Notes

1 See, for example, S. Koch et al. (eds) Comparing Legal Cultures, Bergen: Fagbokforlaget, 2017, and J.�. Sunde, �Champagne at the funeral – An introduction to legal culture’, in J.�.

2 See, for example, Sunde’s classification of education (or �degree of professionalization’) as one of his six criteria for understanding legal culture; Sunde, �Champagne at the funeral’.

3 See, for example, J.W. Cairns, �The legal education of Alexander Mylne, first president of the College of Justice’ in H. Dondorp et al. (eds) De rebus divinis et humanis: Essays in honour of Jan Hallebeek, Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2019, pp. 15–24.

4 See, for example, a recent example of this, in addition to what is cited below; J.W. Cairns, �John Millar’s theses for admission as an advocate’, History of European Ideas 45, 2019, pp. 304–9.

5 On the complexity of this term in the medieval period, see A. Simpson, �Men of law in the Aberdeen Council Register? A preliminary study, circa 1450–1460’, Juridical Review, 2019, pp. 136–59.

6 J.W. Cairns, �Lawyers, law professors, and localities: The universities of Aberdeen, 1680–1750’, Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 46, 1995, pp. 304–31, at p. 305.

7 On the continental context of the lower branches of the profession, see, for example, J. Finlay, �Lawyers and the early modern state: Regulation, exclusion, and numerus clausus’, Canadian Journal of History 44, 2009, pp. 383–410.

8 J. Finlay, â€?The history of the notary in Scotland’, in M. Schmoeckel and W. Schubert (eds) Handbuch zur Geschichte des Notariats der Europäischen Traditionen, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2009, pp. 393–428, at pp. 393–4; W.W. Scott, â€?William Cranston, notary public c 1395–1425, and some contemporaries’, in H.L.

9 E. Ewan, â€?Protocol books and towns in medieval Scotland’, in W. Prevenier and T. de Hemptinne (eds) La diplomatique urbaine en Europe au moyen âge: actes du congrès de la Commission internationale de diplomatique, Gand, 25–29 août 1998, Louvain:Garant, 2000, pp. 143–56, at pp. 144–5; Finlay, â€?The history of the notary in Scotland’, pp. 394–5; and Durkan, â€?The early Scottish notary’, p. 23.

10 The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, ed. K.M. Brown et al., St Andrews, 2007–2020, (hereafter RPS), e.g. 1617/5/24, 1625/10/3, 1641/8/43.

11 RPS, 1597/11/43 (partially repealed by 1600/11/34), 1579/10/33, 1584/5/85.

12 Scott, �William Cranston’, pp. 128–9.

13 For a discussion of which in medieval Aberdeen, see 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. 213–6, 224–38. See also on the activities of notaries, Finlay, �The history of the notary in Scotland’, pp. 405–7; and Durkan, �The early Scottish notary’, generally.

14 For a large collection of protocol books from Scotland, see the National Archives of Scotland, Edinburgh, NP1 series. On protocol books, their contents and their regulation, see Ewan, �Protocol books and towns in medieval Scotland’, pp. 148–56; W. Angus, �Notarial protocol books, 1469–1700’, in An Introductory Survey of the Sources and Literature of Scots Law, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 1936, pp. 289–300, esp. at pp. 293–6; J. Finlay, Admission Register of Notaries Public in Scotland, 1700–1799, 2 vols, Edinburgh: Scottish Record Society, 2012, vol.

15 RPS, 1617/5/36.

16 Durkan, �The early Scottish notary’, p. 38.

17 Booton, �Burgesses and landed men’, pp. 203–8.

18 John Kennedy was a notary public who appears from the records to have been prominent since at least 1559, and had previously served as general procurator to �the chaplains of the college and choice of the parish kirk of Aberdeen’; the printed records do not reflect much activity on his part as clerk, and he had deceased by April 1599 [John Stuart (ed.) Extracts from the Council Register of the Burgh of Aberdeen, 4 vols, Aberdeen: Spalding Club, 1844–1872, vol. 2, p. 180, and David Littlejohn (ed.) Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, 3 vols, Aberdeen: for the University, 1904–1907, vol. 1, pp. 146, 196, 230, 232 (quotation), 304, 316, vol. 2, p. 20]. Mollisone, however, appears to have enjoyed significant tenure as town clerk. An entry in the council register for 1593 indicates that Mollisone had by that time become the town clerk [Stuart, Extracts from the Council Register, vol. 2, p. 100]. He appears to have held this capacity until at least 1618 [Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court, vol. 2, p. 75]. By 1625, he had been succeeded in that office by Walter Robertson, who had previously been Mollisone’s servitor, substitute and deputy in turn [Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court, vol. 2, pp. 100, 139, 162, 303–4]. None of these three men appear to have entered as advocates [cf. J.A. Henderson (ed.) History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, Aberdeen: for the University of Aberdeen, 1912]. On the events of the 1580s, see W. Kennedy, Annals of Aberdeen, from the Reign of King William the Lion, to the End of the Year 1818; with an Account of the City, Cathedral, and University of Old Aberdeen, 2 vols, London: A.

