Notes

1 See in particular, C. Hawes, �Community and public authority in later fifteenth-century Scotland’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015, pp. 49–75, and J.

2 St Andrews University Library, B65/23/4c.

3 See, for example, H. Booton, �Burgesses and landed men in North-East Scotland in the later middle ages: A study in social interaction’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1987; E.P. Dennison, D. Ditchburn and M. Lynch (eds) Aberdeen before 1800: A New History, East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2002; M. Lynch, M. Spearman and G. Stell (eds) The Scottish Medieval Town, Edinburgh: John Donald, 1988; and E. Ewan, Townlife in Fourteenth-Century Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990.

4 See, for example, M. Verschuur, Politics or Religion? The Reformation in Perth 1540–1570, Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, 2006 and M. Cowan, Death, Life and Religious Change in Scottish Towns c.1350–1560, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012.

5 For St Andrews, see M. Brown and K. Stevenson (eds) Medieval St Andrews: Church, Cult, City, Woodbridge: Boydell, 2017.

6 Royal Commission of Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland: Peeblesshire, 2 vols, Edinburgh, HM Stationary Office (hereafter HMSO), 1967, vol. 2, nos 481, 523, 539, and Registrum Magni Sigilii Regum Scotorum (hereafter RMS), 11 vols, eds J.M. Thomson et al., Edinburgh: HMSO, 1882–1914, vol. 2, no. 210.

7 This sum compares to Perth’s rent of £80 and Edinburgh’s rent of £34 13s 4d which indicate the lack of correlation between the level of rent required and the size of the burgh (The Exchequer Rolls of Scotland (hereafter ER), 23 vols, eds J. Stuart et al., Edinburgh: HM General Register House, 1878–1908, vol.

8 National Records of Scotland (hereafter NRS) B58/18/15.

9 Charters and Documents Relating to the Burgh of Peebles 1165–1710 (hereafter Peebles Charters), Edinburgh: Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1872, pp. 157, 162, 165.

10 H. MacQueen, �Pleadable brieves and jurisdiction in heritage in later medieval Scotland’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1985, pp. 86, 90.

11 Peebles Charters, no. 9.

12 The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, ed. K. M. Brown et al., St Andrews, 2007–2020, (hereafter RPS) 1464/1/10 and Liber Sancte Marie de Melros (hereafter Melrose Liber), 2 vols, Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1837, vol. 2, p. 390, no. 572.

13 NRS, B58/18/41.

14 Though Yellowlock cannot be identified further, his appearance with his book and his taking of the wax as a symbolic act may hint at his possession of some level of legal training or experience. The use of legal experts by officials and nobles in fifteenth-century Scotland requires further study.

15 Ewan, Townlife in Fourteenth-Century Scotland, pp. 45–8. Neither Haw nor Dixon appeared at the exchequer during the 1470s (ER, vol. 8, pp. 106, 200, 261, 321, 393, 470, 552, 632).

16 The notary who produced the instrument was named John Young.

17 NRS, B58/18/35 and Peebles Charters, no. 12.

18 Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, eds T. Dickson et al., 13 vols, Edinburgh: HM General Register House, 1877–, vol. 1, p. 44.

19 ER, vol. 8, pp. 478, 480.

20 ER, vol. 8, p. 587.

21 NRS, B58/18/43, and Peebles Charters, no. 13.

22 N. Macdougall, James III, Edinburgh: John Donald, 2009, pp. 100–67 and R. Tanner, The Late Medieval Scottish Parliament: Politics and the Three Estates, 1424–1488, East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2001, pp. 191–218.

23 M. Brown, The Black Douglases, East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1998, pp. 23–5.

24 RMS, vol. 1, appendix 1, no. 38.

25 W. Fraser (ed.) The Douglas Book, 4 vols, Edinburgh, 1885, vol.

26 Brown, The Black Douglases, p. 242.

27 Melrose Liber, vol. 2, no. 564.

28 For what follows, see the analysis of Ettrick Forest and Scottish hunting reserves in general in J.M. Gilbert, Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland, Edinburgh: John Donald, 1979, especially pp. 129–30, 147–50.

29 ER, vol. 11, pp. 393–4. �It is plenyeit that the marchis and indwellars within the bondis about the said forrest distroyis the wod and der gretummlie’.

30 ER, vol. 11, p. 394.

31 Brown, The Black Douglases, pp. 166–70.

32 Peebles Charters, no. 9.

33 Fraser, Douglas, vol. 3, no. 428.

34 NRS, GD150/14 (f).

35 Brown, The Black Douglases, pp. 299–308 and Christine McGladdery, James II, Edinburgh: John Donald, 2015, pp. 147–58.

36 RPS 1455/8/2. Notwithstanding this act, 18 years later Ettrick Forest was granted by James III to Queen Margaret (RMS, vol. 2, no. 1143).

