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Our sovereign lord, with advice and consent of his estates of parliament, considering that his majesty's late dearest grandfather King James VI, of eternal memory, by his letter of gift under his majesty's great seal, of the date at Falkland, 15 July 1591, for the causes therein mentioned, gave, granted and heritably made over to the provost, bailies, council and community of the burgh of Cromarty, and their successors magistrates thereof, full power, privilege, liberty and donation of a free market and fair yearly to be held and kept within their burgh at the feast and term of Martinmas [11 November] and to continue and endure for the space of eight days before and after the said feast of Martinmas, for buying and selling therein all kinds of merchandise, as well foreign as intestine, as such as any other burgh within this realm were in use to buy and sell, with power also to the said magistrates to make, create and ordain keepers and customers for collection and gathering in of the customs of the said market and fair, and to apply the same to the use, utility and profit of the said burgh and, if need be, to poind and distrenzie thereof, with all and sundry other liberties, commodities and profits of a free market and fair, freely and completely without any revocation, contradiction or obstacle whatsoever, as the said letter of gift of the date foresaid in itself more fully bears. And also, our sovereign lord and his said estates of parliament, considering that his said late dearest grandfather, after his perfect age of twenty-five years complete and after his highness's revocations, by his charter under the great seal of the date at Holyroodhouse, 4 July 1593, mentioning that his said highness, understanding that the burgh of Cromarty was erected of old in a free burgh royal with all privileges and immunities that any other burgh royal within this realm had conveyed to them, and that the magistrates thereof were ever prompt and ready to do and perform good and thankful service to his majesty and his predecessors, and that the old infeftments and erection of the said burgh with the privileges and immunities thereof, partly by antiquity of the same and partly by the troubles and wars in those places, were taken away and destroyed, and that his majesty, being unwilling that the inhabitants of the said burgh should be prejudiced or incur any prejudice or damage in their said ancient rights and privileges, but rather that the same should be amplified and extended in all time thereafter, and to encourage them to continue in doing and performing faithful services to his majesty and his successors, and through the special respect his majesty had to the port, commonly called the haven and harbour of the said burgh, as the most safe harbour of these places of this realm; therefore, his majesty not only ratified, approved and confirmed the whole privileges and liberties of the said burgh of Cromarty as a burgh royal in the whole heads, articles and conditions thereof, but also of new gave, granted and conveyed to the provost, bailies, council and community of the said burgh and their successors heritably the foresaid burgh of Cromarty, with the whole burgage lands thereof as well within as without the same property as commonty, with the mills and fishings pertaining and belonging thereto, as well in the sea as outwith the same, between the lands of Muirhead, Boigehouse, Bogs of Farness belonging to the sheriff of Cromarty on the west, the lands of Eathie and the sea on the south and likewise the sea on the east and north parts, with the port, haven and harbour or road of the said burgh in all places within the rocks or craigs called the Souters of Cromarty, and all their pertinents, with free power, privilege and liberty to unload, burden and disburden, pack and peel all goods called staple goods, and all other lawful merchandise with the anchorages and customs coming in within the said bounds, and to give and direct cockets, and to create and elect provost, bailies, councillors, dean of guild, treasurer, clerk, serjeants and all other officers and members required and necessary for government of the said burgh and administration of justice† therein, and to buy and sell within the same wine, wax, cloth, linen and woollen, salt, pitch, tar, iron and all other lawful merchandise, and to have lodgings and dwelling houses therein with bakers and slayers and breakers of fish and butcher-meat, and all other artificers required, and to make and create burgesses and guildbrethren, and to set, fix, affirm, hold and continue courts as often as need be within the said burgh for administration of justice therein, and to reduce, recall and repledge the inhabitants of the said burgh to the jurisdiction, privilege and liberty thereof from whatsoever judge or judges spiritual or temporal within this nation, before whom they should be attached and arrested and to find caution† for giving and administration of justice within term of law, bloodwits† and amerciaments