90 Scottish Burghal Life. 



predecessors and authoro right to the said shops But that it 

 shall be leesum to the town to quarrel! iuipun reduce and impre- 

 cate the right and priorities yrof and that it shall be leesum to 

 the petitioner and to Mr John JM'Gowan his brother and Margt. 

 M'Gowan his niece to defend the same as accords of the law and 

 the entry to the high shops are to be made on the west end of 

 the fabric. With and under which provisions and reservations 

 their prests. are gi'anted be the sd Magistrates Counsall and 

 Heritors and accepted be ye sd petitioner and noe oyrways And 

 appoint thir prests. to be recorded in the Counsalls books the 

 provost and bailies for ymselves and in name of the Counsall and 

 the petitioner for himself and his said brother and niece to sign 

 these prests. xVnd ordains extracts yrof to be given be tlie Clerk. 

 Thus. M'Guwne. Wm. Chaik. 



John Irvine, bailie." 



II. — " Scottish Burglial Life in. the i6th and lyth Centuries, illus- 

 trated by Extracts from Kirkcudbright Records^ V>\ Mr W. 

 Dickie, Merlewood, Maxwelltown. 



I propose to place before you extracts from the earliest 

 extant records of the Town Council of the royal burgh of Kirk- 

 cudbright. These are selected from a manuscript volume of 

 minutes of proceedings covering the period from 157G to 1G82. 



First I shall deal with the Constitution and Functions of the 

 Council itself. 



constitution of the town council. 



Even at a much more remote date than that with which we 

 here start there had been a wonderful development of representa- 

 tive institutions in the towns of Scotland. The earliest existing 

 charters to royal burghs, belonging to the eleventh and twelfth 

 centuries, confer the right of electing councillors and magistrates 

 upon the " haill communitie." To this phrase Mr Cosmo Imies 

 has attached the restricted interpretation—" the whole body of 

 qualified burgesses ;" but the popular franchise, whether it were 

 as broad-based as the language of the charters indicates or 

 narrowed to the circle of burgesses, was superseded in the 

 fifteenth century by a system of nomination known as that of 

 the close corporations. The change was brought about by Act 