37 ER, vol. 6, pp. 225, 371, 443, and ER, vol. 8, pp. 43, 141.

38 Gilbert, Hunting and Hunting Reserves, p. 142.

39 RMS, vol. 2, nos 58–9.

40 For the Pringles’ service to the earls of Douglas, see Brown, The Black Douglases, pp. 167, 217, 230, 290, 294, 300, 317.

41 Fraser, Douglas, vol. 3, nos 88, 97, 431.

42 RMS, vol. 2, nos 773–5. William also became guardian of the lands of his nephew, the young Archibald earl of Angus (RMS, vol. 2, no. 774).

43 NRS, GD8/6 and RMS, vol. 2, no. 1418. James earl of Buchan was the second son of James I’s queen, Joan Beaufort, by her second husband. Buchan also received custody of Newark Castle which had been the principal Black Douglas residence in the Forest and in 1479 was charged with felling trees and killing deer by the currours (NRS, GD157/71, 73, and ER, vol.

44 RMS, vol. 2, no. 781; Fraser, Douglas, vol. 3, no. 101; David Crichton was sheriff of Edinburgh in 1469. During the 1470s, he was keeper of Threave and Edinburgh Castles and a royal envoy to Denmark and France (ER, vol. 8, pp. 28, 164, 253, 269, 353).

45 ER, vol. 7, p. 623, and vol. 8, pp. 46, 139, 210, 353, 478, 585.

46 Perth and Kinross Archives B59/24/13/1; A.A.M. Duncan, James I King of Scots 1424–1437, Glasgow: University of Glasgow, 1984, p. 23; M. Brown, James I, Edinburgh: Canongate, 1994, pp. 172–93; and M. Brown, �“That old serpent and ancient of evil days”: Walter Earl of Atholl and the death of James I’, Scottish Historical Review 71, 1992, pp. 23–45.

47 Charters and Other Documents Relating to the Royal Burgh of Stirling, Glasgow: Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1834, pp. 36–8.

48 Extracts from the Council Register of Aberdeen, ed. J. Stuart, Aberdeen: Spalding Club, 1844, pp. 8, 23–4; Perth and Kinross Archives B59/24/13/1; Charters and Other Documents Relating to the City of Edinburgh, ed. J.D. Marwick, Edinburgh: Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1871, nos 30 and 47.

49 �Aberdeen Burgh Registers’, Scotland’s Places, online,, vol. 5/1, p. 467 (accessed 21 June 2019).

50 Aberdeen Council Extracts, p. 6. See also below, pp. 212 and 221 note 49.

51 M.H. Brown, �Prelates, citizens and landed folk: St Andrews as a centre of lordship in the late middle ages’, in Brown and Stevenson, Medieval St Andrews, pp. 205–22.

52 ER, vol. 5, pp. 31, 36, 67, 233, 258–9, 305, and Extracts from the Records of the Burgh of Edinburgh 1403–1528, Edinburgh: Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1849, pp. 254–7.

53 Perth and Kinross Archives B59/23/4.

54 Perth and Kinross Archives B59/26/1/1.

55 Perth and Kinross Archives B59/26/1/2.

56 �Auchinleck Chronicle’, in McGladdery, James II, p. 161. For further discussion of this event, see M.H. Brown, �The downcasting of the house of Dupplin: Burghs and politics in fifteenth-century Scotland’, in S.

57 Charters of the Royal Burgh of Ayr (hereafter Ayr Charters), Edinburgh: Scottish Burgh Records Society, 1883, no. 19

58 Ibid., no. 20.

59 Ibid., no. 22.

60 Ibid., no. 48.

61 Ibid., no. 49.

62 Ibid., no. 21.

63 Ibid., no. 23. Our burgesses are

daylie summond be oure letres and officiaris to compeir in Edinburcht and uther placis to pas upone assisis and ar compellit be oure shiref of Air and his deputis to pas upone inquestis and assisis in our shireff courtis of Air.

64 The easy availability of this document may indicate that the burgesses had anticipated the appearance of Yellowlock and his actions. I am grateful to Dr Amy Blakeway of the University of St Andrews for this suggestion.

65 NRS, B58/18/41.

66 Hawes, �Community and public authority’, pp. 49–75.

67 Ayr Charters, no. 23

68 NRS, B58/18/35, and B58/18/41. â€?James be the grace of god king of scotis to all and sundry oure liegis and subditis quhais knaulage thir oure l[ett]res salcum gretings. Wit ʒe that … oure burgh of peblis is ane ald fre burgh of oure realme feft and foundit be oure progentouris of maist nobli mynde with liberties preuileges and fre burrowage like as utheris oure burowis as preuilegit in tyme bigane’.

69 Peebles Charters, no. 9 and NRS, B58/18/20.

70 Peebles Charters, no. 14.

71 Ibid., no. 15.

72 NRS, B58/18/47.

73 Peebles Charters, no. 24 and p. 279. In 1528, Cademuir was incorporated into a barony created for George Elphinstone of Henderstoun, whose family were also burgesses of Peebles (Peebles Charters, no. 27).