8 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



town a Royal Burgh, and thus deprived Baliol of all 

 claims to authority and territory in that part of the 

 country. If this took place immediately after taking 

 Berwick, the burgh may have received a Royal Charter 

 about 1318. In further proof of Lauder being a Royal 

 Burgh before the close of the 14th century, we can refer 

 to an entry in the "Chamberlain Rolls" in 1366. There 

 we find the following entry under the title " Cont' buco 

 b'g non compen." " Et de liiis. iiijd. de Lawedre. Et 

 de iiij. li. vi. de Renfrew. Et de x. li. vjd. de Irwyne." 

 In quoting the above in his notes Mr Romanes remarks : — 

 " It is true that places which were not burghs, or at 

 all events not Royal Burghs, are named in this and 

 similar entries : but Lauder, as a place apart from 

 Lauderdale, did not appear in the ' Chamberlain Rolls ' 

 before 1366 ; and it is not conceivable that, so long as 

 Lauder was merely a village, and not a Royal Burgh, 

 the Exchequer would have a claim against the place 

 for ' 53s. 4d.' " Frequent reference is made to Lauder 

 as a burgh in the loth century, and before the Charter 

 of Novodamus was granted. In the " Lauderdale Writs " 

 reference is made to " tenements in the Burgh of Lauder " 

 in 1449. In the year 1477 John Smith is mentioned 

 as " Bailie of Lauder." In 1494 Lauder appears in the 

 Exchequer Rolls. In 1502 — in the reign of James IV. — 

 a Charter of Novodamus was granted. That charter sets 

 forth that : — " The first charter's evidents and letters of 

 foundation and infeftment of our Burgh of Lauder and 

 liberty thereof, made and granted by our noble progenitors 

 to the burgesses and community of the said burgh, were 

 destroyed and burned by the ravages of war and fire 

 and otherwise, whereby the exercise of merchandise ceased 

 among them to their great hurt and the ruin and prejudice 

 of the commonweal and liberty of our foresaid burgh, 

 and to our no little loss concerning our customs and 

 burgh mails and the duties owing to us furth of our 

 foresaid burgh, unless a remedy can be forthwith provided. 



