Notes

* I am grateful to Professor John Ford and the anonymous peer reviewer for comments on this chapter. Any errors remain my own.

1 A. Simpson, �Men of law in the Aberdeen Council Register? A preliminary study, ca.1450–ca.1460’, Juridical Review 2019, pp.

2 See H.L. MacQueen, Common Law and Feudal Society in Medieval Scotland, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, Classic edition, 2016, p. 74.

3 J. Finlay, Men of Law in Pre-Reformation Scotland, East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2000, p. 11.

4 Ibid.; for the points made here, see generally Ibid., pp. 10–11.

5 See, for example, J. Durkan, â€?The early Scottish notary’, in I.B. Cowan and D. Shaw (eds) The Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland. Essays in Honour of Gordon Donaldson, Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1983, pp. 22–40. See also W.W. Scott, â€?William Cranston, notary public c. 1395 to 1425, and some contemporaries’, in H.L. MacQueen (ed.) Miscellany Seven, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 2015, pp. 125–32, and J. Finlay, â€?The history of the notary in Scotland’, in M. Schmoeckel and W. Schuber (eds) Handbuch zur Geschichte des Notariats der Europäischen Traditionen, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2009, pp. 393–428, and Adelyn Wilson’s contribution to the present volume.

6 Finlay, Men of Law, p. 7. See also Simpson, �Men of law’.

7 Simpson, �Men of law’.

8 See the erratum published in connection with Simpson, �Men of law’, at the end of the third issue of Juridical Review 2019 (no page reference present).

9 This edition is now published as E. Frankot, A. Havinga, C. Hawes, W. Hepburn, W. Peters, J. Armstrong, P. Astley, A. Mackillop, A. Simpson and A. Wyner (eds) Aberdeen Registers Online: 1398–1511, Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen, 2019, (last accessed 18 January 2020) (hereafter ARO).

10 I am very grateful to Dr Edda Frankot for drawing my attention to this point.

11 This chapter relies upon the methodological assumptions outlined in Simpson, �Men of law’, pp. 149–50, when attempting to identify multiple references to a particular name in the Aberdeen council registers as being references to the same individual. Those assumptions will not be discussed further here.

12 On the brieves of inquest in an earlier period, see, above all, A. Taylor, The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124–1290, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 323–43.

13 ARO-5-0592-01 (12 January 1467); ARO-5-0593-08 (28 January 1467).

14 ARO-5-0592-01 (12 January 1467); ARO-5-0593-08 (26 January 1467); ARO-5-0620-08 (24 November 1467).

15 ARO-5-0602-01 (20 March 1467) (my translation); on the Leges Burgorum, see, for example, H.L. MacQueen and W.J. Windram, �Laws and courts in the burghs’, in M. Lynch, M. Spearman, and G. Stell (eds) The Scottish Medieval Town, Edinburgh: John Donald, 1988, p. 208.

16 The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, ed. K.M. Brown et al., St Andrews, 2007–2020, (last accessed 18 January 2020) (hereafter RPS)1469/34.

17 H.L. MacQueen, �Regiam Majestatem, Scots law and national identity’, Scottish Historical Review 74, 1995, pp. 1–25, at p. 15.

18 RPS 1469/35.

19 RPS1471/5/12 (it is only in the transcript of the manuscript record that Alanson is referred to as being from Aberdeen, and there seems to be an error in the translation in this regard, perhaps as a result of a haplographical error); RPS1471/5/14; RPS 1471/8/1; RPS1471/8/22.

20 RPS1471/5/12; RPS 1471/8/22.

21 Simpson, �Men of law’.

22 For a much more sophisticated account of these changes, see, above all, A.M. Godfrey, Civil Justice in Renaissance Scotland, Leiden: Brill, 2009, pp.

23 In this, the Lilburn dispute may prove to be an instructive example; in spite of the clear opinion given in 1467, the dispute continued for some time, and indeed the lords of council became involved; see, for example, ARO-5-0640-01 (11 June 1468); ARO-6-0079-10 (10 October 1469).

24 For their involvement in burgh affairs, see Simpson, �Men of law’; for Cadiou, see also H.W. Booton, �John and Andrew Cadiou: Aberdeen notaries of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries’, Northern Scotland 9, 1989, pp. 17–20, and E. Gemmill (ed.) Aberdeen Guild Court Records 1437–1468, Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 2003, p. 3; for Kintore, see A.M. Munro, Memorials of the Aldermen, Provosts and Lord Provosts of Aberdeen 1272–1893, Aberdeen: Printed for the Subscribers, 1897, pp. 49–51, 53.

25 See RPS 1467/10/7; RPS A1467/10/13; RPS 1471/5/14 (Kintore); RPS 1440/8/5; ARO-5-0796-01 (8 October 1456) (Cadiou).

26 ARO-4-0177-02; on annual rents in Aberdeen at this time, see the discussion in Simpson, �Men of law’, and G.L. Gretton, �Feudal system’, in K.G.C. Reid, The Law of Property in Scotland, Edinburgh: Lexis Nexis, para. 112; MacQueen, Common Law, pp. 226–7; and W. Croft Dickinson (ed.) Early Burgh Records of Aberdeen 1317; 1398–1407, Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1957, pp. lix–lxi.

