88 EarLy SHERIFF Court Book oF DUMFRIES. 
therto I streik a borch and that I will preiff.’”’® Later the 
formula was changed to : ‘‘I am grattumly hurt and injurit be 
the said dome, therfore I appele and find ane borcht in the 
officiaris hand of the court to pursue the said appelatione con- 
formand to the law made of before.’’!° 
We find early notices regarding the Sheriff’s clerk and 
his sergeant or officer, of whom the former was entitled to two 
shillings out of every fine, and the latter to a colpindach™ or 
thirty pence.!2 It was the business of the Sheriff’s clerk to 
call the suits—i.e., the names of the lands in respect of which 
suit or suit and presence was due’—and to enter the names of 
those for which no appearance was made, so that fines might 
be imposed upon the absentees. In the case of our Sheriff 
Court Book these lists have not been made out, although we 
find the note—‘‘ sutis callit. Court lachfully affermit. 
Absentes sequuntur.’’!4 
In civil cases the proceedings were initiated by the King’s 
brieve or letter addressed to a judge directing him to try by a 
jury the points stated in it.45 These brieves have been de- 
scribed as ‘‘ the foundation of all civil process of old;’’6 and 
were framed to cover such a variety of matters that every class 
9 St. 1429, c. 6; Fol. Acts, ii., 18; Frag. Coll., ce. 8; Fol. Acts, 
ae 4s 
10 St. 15th March, 1503-4, c. 51; St. 20th March, 1508-4, c. 46; 
Fol. Acts, ii., 246, 254. 
11 A young cow (Skene, De Verb. Sign, s.v. ‘‘ colpindach ’’). 
12 Leges Malc. Makken, ec. 7; Fol. Acts, i., 710. 
13 See the article, ‘‘The Suitors of the Sheriff Court,’’ cited 
above. 
14 See Fol. 7. In the Sheriff Court Books of Aberdeen, Fife, 
Linlithgow, &c., these lists are given in extenso. 
15 See Skene, op. cit. s.v., ‘‘ Breve;’’ Balfour, Practicks, Edin- 
burgh, 1754, pp. 418 ff.; Stair, Tust., iv., 8, 4-18; Ersk., Iust., iv., 
1, 3; Innes, Lectures on Scotch Legal Antiquities, Edinburgh, 
1872; pp. 230 ff. An enumeration of brieves will be found in the 
Index to the Folio Acts. See also the list in F. Pollock and F. W. 
Maitland, The History of English Law before the time of Edward I., 
Cambridge, 1898, ii., 565 ff. Examples of brieves will be found in 
the Folio Acts, i., 89 ff., 657 ff. 
16 Innes, op. cit., p. 231. 
