94 Local Documents, Berwick, by Mr John Scott. 



The translation has teen revised; and some words in the copy of the 

 original deed have been corrected. George Home, son of Sir Alexander 

 Home, of Home and Dunglass, obtained a charter of the greater part of the 

 lands of Ayton, with those of Whitfield, of date 29th November, 1472. 

 (Carr's Hist, of Ooldingham, p. 125.) He may have been the George Home, 

 who, in 1442, negotiated with the Priory of Durham the transfer of the 

 Bailiery of Coldingham, for the term of sixty years, and a tack of the lands 

 of Oldcambus for forty years, from the house of Wedderburn to that of Dun- 

 glass. (Priory of Coldingham, Surt. Soc. pp. 137, 148. Eaine's North 

 Durham, Appendix, p. 99, &c.) He was one of the Scottish Commissioners 

 of truce at Hawden Stank, Oct. 18, and at Beading-Burn, Oct. 21, 1484. 

 (Bidpath's Bord. Hist., p. 450, note.) George Hume de Aitoun was a mem- 

 ber of the Scottish Parliament, May 9, 1485. (Acts Pari. Scot, ii., p. 169). 

 He and his son John were, as we have seen above, esquires of the household 

 to James IV. His successor was his son George, but we read in 1502 of Sir 

 John Hume of Duns, as being the bearer of a letter of Henry YIII to James 

 IV., dispatched by Andrew Forman, Bishop of Moray, the Scots Ambassador. 

 (Kymer, apud Bidpath, p. 476, note.) 



J. H. 



II. BEBWICK. 



Copy of a Communication between the Royalists of North Northum- 

 berland and the Authorities of Berwick. (Communicated by Mr 

 John Scott.) 



The second letter that follows shews a certain pith and marrow in the Ber- 

 wick Burgesses, that is greatly to be admired. Threatened, as it seems, by 

 members of several of the powerful families in the North part of Northum- 

 berland, officers of a portion of the King's army of the north, lying as appears 

 from the letter, at Wooler, they yet answer the Boyalists with a calmness 

 and dignity quite worthy of the . historic character of Berwick. Perhaps a 

 great sense of security was imparted to the burgesses by the fact that they 

 had struck as their key note, " The King and the Parliament ;" and that the 

 Scots knew this and were contemplating sending a strong garrison into the 

 town, to take and keep possession of the renowned fortress. An interesting 

 story, how Berwick steered its course through the civil war, is still un- 

 written ; but abundant materials exist, and these may yet be woven into a 

 connected whole. The first letter is that of the Boyalists : — 



' ' Coppie of the Lettre to the Towne. 



" Gentlemen the necessitie of his Ma'te service, which wee find much ob- 

 scured by reason of the want of your concurrance, enforceth us to dispatch 

 this message and send these gentlemen unto you. Wee have according to 

 his Ma'te authoritie and commission proceeded in our endeavours to advance 

 his service, but wee find the face of disobedience so prevalant with some, that 

 in contempt of his Ma'te service' and disaffection of his government, they fly 



