[1587/7/134]¹

Ratification to the burgh of Montrose

²Our sovereign lord, after his lawful and perfect age of 21 years complete and general revocation, has ratified and approved and, by the tenor hereof, ratifies and approves and, for his highness and his successors, perpetually confirms the charter and infeftment underwritten made, given and granted by his highness to the provost, bailies, council and community of the burgh of Montrose and their successors of all and sundry the lands, tenements, houses, yards, orchards, acres, crofts, chapels, mills, fishings, with the ferms, teinds, customs, annualrents, dail silver, anniversaries, and others respectively mentioned in the said charter, which pertained to the friars, chaplainries and prebendaries specified therein, and whereof they were in possession and use to lift of before, as also with the superiorities, properties, tenants and tenantries of the lands aforesaid belonging to the said friars, chaplains and altarages, to the effect mentioned in the said infeftment and no otherwise; and wills, decrees and ordains the said charter and infeftment to be inserted and incorporated in this present act of parliament to have the strength thereof in time coming; and letters and executorials to pass thereupon after the form specified therein, of the which charter and infeftment the tenor follows:

James, by the grace of God, king of Scots, gives greetings to all good men throughout the land. Let it be known that we, moved by piety and by a true fear of the Lord and out of zeal for his glory, and out of compassion towards the poor, maimed, weak and pitiable, orphans and those deprived of their parents, infants, and other needy members of Jesus Christ within our burgh of Montrose, and for their permanent support and the assistance of a hospice in perpetuity, with the consent and assent of our late dearest grandfather Matthew [Stewart], earl of Lennox, lord Darnley etc., our lawful tutor and regent of the lieges and of our realm, and with the advice of the lords of our privy council, by means of another charter of ours under our great seal, freely gave, granted and conveyed, and for ourselves and our successors in perpetuity confirmed, to the provost, bailies, councillors and community of our said burgh of Montrose and their successors to the effect written below and not otherwise, all and singly, the ferms, the kanes and other dues of, all and singly, the tenements, houses, buildings, gardens, orchards, crofts, acres and fisheries which formerly pertained to the brothers preachers of our said burgh, or were acknowledged to pertain in any way, together with, all and singly, the annualrents, fruits, dues, profits, emoluments, the dail silver, death and anniversary dues, which related to them, wherever situated within our realm, with, all and singly, any lands, tenements, houses, buildings, churches, chapels, gardens, orchards, acres, crofts, annualrents, fruits, dues, emoluments, the dail silver, death and anniversary dues which [relate to] any chaplaincies, altarages, with all lands, annualrents, orchards, gardens and other dues pertaining to them, with all others in the parish church established in the said burgh, chapels of the brothers, and other churches within our said burgh, liberty and parish by whichever patron they were founded and funded, and of which the said friars as chaplains and prebendaries of the same were formerly in possession - wherever the same tenements, houses, buildings, orchards, gardens, acres, annualrents, crofts, anniversary payments, fruits, proceeds and emoluments lie or were accustomed to be levied as appropriate - with the church itself of the said friars and, all and singly, the accustomed annualrents or what they were able to demand from each other church or chaplaincy outwith our said burgh from provost and bailies from the common rent for the celebration of intercessions, together with, all and singly, the lands and tenements within our said burgh and its liberty as has been said, together with all annualrents from any house, tenement or land wherever they lie within it, and any chaplaincies, altarages, vicarages, churches, death or anniversary dues which have been granted, donated or founded, to be held and had from us and our successors in perpetuity in pure alms with various other clauses for the purpose mentioned above, just as is contained at greater length in the said charter completed in this regard and dated in Edinburgh on 1 January in the year of the Lord 1570, and also through one other charter with the advice of our foresaids under the great seal to the foresaid provost, bailies, councillors and community of our said burgh of Montrose and their successors; these we have given and granted for the purpose mentioned above, namely all and singly the annualrents, ferms and dues of, all and singly, the lands and annualrents formerly pertaining to the Carmelite brothers of Inverbervie, extending to the total of 45 merks 5s 4d, for whom they were formerly rented to Master David Lindsay, the minister, in feu ferm, to be held similarly from us and our successors in pure alms as above in perpetuity, just as is set out at greater length in the said other charter dated 23 June in the year of the Lord 1571 and shown and produced to us. Therefore we, understanding the foresaid charters and donations contained in them given and granted for good and pious causes in this way, and still being of that will and intention not only to continue and observe them in the form given above, but