19 Henderson, History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, p. 86, and Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, pp. 537–8.

20 A.L.M Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions in seventeenth-century Aberdeen, as witnessed in the lives of Thomas Nicolson of Cockburnspath and his associates’, Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies 9, 2019, pp. 93–128, at p. 101; A.M. Munro (ed.) Records of Old Aberdeen, [1157]–1903, 2 vols, Aberdeen: New Spalding Club, 1899–1909, vol. 1, pp. 73, 354; and Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives, OA/1/1/1, p. 161ff.

21 Munro, Records of Old Aberdeen, vol. 1, p. 49.

22 Ibid., p. 84.

23 Durkan, �The early Scottish notary’, p. 34.

24 Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, pp. 121, 354, 537–8.

25 On whom, Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, p. 537; Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions’, pp. 113, 118–9; and P.J. Anderson (ed.) Officers and Graduates of University and King’s College Aberdeen MVD-MDCCCLX [1495–1860], Aberdeen: New Spalding Club, 1893, p. 30.

26 Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, p. 335.

27 Ibid., pp. 386–7.

28 Aberdeen University Library, MS 3361/4/88, held by the National Trust for Scotland in Crathes Castle, Aberdeenshire, fols 1r, 7r.

29 Booton, �Burgesses and landed men’, p. 202. See also on medieval Aberdonian notaries, Simpson, �Men of law in the Aberdeen Council Register?’, esp. pp. 147–8.

30 Booton, �Burgesses and landed men’, p. 202. On David Nicolson’s protocol book, see ibid., pp. 215–16, 228–30.

31 On which family, see especially Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions’. On the office of king’s advocate, see J.

32 This count (and the detail provided subsequently thereupon) does not include men mentioned in pre-1600 instruments led in post-1600 cases. It is acknowledged that notaries of the same name operating at the same time may have been conflated.

33 On whom, Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions’.

34 Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, for example, pp. 121 (as a notary for a sasine), 231 (as a notary for an act of renunciation), 329 (as the recipient of wadset in Dyce, using the title of sheriff clerk), 336 (as sheriff clerk, appoints John Hunter and John Chalmer his deputes) and so on.

35 Cf. Booton, �Burgesses and landed men’, pp. 202, 242, and Simpson, �Men of law in the Aberdeen Council Register?’, pp. 147–8.

36 J.E. Thomas, �Elgin notaries in burgh society and government, 1540–1660’, Northern Scotland 13, 1993, pp. 21–30, at pp. 22, 23.

37 Ewan, �Protocol books and towns in medieval Scotland’, pp. 147–8.

38 RPS, 1469/20.

39 Ewan, �Protocol books and towns in medieval Scotland’, p. 146. See also Finlay, �The history of the notary in Scotland’, pp. 395–6.

40 RPS, A1504/3/108. See also Finlay, �The history of the notary in Scotland’, p. 396 and (on the punishment of false or nefarious notaries) p. 414–6, and Durkan, �The early Scottish notary’, pp. 36–7.

41 The holder of this office, William Sharp, was admitted as a burgess in Aberdeen in 23 April 1657: A.M. Munro (ed.) �Aberdeen Burgess Register, 1631–1700’, in The Miscellany of the Spalding Club, 2 vols, Aberdeen: for the University of Aberdeen, 1908, vol. 2, p. (409). See also on this office, A History of the Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet, with a List of the Members of the Society from 1594 to 1890 and an Abstract of the Minutes,Edinburgh: for the Society by T. & A. Constable, 1890, p.

42 Finlay, �The history of the notary in Scotland’, pp. 398, 403.

43 This is consistent with requirements for admission of notaries during the medieval period, on which see Durkan, �The early Scottish notary’, p. 30–1.

44 RPS, 1587/7/39.

45 Finlay, �The history of the notary in Scotland’, p. 399.

46 Durkan, �The early Scottish notary’, p. 37.

47 The Acts of Sederunt of the Lords of Council and Session, from the 15th of January 1553, to the 11th of July 1790, Edinburgh: Neill and Co, 1790, pp. 24–5. See also Angus, �Notarial protocol books, 1469–1700’, p. 292.

48 J. Finlay, �Pettyfoggers, regulation, and local courts in early modern Scotland’, Scottish Historical Review 87, 2008, pp. 42–67, at p. 43, n. 4.

49 See also J. Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession in early modern Scotland’, Edinburgh Law Review 11, 2007, pp. 31–61, at pp. 47–8.

