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Appendices to Twenty -sixth Annual Report 



of linds. But neither the Crown, nor the earl, nor the bishop had any 

 rights as feudal superior, except, it may be, by convention, for it is not 

 certain that the earls, latterly of Norman stock, may not have, even 

 before 1468, commenced the introduction of the feudal system of title 

 by inducing udallers, for security and protection's sake, to take quasi 

 feudal titles from them in some cases. In 1468 King James III. of 

 Scotland married Margaret, daughter of King Christian I. of Norway, 

 and received with her a dowry of 60,000 florins, and in security of 

 50,000 thereof not paid down, received in pledge " omnes et singulas, 

 terras nostras insularum Orcadensium cum omnibus et singulis juribus, 

 servicis, et justis suis pertinentiis " (Peterkin's Rentals, App. p. 11 foot, 

 and Scots Acts, 1471, c. 4, Th. II. 187). This hypothecation, never 

 redeemed, is the source of the Crown rights in Orkney. Its nature 

 and circumstances preclude recourse to the feudal fiction. Shortly after 

 the impignoration the Crown acquired the earldom and all that went 

 with it from William Sinclair, the last Norwegian earl, by the Contract 

 of Excambion of 1471, giving therefor lands on the mainland of 

 Scotland; and on 20th February 1471 the Earldom of Orkney and 

 Lordship of Shetland was united to the Crown with parliamentary 

 sanction (Th. II. 102). But this only placed the Crown in the shoes of 

 the earl, as it was already, so long as the hypothecation continued, in 

 those of the King of Norway. Yet so early as 1490 the Crown is 

 found granting a charter in feudal form with a tenendas, and with a 

 reddendo in masses, etc., erecting the bishopric into a free regality 

 (Peterkin, App. p. 14). Among the pertinents are included 

 piscationibus. 



What happened between 1471 and 1540 I do not know, but in the 

 latter year, 1540, cap. 19, Th. II. 360, "the lands and lordship of 

 Orkney and Shetland and the isles pertaining thereto and their 

 pertinents " are contained in a general Act of Annexation to the 

 Crown. But from 1562 to the beginning of the seventeenth century 

 the earldom was held by Earls Bobert and Patrick Stewart, an illegi- 

 timate branch of the Stewart family, and if they did not also hold the 

 bishopric, they held some rights relating to it. 



Between 1612 and 1615 a series of transactions took place which 

 brings things nearer to modern times. The family of Arnot of 

 Berswick appear to have acquired the right of Earl Patrick, probably 

 by wadset, and, in September 1612, King James VI. acquired from 

 Sir John Arnot and his sons for 300,000 pounds Scots " Sundry lands, 

 isles, and others specified in the same contract, lying within the bounds 

 of Orkney and Zetland." See the ratification of this contract, 1612, 

 cap. 14, Th. IV. 480. Following on this was the annexation of the 

 same year, found in 1612. cap. 15, Th. IV. 481. The subjects annexed 

 were "the lands, isles, skerries, holms, my Ins, multures, fishings, 

 annual rents, and others whatsomever as well specified as generally 

 after mentioned," and then followed an enumeration of lands and isles 

 within the Sheriffdom of Orkney said to be held by Sir John Arnot of 

 the Crown, and to have been resigned in the hands of the Crown ad 

 perpetuam remanentiam. But there followed a general clause, "together 

 with all and whatsomever other lands, <fcc. . . . fishings as well in fresh 

 as salt water and other rights and duties whatsomever pertaining 

 to the said earldom of Orkney and lordship of Zetland," with pertinents 

 and heritable jurisdictions, " together also with all and sundry other 

 privileges, immunities, and liberties whatsomever contained and 

 expressed in the infeftment made and given to Patrick, Earl of Orkney, 

 of the said Earldom and lordship." The Act further provided for the 

 annexation in advance of similar lands and rights, should the King 