also to amplify them for the future for the foresaid pious causes, now after our lawful age has been declared in parliament, and after our general revocation made within it, do ratify, approve and for ourselves and our successors do confirm in perpetuity for the use of the foresaids only, in line with its contents in and through everything as is contained in it - not only by making these same charters and the dispositions contained in them without any revocation by us and our successors in perpetuity, by renouncing for them by the contents of our present charter - but also do give, grant and for ourselves and our successors in perpetuity confirm, afresh after our completed and lawful coming of age and general revocation mentioned above, from our certain knowledge and motivation towards the effect mentioned above, to the provost, bailies, councillors and community of our said burgh of Montrose and their successors, all and singly, the lands, tenements, houses, gardens, orchards, acres, crofts, chapels, mills and fishtraps, together with the ferms, teinds, customs, annualrents, the dail silver, anniversary payments and other things respectively as mentioned above which related to the said brothers, chaplaincies and prebends, and which the said friars, chaplains and prebendaries were formerly in possession of and customarily levied, together with the superiorities, proprieties, tenants and tenancies of the above-mentioned lands relating to the foresaid brothers, chaplains and altarages, to be held from us and our successors in perpetuity in pure alms, as they lie in longitude and latitude, with free entry and exit, and with, all and singly, the freedoms, advantages, profits, and easements and any just pertinents, named or not, under ground or above ground, far and near, relating to, or justly able to relate to, the foresaid ferms, the kanes and other dues specifically and respectively, with whatever pertinents for the future, freely, peacefully, fully, completely, honourably, well and in peace, without any revocation, contradiction, impediment or obstacle; considering also the scale of the said fraud of the forementioned brothers, prebendaries and chaplains, who after the change of religion conveyed, alienated and granted into the hands of certain individuals a huge number of lands, annualrents, tenements and fishtraps which had formerly been mortified to their chaplaincies, prebends and places. Further, several of our lieges had claimed to themselves the right of certain lands, tenements, fishtraps and annualrents which had been mortified by their predecessors to these brothers, chaplaincies and prebends, and had by means of brieves of our chancellery or otherwise acquired sasine as if they were heirs of their predecessors, which seems to have happened partly by neglect on the part of the officials of our said burgh, and partly through the said collusion of the brothers, chaplains and prebendaries. Therefore we, now that our lawful coming of age has been decreed in our parliament, do by the contents of our present charter rescind and annul all alienations and sasines of this kind by which the original proposal and intention of the founders is infringed, by removing them to private use with the result that they could not be used to the above-mentioned effect. This declaration of ours we wish to be of the same robustness and efficacy as if the persons who held these had been specifically cited and their infeftments rescinded by process of law. We wish also that a single sasine through the said provost, bailies and any of them in the name of the said community once received at the tolbooth of the said burgh shall be adequately sufficient in perpetuity as if it had been taken up in respect of particular lands pertaining to the said brothers, chaplains and prebendaries or in relation to the foresaid annualrents, anniversary payments, ferms, profits and dues as mentioned above, distance notwithstanding. And so we instruct our comptrollers present and future, their collectors, factors and others who have an interest, in general and in particular, that none of them should presume to possess the foresaid lands or any part of them, or fishtraps, nor receive nor levy the said fruits mentioned in detail above, for any time past or in the future, and not impede the provost, bailies, councillors and community mentioned above, or their successors, in peaceful possession and levying of the same. We also require of our lords of council that they issue our charter in all four forms at the request of the said provost, bailies, community and their successors to the above-mentioned effect in the usual form. In testimony of this we have instructed our great seal to be applied to this, our present charter. Witnesses were our beloved kinsmen and councillors John [Hamilton], lord Hamilton etc., commendator of our monastery of Arbroath, Archibald [Douglas], earl of Angus, lord Douglas, Dalkeith and Abernethy etc., Lord John Maitland of Thirlestane, knight, our chancellor and secretary, the most reverend and venerable fathers in Christ Patrick [Adamson], archbishop of St Andrews, Walter [Stewart], prior of Blantyre, warden of our privy seal, our beloved familiars and councillors Alexander Hay of Easter Kennet, clerk of our rolls of register and council, Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auchnoull, our justice clerk, and Master Robert Scott, director of our chancellery, at Holyroodhouse on 29 July in the year of the Lord 1587, and in the twenty first year of our reign.