of the said courts, to uplift and receive and to apply the same to their own use and behoof with the right to seize boll and seize tree, and with power also to the said magistrates and their successors to build, erect and have a market cross with tron and tron weights within the said burgh, and to have a public market day weekly on Monday for buying and selling of all kinds of merchandise in all time thereafter, and two free fairs in the year, to wit, one free fair or market to begin 8 March yearly, called St Norman's market, and the other market beginning 14 [---], called [St] Regulus day, and both the said fairs to continue and endure for the space of five days thereafter, and likewise with power to the said magistrates and their successors to ask, crave, exact, receive and uplift the whole tolls, customs, primegilt, avareis, entry silver, gauging silver and all other dues of whatsoever ships, boats or crayers coming and repairing within the bounds of their said port or haven, road or harbour, and of all merchandise therein, and to make heritable dispositions of any common land belonging to the said burgh for bigging, building and making policy within the same, and generally with all other prerogatives, immunities and privileges which ever belonged to the said burgh or which any other free burgh within this realm enjoys or may enjoy. Moreover, his majesty, knowing that the port of the said burgh has altogether become ruinous through defect of repair and inability of the inhabitants thereof, gave, granted and conveyed to the said magistrates and their successors, the three chaplainries underwritten, namely, the chaplainry of St Regulus, founded and endowed by the inhabitants of the said burgh and their predecessors, whereof the rent at that time extended to £10 13s 4d, and the chaplainry of St Duthac in Navity, and the chaplainry of St Michael there, lying within the liberty of the said burgh, which being counted together extended to 16 merks, together with the whole ferms, silver, mails, duties and annualrents pertaining to the said chaplainries and every one of them to be uplifted yearly by the said magistrates as a part of the common good of the said burgh, and by them applied for repairing and upholding of the said port in all time thereafter, to be held of his majesty and his successors in manner specified in the said charter, by virtue whereof and precept of sasine granted to the said magistrates under the testimony of the great seal relative thereto, and of the date thereof, they were upon 22 April 1594 lawfully infeft in the said burgh, fairs, markets, privileges and pertinents thereof above-specified and thereafter, by virtue of letters of publication raised at the instance of the said magistrates, they upon 10 September in the said year, caused lawfully publish their said rights, liberties and privileges granted to them by virtue thereof in manner above-mentioned, as the said charter, precept and instrument of sasine following thereupon, letters of publication thereof and executions of the same, of the dates respectively foresaid in themselves more fully purports, by virtue whereof the magistrates of the said burgh of Cromarty and their predecessors were in the continual, real and actual possession of their said markets, fairs, privileges and liberties since the time above-specified of their said right thereto without any impeachment, and which charter and infeftment respectively above-mentioned and privileges therein contained were upon 17 November 1641 ratified, approved and confirmed by our sovereign lord's late dearest father, King Charles I, of ever blessed memory, and his estates of parliament then convened at Edinburgh, as the said ratification in itself also more fully bears. And in like manner, our sovereign lord and his said estates of parliament, considering that the said burgh of Cromarty are by the [---] act of our present parliament ordained to be of new enrolled as a free royal burgh amongst the royal burghs of this realm, and to enjoy their former privileges and liberties conforming to their said rights and infeftment, and that conforming to the said act of parliament the said burgh was enrolled by the late convention of burghs held at Edinburgh the [---] day of [---] last past, and also considering that by former acts of parliament all markets are prohibited to be kept on Monday and Sunday, and that it is most necessary that there be another weekly market day granted to the said burgh and magistrates thereof in lieu and place of the foresaid Monday's market, whereby the burgesses and inhabitants thereof may be the better furnished and provided in victuals, commodities and all other necessaries, both for themselves and others, his majesty's lieges resorting to that place the same being a seaport and current passage to and from the northern parts of this realm, and finally his majesty and his said estates, considering that the said burgh of Cromarty, magistrates thereof and inhabitants within the same, their constant loyalty, obedience and readiness to do and