474 Memoir of Mr. Alexander Jeffrey, by George Hilson. 



had exercised certain rights of thirlage over the bakers and 

 community. The title to do so had never been directly ques- 

 tioned, but the bakers always had tried to evade them, by 

 private dealings with the tacksmen of the magistrates' 

 rights. About 1839, disputes had arisen, and it became 

 necessary in their opinion to assert the town's rights to the full 

 extent. Various attempts at a compromise were made, 

 but these having failed, the magistrates, in the full flush of 

 anticipated victory, raised an action of declarator of their 

 rights before the Court of Session, against the bakers, con- 

 cluding that they and the whole inhabitants of the Burgh 

 were bound to grind all the grain they brought into it at 

 the mills, and pay the duties they claimed. The action, 

 under the advice of Mr Jeffrey, was strenuously resisted by 

 the bakers. By his investigation into the antiquities of the 

 Burgh for his historical purposes, and from the knowledge 

 of the town's affairs he had acquired while in the town 

 clerk's office, he was well qualified for his position as legal 

 adviser of the defenders, as the case involved many 

 historical references both as to the title and actings of the 

 magistrates and their tacksmen. The defence was that the 

 magistrates had no title, and any alleged recognition of it in 

 practice had neither been uniform nor consistent with the 

 right claimed: The litigation was protracted over several 

 years, and at last was closed by a jury trial in Edinburgh, 

 on the 12th and 13th days of January, 1842, presided over 

 by Lord Justice Clerk Hope, who directed the jury to find 

 substantially in terms of the defence. This they did unani- 

 mously. The result, while a great triumph for Mr Jeffrey 

 and his clients, was most disastrous to the Burgh, and ended 

 in its bankruptcy, and the sale of all its property. The 

 then Lord Advocate Macneil — afterwards Lord Colonsay — 

 who was the senior counsel of the bakers, whom Mr. 

 Jeffrey had often met at the numerous consultations that 

 took place during the litigation, at the close of the trial 

 expressed to him how much he and the other counsel had 

 been indebted to him, for the clear way he had been able 

 to present to them the title of the magistrates, and all the 

 relative circumstances as to the possession. 



After this, his business increased rapidly, but his liking 

 lay more to the criminal than to the civil department of his 

 profession. He was the popular advocate in almost all the 

 criminal cases that arose in the counties of Roxburgh and 



