[A1641/8/129]¹

[Reasons submitted to parliament for reuniting seven parishes to Dunbartonshire]

Reasons for reuniting the seven kirks to Dunbartonshire as they were in former times

1. First they lie a great space nearer to Dunbarton than Stirling, the most part being within eight or nine miles from the same and distant 16 or 20 miles from Stirling through muirs and mountains and over sundry great waters.

2. Many of the heritors' infeftments bears to lie within Dunbartonshire, as [Archibald Napier], my lord Napier and others.

3. These kirks are by the 73rd act of King James IV's sixth parliament declared to be of the sheriffdom of Dunbarton.

4. By the said act it is declared that sundry lands then belonging to the sheriffdoms of Dunbarton, Edinburgh, Perth, Culross and Clackmannan were annexed to Stirlingshire, which all or most part thereof remains thereat to this day, and so they keep both.

5. The sheriffdom of Stirling is of a large and considerable bounds, besides the said seven kirks, consisting of 15 kirks and parishes, and Dunbartonshire has now only six parish kirks.

6. A great part of the most considerable heritors within the said seven kirks crave the same to be declared to be of the sheriffdom of Dunbarton as most for their ease and commodity.

7. The said seven kirks are and have ever been of the presbytery of Dunbarton.

8. Many of the heritors of the said seven kirks have lands held of the king and [James Stewart], duke of Lennox both, and so are subject to appear in Stirling to the sheriff courts and in Dunbarton to the courts of the regality of Lennox: therefore doubly troubled, and oftentimes both citations are to one and the same day of compearance.

9. It is to be considered that either these seven kirks must be declared to be of Dunbartonshire, or else that shire must be annexed to some other shire, and the nine freeholders of the king freed of that great burden of furnishing out commissioners to parliaments and conventions in all time coming.

13 November 1641

Read in audience of his majesty and estates of parliament, who continue to give answer thereto until the next parliament, that the same may be then determined. And in the meantime recommend to the council to prepare the same to the parliament.²