320 HISTORY OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 



were to be sent for to Edinburgh, and bound over to restrain 

 their tenants from committing outrages on the King's 

 subjects. And all questions of ground-leave were also to 

 be settled by the Council, particularly with the Earl of 

 Seaforth. In a second letter from Charles to the Privy 

 Council concerning the now famous case of wreckage in 

 Stornoway Harbour, then pending in the Admiralty Court, 

 he ordered the case to be decided in that Court with all 

 equity and expedition. But all future cases connected 

 with the Lewis fishings, were to be decided by the judges 

 who had been appointed by the Council of the Fishery 

 Corporation. Sir John Hay, Clerk-Register, was at the 

 same time charged by the King to see that the abuses 

 complained of were tried and punished, and that the fishing 

 was to be allowed to proceed without interruption. On 

 the same date, Charles also wrote Seaforth, commanding 

 him to protect the Englishmen from being disturbed in a 

 work in which he (Charles) had taken so much pains, and 

 a work which promised to be for the public benefit 



In response to the representations made by the King, 

 the Privy Council of Scotland issued a proclamation, the 

 preamble of which set forth that the King's subjects were 

 being robbed of their fish and victuals by the Islesmen, 

 who broke the shoals of herrings, and threatened to break 

 the heads of the fishermen. Among those who were charged 

 to put a stop to these proceedings appear the names of 

 Seaforth and Macleod of Harris, who, with their colleagues, 

 were forbidden to give warrant to any persons under them, 

 except those for whose good rule they would be answer- 

 able. These measures for the protection of the Corpora- 

 tion's servants in Lewis appear to have had the desired 

 effect, for we hear no more about the persecution of the 

 strangers. 



One of the petitions presented in 1635 to the Lords 

 Commissioners for the Fisheries of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, is of peculiar interest to Lewismen. The peti- 

 tioner, one Captain Alexander Moure (Muir), stated that 

 thirty-six years previously, he and his brother belonged to 



