaged to pay to them a very great sum of money and whereof he has been constrained to make payment of a considerable part, but since the disbanding of his said regiment he has never been able to recover his payment from the treasury, nor obtain himself relieved of his engagement to Sir George Home, Alexander Bruce and Patrick Chalmers, nor to procure payment of his arrears, whereby his grace and their lordships might see plainly how much the petitioner suffers on this public account, and how just and reasonable it is that he should not only be reimbursed of what he has advanced, but likewise that he should be relieved of what he stands engaged for, and for payment whereof he is daily molested and threatened with the rigour of all manner of legal diligence, and also that he should be paid of his whole arrears, which are truly resting now these six years past. And seeing the petitioner instantly verified what he represented by the said petition by most probative documents therewith produced, and that it is but too certain that after the rising of this present session of parliament he will be no longer able to protect either his person or effects from the diligence of his said creditors, therefore, humbly craving his grace and their lordships seriously to consider the pressing and urging circumstances of the petitioner's present case, and to provide such effectual remedy and give such certain orders as he may not only be reimbursed of what he shall instruct he has truly advanced and paid with interest, but also that he may obtain his full relief of his said engagement on the foresaid public account and procure payment of his whole foresaid arrears, as the said petition bears. Which her majesty's high commissioner and the said estates of parliament, having on the date hereof considered and being therewith well and ripely advised they, by their interlocutor thereon, have recommended and do by this act recommend the petitioner to the lords of her majesty's treasury for the reimbursement of what he has advanced and paid upon account of his regiment, with annualrent and for payment of the arrears due to himself and regiment, and in the meantime they have halted and do hereby stay execution of diligence against him for the debts above-mentioned until the next session of parliament inclusive. Thereafter, and before extracting hereof, her majesty's commissioner and the said estates of parliament, having heard a petition given in for Sir George Home of Kello and his partners against the above-written petition of the earl of Crawford and deliverance thereon above-mentioned, humbly showing to them that where in a petition presented by the earl of Crawford it is represented that the earl, having contracted with Sir George Home and his partners for clothing to his regiment in 1695, the earl not only craves as is informed to be reimbursed of what he has paid or advanced as colonel for the regiment and that he may have a full relief of his engagement upon the public account as colonel to the said regiment, but likewise that all diligence at the instance of the said Sir George Home and partners may be superseded until the next session of parliament. It was humbly represented for Sir George Home and partners that, whatever ground the earl may crave superseding execution as to others, yet as to Sir George Home and his partners the earl ought not to crave in respect Sir George Home and his partners offered them to prove that the earl did actually uplift and receive the clothing money of the said regiment from the lords of treasury for the time Sir George Home and his partners clothed them, which, if the earl had applied for their payment, they had been completely paid of what is still resting them, and further they offered them to prove that the earl contracted with others for clothes to the said regiment, long after their clothes were furnished and has paid the said clothing since contracted for, in respect whereof Sir George Home and his partners ought to have the benefit of all legal diligence for payment of their just debt, as the said petition also bears. And her majesty's high commissioner and the said estates of parliament, having fully considered the foresaid petition, they by a vote of parliament adhered to their above-written former deliverance in favour of the said earl.
Resolved that the next day the parliament shall meet be entirely bestowed on discussing private cases without the intervening of any public affair whatsoever.