294 Dumfries Treasurers' Accounts. 



coal, and peats to make the conflagration ; the executioner 

 received a bonus of ^2 for his pains ; whilst the burgh officers 

 for services rendered were given 30s " in money and drink," 

 to moisten them at their thirsty job. After such lurid work, 

 the scourging of Jonat Wilsone or of James Tate was a trivial 

 penalty. The demster was the chief performer on these 

 occasions, and his scale of remuneration seems to have been 

 6s for a female and 8s for a male offender. Amidst these 

 occasional acts of discipline and retribution, it is pleasing to 

 note that the Town Council could display a softer side. Its 

 charities included ;Q^ 17s to a shipwrecked Pole, and 13s 4d 

 to a cripple woman who was borne in a barrow. Cripples 

 would seem to have appealed specially to the generosity 

 of the Magistrates. Horses were even hired to help them on 

 their way. The insane, too, were not neglected, a mad 

 woman being fed for 8s. At one time an Irishman and his 

 family (19s), at another two Frenchmen (29s), were 

 recipients of the town's bounty, while a sick fisherman, a 

 man who had come to the town with the colliers, 

 were all given some alms. The reference to these 

 colliers shows that the Council was not blind to commercial 

 possibilities. The colliers probably came from the Newcastle 

 fields, though coal at the time was being worked in Cumber- 

 land. The Council entered into a contract with them, pre- 

 sumably to sink shafts in the burgh roods in search of a seam 

 of coal. The contract was for ;^i8o with extras, which 

 amounted to over ^42. It is to be regretted that there is no 

 mention of the site of these operations. It may have been 

 near Netherwood, where in recent times a similar experiment 

 is reported to have been made.* One thing is clear — it was 



* In 1736 an influentially supported company, designating itself 

 " The Societie of Coall Adventurers in and about Drumfries," on 

 the advice of Sir James Clerk of Penicuik, employed James Stodart, 

 " a person skill' d in Coall works to vew the grounds within twelve 

 miles of Drumfries." In the summer of the following year Stodart 

 reported that he, with two colliers, had made " all tryalls for coals 

 in the grounds of William Craik of Arbigland and Alexander Young 

 of Auchenskeoch to the utmost of their power and skill, and that 

 the said James had gone over to the English side and seen how the 

 coals ly alongst the coast and surveyed the coast of Galloway where 