27 See, e.g., ARO-1-0012-04 (5 December 1398); ARO-1-0259-11 (1 January 1405); ARO-2-0026-01 (1 January 1409); ARO-2-0080-01 (1409); ARO-2-0217-01 (11 November 1413).

28 See Munro, Memorials, p. 53 and J. Cooper (ed.) Cartularium Ecclesiae Sancti Nicholai Aberdonensis, Aberdeen: New Spalding Club, 2 vols, 1888–1892,vol. 2, p. 302.

29 ARO-6-0208-01 (23 October 1472); ARO-6-0219-01 (9 January 1473); ARO-6-0220-03 (11 January 1473).

30 See, for example, Munro, Memorials, p. 53; Cooper, Cartularium, pp. 188, 196; ARO-6-0460-05 (22 November 1476).

31 Her nephew was Master Andrew Cadiou, notary public; see, for example, ARO-6-0609-09 (18 January 1480), where reference can be found to a claim by Master Andrew that he �suld be assignay til his awnt christiane of cadiou the spous of vmquhile Androw alanson quhom god assoilye’; see also ARO-6-0633-05 (20May 1480) and ARO-6-0650-01 (2 October 1480)). Booton is incorrect to assert that Christian Cadiou was Master Andrew’s wife in Booton, �John and Andrew Cadiou’, p. 18. If his claim at p. 17 that Master Andrew Alanson was the son of Master John Cadiou were substantiated by the evidence he cites at footnote 13, then one could firmly conclude that Master John Cadiou and Christian Cadiou were brother and sister. Regrettably, that is not the case; the evidence cited merely confirms that Master John Cadiou was dead by 1473. It may be that Booton was aware of other evidence establishing the link between Master John and Master Andrew firmly, but this has not been traced here. However, there must remain a strong possibility that Master John Cadiou, notary public, who died in or before 1473 (ARO-6-0260-10 (28 June 1473)), was indeed the father of Master Andrew Cadiou, notary public, who was active in Aberdeen in subsequent decades. I intend to explore the matter further elsewhere.

32 Munro, Memorials, p. 53.

33 ARO-4-0400-11 (19 April 1445); on his involvement in the salmon trade, see also ARO-4-0457-09 (14 November 1446).

34 ARO-5-0721-02 (6 October 1447).

35 ARO-5-0715-03 (21 October 1446); ARO-5-0730-02 (17 May 1448).

36 E.P. Dennison, A.T. Simpson, and G.G. Simpson, �The growth of two towns’, in E.P. Dennison, D. Ditchburn, and M. Lynch (eds) Aberdeen Before 1800: A New History, East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2002, pp.

37 ARO-4-0514-01 (1448); see Simpson, �Men of law’, which is indebted to the discussion in H.W. 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, pp. 63, 67, 69, 74, 80.

38 See, for example, ARO-4-0187-05 (14 December 1439); ARO-4-0297-010 (4 February 1443); ARO-4-0316-08 (8 July 1443).

39 ARO-5-0711-01 (13 October 1445).

40 ARO-5-0017-02 (30September 1449). Regrettably, this date is given inaccurately in Simpson, �Men of law’.

41 See ARO-5-0409-03 (16 October 1460).

42 See the discussion in Simpson, �Men of law’, citing, for example, ARO-5-0053-03 (23 June 1449); ARO-5-0138-09 (3 February 1452).

43 ARO-5-0053-03 (23 June 1449); on distress and the brieve of distress, see MacQueen, Common Law, pp. 40, 124.

44 Again, see the discussion in Simpson, �Men of law’; MacQueen, Common Law, 140; Gretton, �Feudal system’, paras 89–90; ARO-5-0692-01 (16 December 1444); ARO-5-0237-02 (17 June 1455). For the handing over of earth and stone, see also the contributions by Hepburn and Small, and by Frankot, in the present volume.

45 For the statute making provision for �lawburrows’, see RPS 1430/24.

46 ARO-5-0036-05 (15 February 1450). It should be noted that this decision to seek further advice from men of law has only been traced twice in the corpus of records transcribed in ARO.

47 My translation from ARO-5-0053-02 (23 June 1449).

48 See, for example, ARO-5-0754-01 (13 July 1450); ARO-5-0781-03 (4 October 1454); ARO-5-0081-02 (7 October 1457).

49 ARO-5-0329-01 (6 February 1458).

50 Taylor, Shape of the State, pp. 259–62.

51 ARO-5-0214-07.

52 ARO-4-0149-08 (15 December 1438); ARO-4-0150-02 (15 December 1438).

53 ARO-5-0219-08.

54 The functions of the warrantor are discussed in A.R.C. Simpson, �Procedures for dealing with robbery in Scotland before 1400’, in A.R.C.

