138 KIRKCUDBRIGHT IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
in Kirkcudbright for more than thirty years he refused to obey 
an order of the Bishop of Galloway, and the wrathful prelate 
issued a warrant for his incarceration. His son was at this 
time one of the bailies, and the bench withheld the civil sanction 
to the ecclesiastical decree. This brought down the bishop’s 
wrath on the magistrates of the town, and led to their own 
imprisonment, apparently with the sanction and by the sentence 
of the Commissary of Kirkcudbright, in Wigtown Jail; a pro- 
ceeding which led the Estates in 1645 to issue a commission for 
the trial of the “insolent persons ’’ who had thus treated the 
magistracy. The son, William Glendinning, rose from the 
position of Bailie to that of Provost and M.P., and he took a 
prominent part in the stirring politics of the time, being one of 
the Scotch Commissioners who were sent to London to endeavour 
to prevent the execution of Charles I. 
THE RESTORATION. 
One of the latest entries in the volume now under notice 
is an elaborate and solemn oath, signed by John Inglis, Provost ; 
John Moir, Bailie; and several other councillors, deacons, and 
officials, pledging them to remain faithful to the true Protestant 
religion, as set forth in the Confession of Faith, and to render 
obedience and undivided allegiance “to my most gracious 
sovrane, Charles the Second,’’ then lately called from exile to 
the throne. Read in the light of historical events, the juxta- 
position now seems strangely incongruous. 
INCORPORATION OF THE TRADES. 
The minute of 4th October, 1598, contains the Act of 
Council conferring corporate rights on the Trades: “ The saidis 
Provost, Bailleis, and Counsall, in respect of the supplicatioun 
gevin befoir thame be the craftismen qlkis ar burgesses of this 
burgh, anent the hurt susteint be thame be the resorting of un- 
freman craftismenn in this toun: hes thairfoir grantit to thame 
deaconis of thair cheissing, to put order thairanent, according to 
the use of uthir burrowis; and the saidis deaconis to be anshir- 
abill for ilk fault to the toun commitit be thair craftismen.”’ 
This privilege would appear, however, to have fallen into disuse ; 
for a subsequent Act of the Town Council, passed in 1681 (and 
which is quoted in the appendix to the “ History of Galloway,” 
