76 The Kindly Tenants. 



of the Castle of Lochmabeii, and compelled to pay several duties 

 and do services which they and their i)redecessors were never in 

 use to pay or do in time past ; therefore his Majesty strictly 

 commands the constables of the said Castle, present and to come, 

 that they in no manner of way burden or charge his said tenants 

 and inhabitants of his said proper towns and lands to pay any 

 duty, or do any service, further than they and their predecessors 

 were in use to pay or do in time past." 



Here there is a blank in the paper that would have held about 

 a dozen of lines. All that remains is the opening line, which 

 shows that it was intended to give an account of an attempt 

 made to dispossess the kindly tenants after the restoration of 

 King Charles II. In the Inventory of Writes pertaining to the 

 King's kindly tenants of the Four towns left 2nd Dec, 1735, in 

 the hands of William Johnstone, writer in Edinburgh, to defend 

 the said tenants against a process at the instance of the magis- 

 trates of Lochmaben in the Court of Session, there is said to be 

 " Signature by King Charles the 2nd in favours of the saids 

 kindly tenants dated the last of June, 1664, ratifying the above 

 signed manuals. This is superscribed by the King, and a 

 doquet signed by his Majesty's Secretary, the Earl of Lauder- 

 dale." These "writes," as they are called, are now in the safe 

 keeping of the Register House, Edinburgh. The paper proceeds — 



" That the Ear) of Annandale, keeper of the said castle, having 

 settled the rents of the said lands in way of jointure to his lady, 

 which, without consent of the Crown, he could not lawfully have 

 done, she and the Viscount of Stormont, her second husband, 

 applied to Parliament, and obtained an oi'der or decree, decreet- 

 ing the tenants to pay their rents to her (a.d., 1667)." 



A new valuation was made in the lands in the county of 

 Dumfries by the Commissioners of the land tax, whereby the 

 respondents' interest, which had never been taxed before, was 

 rated on account of their being kindly tenants and irremovable 

 at one-fourth more than the appellant's, viz., at 2400 merks, and 

 the appellant's only at 1800 merks. 



From that time downward to the year 1592, the respondents 

 and their ancestors, to prevent distress upon their lands, paid 

 the whole land tax, and got allowance of the appellant's propor- 

 tion in discharge of their rents ; but from that period the 

 appellant's father refused to make the respondents such allowance, 

 and threatened to remove them from their possessions if they did 



