[1585/12/41]¹

The benefit of the pacification granted to the Lord Claud Hamilton and certain his friends and servants, with an exception of William Sinclair of [...]

²Our sovereign lord, with advice of his three estates convened in this present parliament, for weighty and good considerations moving them tending to the establishing of quietness and universal obedience within this realm, therewith considering and having tried the constant affection and dutiful obedience towards his highness of his well beloved Lord Claud Hamilton, son lawful to the late James [Hamilton], duke of Chatelherault etc., have given, granted and, by the tenor hereof, gives and grants to the said Claud Hamilton and his domestics following, to wit, James Muirhead of Lauchope, Robert Hamilton of Dalserf, David Hamilton of Monkton Mains, Andrew Hamilton of Hailes, John Hamilton of Shawton and Robert Hamilton of Letham, the like grace, benefit, favour, privilege and conditions of pacification as are contained in the articles of pacification made and accorded upon at the burgh of Perth on 24 February 1572 [1573], ratified and approved thereafter in his highness's parliament in April 1573, concerning whatsoever crimes, offences and transgressions committed or that may be esteemed to be committed by the said Lord Claud Hamilton and other persons above-nominated, upon any causes or occasions mentioned in the said articles of pacification or otherwise, within the time therein specified or since, for the which they, or any of them, have been or may be accused or forfeited, or which are comprehended in any dooms or sentences of forfeiture already led against them; and finds, decrees and declares that the same pacification and whole privileges, favour and conditions aforesaid be as largely and favourably interpreted in favour of the said persons for safety and enjoying of their lives, lands, livings, heritages, benefices, honours, possessions and goods as of any others comprehended in the said former pacification and as if the whole articles thereof were expressly inserted herein; and ordains this, our said sovereign lord's favour and pacification, to be extended and extends the same to all crimes committed by the said Claud and his aforesaids, or that may be alleged to have been committed or assisted to or whatsoever art, part or counselling thereof, of whatsoever weight they be or may be interpreted to be of, since the time of our sovereign lord's coronation to the date of this act, notwithstanding whatsoever exception of any crime contained in the articles of the said pacification or any of them; and further, finds and declares that this present pacification granted to the said Lord Claud Hamilton and his aforesaids shall not be any derogation to the pacification granted to them of before, but to be a ratification, approbation and amplification thereof. Of the which crimes our said sovereign lord, with advice aforesaid, wills and declares that this present favour and pacification to be a sufficient and ample remit and security to the said Claud and his aforesaids, for their life, honours, lands, benefices, offices, privileges, goods and gear, as if the same were specially to them under our sovereign lord's great seal or whatsoever form of security. And for their better security, our said sovereign, with advice above-written, of his special grace and clemency, rehabilitates, restores and reintegrates the said Lord Claud Hamilton and others above-nominated, their bairns and posterity fully to their good fame, honours and dignities, and to the full right, enjoying and possessing of all and sundry their lands, benefices, livings, offices, goods, rooms, rents and possessions, debts, reversions, obligations and actions whereof they, or any of them, have been, or may be, deprived or dispossessed by any cause or occasion before rehearsed preceding the date hereof, with power to them and every one of them and their aforesaids to re-enter in and to the same, possess, enjoy, use and convey their lands, benefices and others aforesaid with all right, claim and interest, and always in such state in every behalf as they were before the said process, doom and forfeitures led and deduced against them, likewise and as freely as any other our sovereign lord's lieges and as if no doom nor sentence of forfeiture had been led against them concerning the premises and as if the crimes and offences therein contained and others above-expressed had never been committed nor assisted to; and declares that this act be as sufficient and of as great strength, force and effect in all time coming in favour of the said persons and their aforesaids, to the effect above-written, as if the dooms and sentences of forfeiture at any time past led and deduced against them, and specially the dooms of forfeiture against them in the parliament held at Edinburgh in [...] 1579, were specially reduced, rescinded, abrogated and annulled in parliament, notwithstanding of the same dooms and processes of forfeiture and of whatsoever acts of parliament, laws, constitutions, as well against the posterity as the principal acts of secret council or others if any be; concerning the which our said sovereign lord, by advice above-written, for his highness and his successors, dispenses, annulling hereby the same so far as may concern or be extended to them or any of them, renouncing all action and interest competent to them thereupon, commanding and charging the lords of secret council and session to give and grant to the said Lord Claud Hamilton and others nominated above such letters and also summarily for repossessing of them to their lands, livings, benefices and others above-expressed, as has been or may be granted in favour of many others to whom the benefit of pacification above-rehearsed has heretofore been granted, or any others our sovereign lord's lieges have obtained of his highness in whatsoever form or for whatsoever causes or considerations; with power also to the said Claud Hamilton and others specified before to call and pursue concerning the premises and all actions, contracts, suits of benefices, obligations and whatsoever goods and gear extant in the hands of tenants or any other debtors or otherwise not intromitted with by themselves or others in their names, as often and in such manner as they or any of them shall think expedient. And further, our said sovereign lord, with advice aforesaid, for the better security of the said Lord Claud and his aforesaids, ratifies, confirms and approves the whole premises above-written and every point thereof, and decrees and declares the same to have full strength, force and effect in all time; and ordains letters to be directed hereupon in the appropriate form.