[M1706/10/115]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Prayers said.
Rolls called.
Minutes of the last sederunt read.
A letter from her majesty to the parliament was presented by the lord chancellor and read, acquainting the parliament that her majesty had empowered her commissioner to consent to an act dissolving all mines and minerals within the dukedom of Queensberry from the crown in favour of [James Douglas], duke of Queensberry and his successors in manner therein expressed.
Whereupon an act of dissolution of the mines and minerals within the dukedom of Queensberry from the crown was given in and read, and a first reading was ordered to be marked thereon.
Thereafter the six clerks of session were recommended to her majesty and to the lords commissioners of her majesty's treasury and exchequer and other managers of the public revenues for payment of the gratification allowed to them by the parliament for their pains and services in the terms of a recommendation relating thereto.
Act in favour of [David Erskine], earl of Buchan read a second time and voted and approved.
Upon a petition for [Alexander Home], earl of Home, Sir David Dalrymple [of Hailes] was allowed to plead for him in the action at the instance of Sir Patrick Home against the said earl, and the second sederunt after this appointed for hearing the said action.
Report brought in from the committee to whom it was remitted on 5 March instant to reconsider the account due to the Indian and African Company was read, whereby (deducting the annualrents formerly allowed by the company) the total of the sums due to the company of stock, interest and debts at 1 May next will only extend to £232,884 5s 8d sterling.
And, after some reasoning thereon, the vote was put approve of the above sum as the quota, yes or no, and it carried approve.
Thereafter it was moved that seeing the quota due to the Indian and African Company was now established, that the distribution of the above quota shall be committed to the commissioners appointed or to be appointed for disposing the equivalent, who are to be under the same obligations and qualifications and liable to the same diligence to the several proprietors and creditors of the company as is contained in the report of the committee.
And it was also moved that the above whole quota shall be paid in together to such persons as are or shall be appointed by the council general or directors of the company for distributing thereof in the above terms.
And, after some debate, a vote was stated whether the quota due to the Indian and African Company shall be paid by the commissioners for disposing of the equivalent, who shall be liable jointly and severally materially to a charge of horning as upon foreign bills and inland precepts, and that the payment shall be made by the said commissioners to each particular proprietor without delay, loss or defalcation, and that the said commissioners, nor any of them or any other in their name upon their account or for their benefit, shall not take right to the said debts or make compositions or transactions relating thereto under the pain of infamy and other pains of law, or to persons to be appointed by the council general and directors of the company.
But before voting it was agreed that the members' votes shall be marked, and that the list of their names as they shall vote be printed and recorded.
Then the vote was put whether the money shall be paid by the disposers of the equivalent to the proprietors or to persons to be appointed by the council general, and it carried to the proprietors.
Ordered that the directors of the Indian and African Company shall between now and 1 May next to come make up exact lists of the respective debts which then fall due to the several proprietors of the said company or to such persons to whom the same is transferred by the first proprietors, and that the said lists so made up shall be subscribed by five of the directors, and by them be delivered in to the managers of the equivalent between now and the said day.
As also ordered that the said directors shall, when required, give out to every proprietor or person in whose favour transferences are or shall be made, exact summaries of the particular sums which fall due to each of them at the said 1 May next, subscribed by three of the said directors, and that gratis in order to the proprietors or persons to whom the same is transferred their demanding payment thereof or using diligence thereof.
Ordered likewise that the said directors shall between now and the said 1 May next to come make up an exact account of all debts due by the said company and to whom and of the extent of every creditor's debt at the said 1 May next, and that they shall between now and the said day deliver to the disposers of the equivalent the said account duly subscribed by five of the said directors. As also that they shall give out to every creditor a summary of the particular debts due to him gratis, which is to be subscribed by three of the said directors to the effect aforesaid.
Ordered that diligence shall pass and be directed at the instance of the disposers of the equivalent against the directors of the said company for recovering of exact lists and accounts of all the debts of the company immediately after the said 1 May next in case of their deficiency.
Ordered also that the said directors shall between now and the said 1 May next make up and deliver in as above exact lists and accounts of the dead stock of the said company, and that the said directors shall have allowance of the sum of £300 sterling out of the first and readiest of the price of the company's house, to be disposed of by them for defraying the charges of making up the lists and accounts.
And upon a petition given in by Captain Colin Campbell, Captain Charles Stewart and Lieutenant Robert Turnbull, who were sufferers and losers in the company's expedition and service, there was a sum allowed to them out of the said dead stock, according to an interlocutor on their petition.
Agreed also that upon the commissioners for disposing the equivalent, their receiving of the above sum of £232,884 5s 8d sterling, there shall be a proclamation issued from the privy council certifying the lieges that the said sum is in their hands, and thereupon agreed that the said company be dissolved.
Report brought in from the committee anent the coin was read, and the further consideration thereof delayed until the next sederunt of parliament.
Then the lord chancellor, by order of her majesty's high commissioner, adjourned the parliament until tomorrow at 10 o'clock.
[James Ogilvy, earl of] Seafield, chancellor, in the presence of the lords of parliament
[M1706/10/116]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
In the parliament 11 March 1707, a vote was put whether the quota due to the Indian and African Company shall be paid by the commissioners for disposing of the equivalent to the respective proprietors and creditors of the said company or to persons to be appointed by the council general and directors of the said company. And it carried to the proprietors, and the list of the members' names as they voted (ordered to be printed) is as follows:
To the proprietors:
To persons to be appointed by the council general: