EARLY SHERIFF CourRT Book oF DUMFRIES. 85 
12th January, 1917. 
Chairman—G. M‘LrEop Stewart, V.P. 
Sheriff Court Book of Dumfries (2nd October, 1537- 
3lst July, 1538), 
By Sir Puitie J. HAamittTon-GRIERSON. 
Me 
INTRODUCTION. 
This short legal fragment, which is preserved in H.M. 
Register House, Edinburgh, consists of seven folios, and 
contains a record of proceedings in court from 2nd October, 
1537, to 25th June, 1538. It will be observed that with the 
exception of the court held on the former date in the Tolbooth 
of Dumfries, all the courts were held at Penpont. The head 
burgh of a sheriffdom was the place where the Sheriff Court 
of right ought to be held, unless inveterate custom had sanc- 
tioned its holding elsewhere. Such at least was the rule in 
later times. But earlier the courts had been more ambula- 
tory. Thus we find an Aberdeen Sheriff Court held at the 
Standing Staines of Huntlie,? and from an Ayr Sheriff Court 
Book® of the sixteenth century we learn that the court was 
held on lands the title to which was in dispute. Again, on 
30th January, 1481-82, a decree pronounced in a court held at 
Penpont by Robert Crechtoun of Sanquhar, Sheriff of Dum- 
fries, narrates the consent of the parties and their affirmation 
of the day and place as lawful. 
The difficulty in the present case arises from the fact that 
the session of the court at Penpont occurred not once only, 
1 Karl of Hyndford v. The Burgh of Hamilton, 1740, Mor. Dict., 
3104; cp. Innes v. Innes, 1622, ib. 3101. 
2 Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, ed. by D. Little- 
john, Aberdeen, 1904 (New Spalding Club), i., 153. 
3 MS. in H.M. Reg. House, Edinburgh. 
4 Hist. MSS. Com. XV. Report, London, 1897, App., pt. viii., 
p. 48, No. 96. 
