[1646/11/129]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
The estates of parliament, taking into their consideration the petition of John, earl of Cassilis and John, lord Balmerino, showing that in 1639 they upon their private surety for the public use borrowed from James Short, burgess of Stirling, the sum of 8,000 merks, which was then assigned by the said James Short to Robert Dempster of Balbougie, which sum is given up and enrolled in the public accounts as a public debt of the kingdom; and therefore desiring the parliament to take some present and effectual course for satisfying the aforesaid sum that the supplicants' bonds may be retired, that they be not put to pay that which was employed for the use of the public, as the supplication bears. The said estates find and declare that the aforesaid sum above-written contained in the bond granted by the supplicants to the said James Short and assigned by him to the said Robert Dempster is a public debt and was borrowed and employed for the public use, and is enrolled and booked in the public accounts by the committee for the common burdens, and that the annualrent thereof is unpaid since Martinmas [11 November] 1642, and therefore the estates ordain the said John, earl of Cassilis and John, lord Balmerino, granters of the aforesaid bond for the sum above-mentioned, to be relieved thereof, and the same sum, with the annualrent thereof since Martinmas 1642 and until the payment, to be paid out of the first and readiest of the receipts, fines and borrowed monies due and payable to the public, for the which this act shall be a sufficient warrant.