348 Mr. Jeffrey o)i Jedburgh. 



and rebels ; for these considerations Mary anew erected Jed- 

 burgh a free royal burgh perpetually, and gave to the provost, 

 baillies, councillors, and commonality of the same, all the com- 

 mon property which formerly they had ; and to the bur- 

 gesses and inhabitants full authority, free power, and special 

 license to buy and sell wine, wax, woollen and linen cloth, 

 broad and narrow, and every other kind of merchandise and 

 goods, and to have and hold within the said burgh millers, 

 bakers, flishers, hangmen, and slaughterers of flesh and fish, 

 and every other artificer pertaining to the privileges and 

 liberties of a free burgh ; to have within the burgh perpetu- 

 ally in all time coming a market crocs and weekly market 

 days on Monday and Friday, and free market days annually 

 in the day of exaltation of the holy cross in autumn, and 

 during eight days of the same, with a common market 

 annually on the festal day of Pentecost, and with tolls, cus- 

 toms, privileges, liberties, and advantages, free market days 

 appertaining to a free royal burgh, in whatever way in 

 the future, and as freely as " our burgh of Edinburgh, or any 

 other royal burgh, is infeft within the kingdom by us or our 

 predecessors." By the charter also a power was given to the 

 magistrates and office-bearers of the burgh, to seize and 

 arrest every person committing or resetting theft within the 

 burgh ; to bring them to the notice of an assize or assizes, and 

 to drown, hang, and justify them, &c. From this it will be 

 seen that Jedburgh is, by this charter, raised to an equality 

 with any burgh in the kingdom. The charter was ratified 

 by Parliament in 1599, and the ratification proceeds on the 

 same narrative as the charter. 



The burgh was the residence of Mary the queen in 1566, 

 and where she held a justice court and assembled a parlia- 

 ment. While Mary resided here, she occupied a house in 

 the Backgate. The room in which tradition says she slept, 

 is on the third floor in the back part of the house, looking 

 into a garden. Some old tapestry, which it is said covered 

 the walls of the room at the time, is still exhibited. While 

 in this house Darnley visited her after she became con- 

 valescent, and remained one night in the town. The queen 

 was attended by a number of the principal men of the king- 

 dom, and by secretary Cecil of England. On leaving, she was 

 escorted to Kelso — where she held a court — by a thousand of 

 the Border chivalry. 



The burgh was also the place where the armies of Scotland 

 assembled^ and it was from the earliest times the seat of the 



