[1663/6/77]¹

Act for changing the fairs within the town of Whithorn

The estates of parliament, having heard a supplication presented to them in the name of the magistrates of the burgh of Whithorn, showing that the said burgh, being anciently erected in a burgh royal by his majesty's most noble progenitors, and having obtained a confirmation of their rights under his majesty's great seal, with the grant of two fairs yearly, the one upon 30 July, and the other upon 1 November, and finding the yearly fair of the neighbouring burgh of Wigtown to be upon the first Mondays of August and November, which often falls out to be the days whereon both the said burghs' yearly fairs are to be kept, and being desirous that neither of the said burghs should be prejudiced or disappointed of their said fairs, seeing both of them may be sufficiently served without encroaching one upon another; humbly therefore, desiring that the said two fairs of the burgh of Whithorn may be altered and appointed to be kept upon the first Thursday immediately preceding the Lammas [1 August] and Martinmas [11 November] fairs of Wigtown, as the supplication bears. Which being taken into consideration, the king's majesty, with advice and consent of his estates of parliament, has altered and changed and hereby alters and changes the foresaid two yearly fairs of the burgh of Whithorn from the said 30 July and and 1 November, and appoints and ordains the same two fairs to be kept and held yearly within the said burgh of Whithorn, in all time coming, upon the first Thursdays immediately preceding the Lammas and Martinmas fairs of the burgh of Wigtown, which are kept on the first Mondays of August and November, and to continue and endure for the same space, and with the like privileges granted to the said burgh of Whithorn by their charter above-mentioned.