perform good services to his majesty's most royal progenitors is sufficiently clear, manifest and apparent by their said rights and infeftments (being the onerous cause for which the same was granted) and their willingness and real intentions to continue and persevere as loyal subjects to his present majesty and his successors, and to do and perform the like services to him for the future upon all occasions; therefore, our sovereign lord, out of his princely care had to the said burgh of Cromarty, magistrates and inhabitants thereof, and for their further encouragement in these matters and the better accommodation of his majesty's lieges resorting to the said burgh, as said is, have ratified, approved and perpetually confirmed and, by these words, (with the special advice and consent of his estates of parliament and with the addition and alteration after-specified) ratifies, approves and perpetually confirms the foresaid letter of gift made and granted by his said late dearest grandfather under the great seal to the said magistrates of the said Martinmas market with the foresaid charter of confirmation, and new erection granted by him to them of their said burgh for two free fairs, liberties, privileges and customs thereof, also under his majesty's great seal, precept and instrument of sasine following thereupon, letters of publication thereof and ratification of the same above-specified, and all other infeftments of erection and rights of the said burgh formerly granted to them by any other of his majesty's most royal ancestors, together with the foresaid act of parliament conceived in their favour for their enrolment, as said is, and act of convention of burghs whereby they were enrolled conforming thereto and possession of the said markets, fairs and privileges† by virtue of the said rights and infeftments, in the whole heads, articles, clauses, circumstances and conditions thereof, and our said sovereign lord wills and grants and for his highness and his successors, with consent foresaid, decrees and ordains that the foresaid general ratification is and shall be as sufficient to the said magistrates and their successors as if the said rights, infeftments, acts of parliament and convention of burghs were herein particularly and at length engrossed; with the which and with all that may be objected against the validity thereof, his majesty, with advice and consent foresaid, has dispensed and for him and his successors, by this ratification, dispenses forever. And further, our sovereign lord, with advice and consent foresaid, has altered and changed and, by these words, alters and changes the foresaid weekly market formerly kept on Monday, and ordains the same to be kept in all time coming on Thursday, and likewise, of new gives, grants and conveys to the provost, bailies, council and community of the said burgh and their successors, the foresaid weekly market to be kept in all time coming on Thursday, as said is, and the foresaid three free fairs, the one thereof, called St Norman's market to be kept with in the said burgh, and to begin 8 March yearly, and the other formerly called St Regulus day, to be kept within the said burgh and to begin 14 [---] yearly, and either of the said markets to continue for the space of five days, and the third fair, formerly kept within the said burgh, called the Martinmas market, to begin 11 November yearly, and thereafter to continue for the space of eight days, with the whole tolls, customs, casualties and profits of the said three fairs, and all other privileges pertaining or that is in any way known to appertain and belong thereto, likewise and as freely and in the same manner as any other royal burgh within this realm has, does or may bruik and enjoy the like privileges within the same, at any time bygone or to come, inhibiting, commanding and discharging, by these words, all his majesty's lieges, of what degree or quality so ever, that they in no way trouble or molest the said burgh of Cromarty and magistrates thereof, or their successors, in keeping or enjoying of the said fairs, weekly market, privileges and liberties above-specified by assuming the right thereof to themselves, or keeping the same in any other town, burgh, village or place within this realm upon the said days in prejudice of the said burgh of Cromarty in any time coming, under all highest pain and incurring his majesty's displeasure; to the effect the same, with the customs and emoluments thereof, may be peaceably bruiked, enjoyed and possessed by the said magistrates of the said burgh of Cromarty and their successors, but any interruption conforming to their rights and infeftments granted to them thereupon and possession had and apprehended by them of the same by virtue thereof in all points, to be held and for to hold the said burgh of Cromarty, with the whole tenements, burgh, roads, houses and pertinents thereof above-specified, of our sovereign lord and his successors, in free burgage for payment of the duties respectively above-specified contained in their said infeftments.