[A1630/7/60]¹

Procedure: ordinance by the estates

Act regarding the matter of the process of tanning

The estates, after consideration that the matter of the process of tanning had the beginning from the parliament and was prosecuted and followed out by John [Erskine], lord Erskine, undertaker of that work, by warrants and directions from the lords of privy council, he having brought in a number of strangers and held them here a long time upon his proper charges and expenses for instructing the country people in the right form of tanning; and whereas now the patent granted to the said lord has been complained upon as a grievance to the estates and as a burden which the tanners are not able to underlie, therefore the said estates ordain letters to be directed charging the sheriffs of the shires and the provosts and bailies within burghs, every one of them within their own bounds, to convene before them all the tanners and merchant importers of foreign leather, and to deal and deliberate with them what satisfaction they will give to the said Lord Erskine in acknowledgement of his pains and charges in that service, and to report to the lords of privy council what every shire or burgh will do therein upon the first council day of November next.