55 On repledging, see, for example, Taylor, Shape of the State, pp. 274–7.

56 ARO-5-0249-09.

57 On the many functions of �borchs’ or �borghs’ or �borrows’, see, for example, RPS 1430/6, RPS 1430/7 and RPS 1430/9.

58 ARO-5-0362-02; ARO-5-0362-03.

59 Here I paraphrase Finlay, Men of Law, p. 7.

60 ARO-5-0394-01 (11 March 1460). On Spens, bishop of Aberdeen from 1459–1480, see, for example, L.J. Macfarlane, William Elphinstone and the Kingdom of Scotland 1431–1514: The Struggle for Order, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1985, pp. 99, 116, 124, 128, 203, 217, 219.

61 Munro, Memorials, p. 52; Cooper, Cartularium, vol. 2,pp. 298–302.

62 Munro, Memorials, p. 52.

63 ARO-5-0156-05 (28 July 1452).

64 Munro, Memorials, p. 52.

65 ARO-6-0030-01 (July 1470).

66 ARO-6-0121-02 (1 October 1470).

67 RPS 1471/5/12. On the representation of the burghs in parliament, see, for example, A.R. MacDonald, �The third estate: Parliament and the burghs’, in K.M. Brown and A.R. MacDonald, The History of the Scottish Parliament Volume 3: Parliament in Context 1235–1707, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010, pp. 95–121.

68 On the lords, see, for example, R.J. Tanner, �The lords of the articles before 1540: A reassessment’, Scottish Historical Review 79, 2000, pp. 189–212.

69 On parliament’s various judicial functions, see, for example, A.M. Godfrey, �Parliament and the law’, in Brown and MacDonald, History of the Scottish Parliament Volume 3, pp. 157–85, at pp. 161–8.

70 Godfrey, Civil Justice, pp. 21–6 and Godfrey, �Parliament and the law’, at pp. 163–4 in particular.

71 RPS 1471/8/22.

72 RPS 1471/5/2.

73 RPS 1471/5/7.

74 RPS 1471/5/8–9.

75 RPS 1469/34.

76 See, for example, R. Tanner, The Late Medieval Scottish Parliament: Politics and the Three Estates, 1424–1488, East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 2001, pp. 187–8, 191, 254.

77 ARO-5-0588-02 (6 October 1466); ARO-5-0614-04 (5 October 1467).

78 RPS A1467/10/13.

79 RPS 1473/7/17.

80 RPS 1473/7/2; RPS 1473/7/19; RPS 1473/7/49; RPS 1473/7/51; RPS 1473/7/62. Bishop Thomas Spens of Aberdeen was present, as these sederunt rolls make clear.

81 ARO-5-0272-02 (2 October 1473).

82 ARO-6-0280-01.

83 RPS 1455/8/10.

84 See the discussion in MacQueen, Common Law, pp. 258–9, for the problem more generally. For a few examples of fifteenth-century statutes that expressly exhorted judges and others involved in legal process to avoid delay in the administration of justice, see RPS 1401/2/9; RPS 1404/7–8; RPS 1430/20; RPS 1450/1/18; RPS 1455/8/10.

85 ARO-5-0795-01.

86 ARO-5-0795-03.

87 Tanner, Late Medieval Scottish Parliament,p. 1.

88 ARO-5-0796-01 (8 October 1456).

89 RPS 1456/9, which also shows that Provost John Fife was one of those appointed to sit on the first session. For this session, see Godfrey, Civil Justice, pp. 50–2.

90 ARO-5-412-04 (23 February 1461); ARO-5-0418-06 (20 April 1461); ARO-5-0424-01 (22 June 1461).

91 ARO-5-0418-06 (20 April 1461).

92 ARO-6-0311-02 (3 October 1474).

93 ARO-6-0353-01 (13 March 1475).

94 ARO-6-0417-01 (19 January 1476).

95 Cooper, Cartularium, vol. 2, p. 188.

96 See, for example, ARO-6-0437-04 (1 July 1476).

97 Cooper, Cartularium, vol. 2, p. 184.

98 See MacQueen, �Regiam Majestatem, Scots law and national identity’, p. 15. On some of the texts of medieval law, see now, above all, A. Taylor, The Laws of Medieval Scotland: Legal Compilations from the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 2019.

99 I am grateful to John Ford for helping me to appreciate the point that historians cannot yet be sure how much the Aberdonian application of the common law of the realm resembled that found elsewhere. Ford’s contribution to the present volume is also instructive in relation to this point.

100 RPS A1496/6/4. Again, I am grateful to John Ford and to Graeme Small for comments that helped me think about the relationship between the experience of men like Alanson and the expertise that came to be expected of those administering justice in the last decades of the fifteenth century and the first decades of the sixteenth century.

101 Macfarlane, Elphinstone, pp. 312–3.

102 J.W. Cairns, �Revisiting the foundation of the college of justice’, in H.L. MacQueen (ed.) Miscellany Five, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 2006, pp. 27–50 and Godfrey, Civil Justice, pp. 79–160.

103 See I. Fraser, �The later medieval burgh kirk of St Nicholas, Aberdeen’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1989, p. 134.