[1587/7/117]¹

Ratification to Master Peter Young of Seton

²Our sovereign lord and his three estates of parliament, remembering the long, good, true and thankful service done to his highness by his well beloved and familiar servant and councillor, Master Peter Young of Seton, his grace's master almoner, not only in his great pains taken for institution of his grace in literature the time of his youth, but also since his highness proceeded in years in his continual attendance upon his majesty's person and his affairs, as well within his realm as in foreign countries, where it pleased his majesty to direct the said Master Peter, ambassador, in his weighty causes, specially toward [Frederick II], king of Denmark, to whom the said Master Peter was lately directed of new in his second voyage by our said sovereign lord, and at present is resident in performing of his highness's service committed to him; and our said sovereign lord, being of determined mind that the said Master Peter and his spouse and bairns shall possess and enjoy the particular gifts, fees and pensions underwritten, conveyed to them of before, in manner following, after the form and tenor of the dispositions and gifts made to them thereof, be such security and force as the same shall never be called in question hereafter, but that the said Master Peter, his spouse and bairns aforesaid, without quarrel or impediment to be made by our said sovereign lord and his successors, or any other particular person pretending to have interest, shall peaceably possess, use and enjoy the said gifts, fees and pensions wherein stand the only support and relief which the said Master Peter has had for all his service bygone, and without the which he is not able to continue in his majesty's service hereafter; therefore, our said sovereign lord, now after his perfect age of 21 years complete, with advice of his said three estates in parliament, has ratified, approved and, for him and his successors, perpetually confirmed, likewise his highness, by the tenor hereof, with advice aforesaid, ratifies, approves and, for his highness and his successors, perpetually confirms the gifts, fees and disposition whatsoever made by our said sovereign lord before to the said Master Peter for his lifetime and after his decease, in case he make no disposition in his own time to Harry, Peter, Robert, Patrick, John, Marie and Margaret Young, his lawful bairns, by equal portions, and failing of any one of them by decease, the portion of the person deceasing to accrue to those who shall happen to remain alive, during all the days of the longest living to the said seven bairns, of all and whole sum of 500 merks usual money of this realm as for the feu mails of the lordship of Torphichen owing yearly to our said sovereign lord by the Lord Torphichen, his immediate tenant thereof, and with power to the said Master Peter to convey the said pension, all or in part, to whatsoever persons, one or more, at any time before his decease, which disposition made by him shall be of as good strength, force and validity as if they were contained expressly by their names in the said Master Peter's gift, as the same at more length purports. And also our said sovereign lord, with advice of the said three estates in parliament, ratifies and approves the gift and dispositions made by his highness to the said Master Peter for all the days of his lifetime, and after his decease to Harry and Peter Young, his sons lawful, equally between them for all the days of their lifetimes, and failing of any one of them by decease, the portion of the [person]³ deceasing to accrue to the other living for all the days of his lifetime, with power to the said Master Peter to convey the same as said is of a yearly pension of 200 merks usual money of this realm yearly, to be lifted and taken out of the surplus of the third of the archbishopric of Glasgow and of the particular places thereof whereof the said Master Peter has been in possession of before. And likewise our said sovereign lord and his three estates in parliament ratify, approve and, for him and his successors, perpetually confirm the other gifts and dispositions whatsoever made to the said Master Peter for all the days of his lifetime by the late James Boyd, archbishop of Glasgow, of all and whole a yearly pension of £200 money aforesaid, to be yearly lifted out of the two parts of the said archbishopric, for thankful payment thereof there is assigned to the said Master Peter the duties of the kirk of Drymen, extending to £102 13s 4d, and for the remainder thereof, certain temporal lands of the said archbishopric specially mentioned in the said gift, which was confirmed by our said sovereign lord before by his letters under his privy seal. As also our said sovereign lord and his said three estates in parliament ratify and approve the gift and disposition made by the late Robert [Stewart], earl of March, commendator of the priory of St Andrews for the time, ratified, approved and renewed by Ludovic [Stewart], duke of Lennox, earl of Darnley, lord Tarbolton, Methven and d'Aubigny, now commendator of the said priory, to the said Master Peter, Elliott Gib, his spouse, James and Harry Young, their sons, and the longest liver of them four, of seven chalders of barley and three chalders of wheat, to be lifted and taken out of certain places, rooms and lands pertaining to the said priory and specially mentioned in the said gift, as the same at more length purports. And likewise our said sovereign lord and his said three estates of this present parliament ratify and approve the gift and constitution of the said Master Peter, his highness's master almoner, for all the days of his lifetime with the fee therein contained, and further, our said sovereign lord, with advice of his said three estates, now in his perfect age, gives, grants and conveys to the said Master Peter, his said spouse and their aforesaids respectively, all and sundry the aforesaid pensions and gifts, with all right, claim, title and interest that his highness and his successors may pretend thereto, with the said gift of the office of almoner and fee therein contained, and wills and grants that the same gifts, pensions and fees nor none of them are, or shall be, comprehended under his highness's general revocation, but that the same is, and shall be, [comprehended under his highness's general revocation, but that the same is, and shall be,]⁴ specially excepted from there, to the which generality this special act shall make and makes special derogation. As also our said sovereign lord, with advice of his said three estates, wills and grants and, for him and his successors, decrees and ordains that all and sundry the aforesaid pensions, gift of almoner and fee therein contained shall be yearly paid to the said Peter and his said spouse, his bairns and others aforesaid respectively during their lifetimes likewise and as freely as they have been paid in time past, and that notwithstanding the general annexation of the kirklands to the crown or any assumption for our sovereign lord's third of any of the lands and rooms whereof the said Master Peter and his aforesaids have been in possession of before, and also that the general restitution of all persons forfeited and convicted of barratry shall give no right nor title to James Beaton, archbishop of Glasgow, to quarrel the said Master Peter nor his aforesaids in the said pensions which they have to be lifted out of the said archbishopric, the effect of the which restitutions shall in no way extend to the pensions aforesaid, but the same irrevocably shall stand in full force and strength, and the archbishop, who may pretend right by virtue of the said restitution, shall in no way possess the benefit thereof, unless he ratify, approve and renew the right of the said pensions to the said Master Peter and his aforesaids in such form and order as the said Master Peter shall think expedient. And further, our said sovereign lord and his said three estates in parliament, of their certain knowledge, ratify and approve the alteration and change of the assumption of the lands of Easter Seaton and half of Dickmontlaw, lying within the regality and barony of Arbroath and sheriffdom of Forfar, now pertaining heritably to the said Master Peter and assumed of old in a part of the third of the abbacy of Arbroath, because his highness has received as many as profitable lands in recompense thereof, as at more length is specified in the decreet given thereupon by the lords auditors of his highness's exchequer of the date at Edinburgh, 23 February 1586 [1587], which decreet our said sovereign lord, with advice of the said three estates in parliament, ordains to stand in full strength and force in all time coming.