[1641/8/219]¹

Act ordaining the pursuer of the thief to be restored to his own goods

Our sovereign lord and estates of parliament, understanding that when any thieves were taken and executed for theft or declared fugitives for not entering and underlying the law, therefore their whole escheat fell to the king's majesty and the goods stolen pertaining to the pursuer of the said thieves, and so the said party wronged was prejudiced of his own gear. Therefore and for remedy whereof, our said sovereign lord and estates of parliament statute and ordain that any person having any goods or gear stolen from them, and having pursued the stealer thereof, shall have their own goods again wherever the same goods can be apprehended although the thief, stealer thereof, suffer; and where the said stolen goods cannot be had, ordain the pursuers of the said thief to have the just value, price and worth of the goods and gear stolen from him out of the readiest of the thief's goods, together with the expense they shall disburse in the said pursuit, the pursuers always pursuing the thief as far as sentence, reserving to the taker and sheriff the expenses bestowed by them in the taking and execution of the thief.