110 RECORDS OF THE BURGH OF LOCHMABEN. 
position made by the said Mr William Kirkpatrick, and intreat 
the Provost in name of the Council to give Mr Kirkpatrick their 
thanks for his kind offer, and do hereby unanimously declare that 
it is their opinion that the said Mr William Kirkpatrick is a very 
fit person to represent them and the other burghs of this class or 
district of burghs to serve as their burgess in this present current 
Parliament of Great Britain, and in testimony of our sincerity we 
have hereunto set our hands and subscriptions, and Mr Kirk- 
patrick being called up this was read to him, who thereafter made 
his compliments to the Council testifying his acceptance, and by 
the unanimous appointment of the Council this declaration was 
recorded as above, and ordered a just copy, signed as aforesaid 
by the Magistrates and Council, to be delivered into the hands of 
the said Mr William Kirkpatrick.’’ 
The Town Council were frequently called upon to interfere 
in matters which at the present day would be determined by the 
civil law, as the following minute, dated 20th August, 1735, 
shows :—‘“ The Magistrates and Council having had several com- 
plaints made to them of the damage sustained by many of the 
inhabitants through some persons allowing their beasts loose on 
the crofts and entering their neighbour’s young stubble and grass, 
to prevent which for the future, and that in justice every person 
may enjoy his own right, the Magistrates and Council do hereby 
forbid and discharge all persons within the burgh or territories 
thereof from feeding their beasts upon any stubble or grass save 
what belongs to themselves allenarly, and no ways to incroach 
upon their neighbours from and after this day until Hallowday 
next under the penalty of half a merk Scots for each transgression, 
and any person poinding the transgressor’s beasts from off his 
‘ground shall entitle him to the above penalties, and this to be a 
standing order in all time coming, and appoints the town officer to 
proclaim this by beat of drum that none pretend ignorance.”’ 
An offer from the Marquis of Annandale in 1741 of the sum 
of £150 towards the building of a Town House and Steeple, 
“which his lordship from a regard to the burgh had made them a 
present of,’’ was gratefully accepted by the Council. 
The following address, presented by the Town Council on 
10th March, 1742, to Lord John Johnstone, M.P. for the Dum- 
fries Burghs, must have been very gratifying to him. The “ critical 
juncture ’’ mentioned in the address no doubt referred to the war 
