[1587/7/56]¹

Act authorising the subscriptions of commendators alone that want convents

²Forasmuch as the whole monks of the monastery of the abbey of Kelso are deceased, so that presently there is no convent thereof, whereby the tenants and tacksmen of the said abbey are uncertain in what manner they shall provide their securities concerning their tacks, feus and rentals which they have taken or may take hereafter of the said place and abbey of Kelso, therefore our sovereign lord and three estates of this present parliament presently declare Sir John Maitland of Thirlestane, knight, his highness's secretary and present commendator of Kelso, to have had full right in his person of setting of all feus, tacks and rentals since his provision thereto and decease of the said monks and convent of lands and teinds belonging to the said abbey and patrimony thereof, and that the tacks and feus set by him since the decease of the said monks are and shall be as valid and sufficient under his subscription and common seal of the said abbey as if the same had been set with consent of the convent and subscribed by them; and likewise declare the said commendator to have full right in time coming to set tacks of the teinds of the said abbey, for short space or long, as freely as if the whole convent were yet alive, and the same set with their consent as any other abbot or convent may set within this realm.