134 KIRKCUDBRIGHT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
the honest men of the said burgh ’’—they ordain that all malt 
and other stuff passing from the town to other mills “be 
eschaittit [i.e., forfeited], and lesum [i.e., lawful] to ony 
haiffand interest and apprehendane the same, to tak it; in doing 
of the qlk they sall incur na skaith.”’ 
This appears to be an instance of the Council using its 
monopoly-creating power to the personal advantage of one of its 
most influential members. We are less surprised to find a 
prohibition against competing with the ferryboat, for that 
belonged to the Council, and was a part of its revenues which 
was annually let. This is the Act of Council on that subject, 
dated Ist Dec., 1591: “It is ordaint that na boit be permitit to 
_ cary men or horss over the water bot the ferry boit allanerlie 
lie only: * 
Here is another prohibitive enactment, of date 12th January, 
1587-8: “ The Bailleis and Counsall hes statute and ordaint that 
nane on landwart, in ony tyme cuming, brew ony, except frie 
stallangeris, under the pane of v. lib. ilk falt.” The “free 
stallangers ’’? were persons other than freemen of the burgh, who 
were allowed for a small annual consideration to open stalls or 
booths for the sale of merchandise on market days. 
THe Customs OF MINNIGAFF. 
At Michaelmas, 1576, the whole small customs of the 
burgh “by [i.e., except] Monygeif,’’ were let for a year to 
Robert M‘Culloch, at a rent of twenty merks; and about the 
same time, it appears, Thomas Hall was “customar of Mony- 
geif,’’ holding the customs on lease at the yearly rent of “ fyve 
punds usuall money.’’? In 1579 the customs of Minnigaff were 
set to Johnne Foster for seven merks; and we find annual 
entries of their let, at varying sums. Minnigaff was at that 
time a place of more relative importance than it is now; and it 
was one of two burghs of barony which were in a manner feuda- 
tory to the royal burgh of Kirkcudbright; the other being 
Preston, now also decayed to the shadow of its former self. 
Minnigaff was a thorn in the flesh to the neighbouring town of 
Wigtown, which not only felt its dignity as a royal burgh hurt 
by the weekly market and annual fair which had been set up 
and prospered in this up-start village, but which found its 
customs revenue impaired from the same cause. What was the 