50 Aberdeen University Library (hereafter AUL), MS 558, fol. 81r. See also A.L.M. Wilson, �The “Authentick Practique Bookes” of Alexander Spalding’, in A.R.C. Simpson et al. (eds) Continuity, Change and Pragmatism in the Law: Essays in Memory of Professor Angelo Forte, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 2016, pp. 175–236, at pp. 185–7. See also on manuscript copying by notaries, Finlay, �The history of the notary in Scotland’, p. 407. For some examples of notaries likely educated in this manner in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, see Scott, �William Cranston’, esp. p. 125, 127–8 (although see also the difficulties with identifying educational patterns in this period, ibid., p. 131) and Simpson, �Men of law in the Aberdeen Council Register?’, pp. 155–6.

51 Scott, �William Cranston’, pp. 128–9.

52 Durkan, �The early Scottish notary’, p. 23.

53 Booton, �Burgesses and landed men’, p. 203, and H.W. Booton, �John and Andrew Cadiou: Aberdeen notaries of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries’, Northern Scotland 9 (first series), 1989, pp. 17–20, at pp. 17–18.

54 Henderson, History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, pp. 85, 116 and Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, pp. 537–8.

55 On the origin of this term, see Finlay, Men of Law, pp. 14–20.

56 On which professional group, see Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession’, p. 38 ff, and Finlay, Men of Law, ch. 3.

57 Finlay, �Pettyfoggers, regulation, and local courts’, p. 44.

58 Ibid., p. 43, n. 2.

59 Wilson, �The “Authentick Practique Bookes” of Alexander Spalding’, pp. 177–9.

60 Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession’, p. 52.

61 Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions’, p. 101.

62 Ibid., pp. 101–2 and Henderson, History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, p. xi.

63 Cf. Simpson, �Men of law in the Aberdeen Council Register?’, pp. 148–9.

64 R.K. Hannay, The College of Justice, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 1990, p. 145. See also J.W. Cairns, �Advocates’ hats, roman law and admission to the Scots bar, 1580–1812’, Journal of Legal History 20, 1999, pp. 24–61, at pp. 33–48, and J.D. Ford, Law and Opinion in Scotland during the Seventeenth Century, Oxford: Hart, 2007, pp. 2–3.

65 Ford, Law and Opinion, p. 3.

66 Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession’, pp. 46–9, and Finlay, �Pettyfoggers, regulation, and local courts’, p. 43, n. 4.

67 Hannay, The College of Justice, p. 145, and Cairns, �Advocates’ hats’, pp. 33–48.

68 Cairns, �Advocates’ hats’, pp. 34–43, and Ford, Law and Opinion, pp. 4–5, 8–10, 27–9.

69 Cairns, �Advocates’ hats’, p. 49–52, and Ford, Law and Opinion, pp. 4–5.

70 See his lecture preserved as �Scotstarvet’s “Trew Relation”’, Scottish Historical Review 13, 1916, pp. 380–92. On which, see A.L.M. Wilson, �The sources and method of the institutions of the law of Scotland by Sir James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount Stair, with specific reference to the law of obligations’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011, § 1.2.2 and Ford, Law and Opinion, pp. 7–8, 10–22.

71 J.W. Cairns, �Lawyers, law professors, and localities: The universities of Aberdeen, 1680–1750’, Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 46, 1995, pp. 304–31, at p. 306, and Ford, Law and Opinion, p. 3.

72 Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions’, pp. 108–14; J.W. Cairns, �The law, the advocates and the universities in late sixteenth-century Scotland’, Scottish Historical Review 73, 1994, pp. 171–90; J.W. Cairns, �Academic Feud, Bloodfeud, and William Welwood: Legal education in St Andrews, 1560–1611’, Edinburgh Law Review 2, 1998, pp. 158–79 (part one), 255–87 (part two); H.L. MacQueen, �The foundation of law teaching at the University of Aberdeen’, in D.L. Carey Miller and R. Zimmermann (eds) The Civilian Tradition and Scots Law: Aberdeen Quincentenary Essays, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1997, pp. 53–71; and D. Stevenson, King’s College, Aberdeen, 1560–1641: From Protestant Reformation to Covenanting Revolution,Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1990.

73 Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession’, pp. 36–7, and Ford, Law and Opinion, pp. 4, 22–5.

74 Finlay, �The history of the notary in Scotland’, pp. 408, 413.

75 See, for example, G. Dolezalek, �The court of session as a ius commune court – witnessed by “Sinclair’s practicks”, 1540–1549’, in H.L. MacQueen (ed.) Miscellany Four, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 2002, pp. 51–84.

76 For an accessible introduction to this theme, see A.R.C Simpson and A.L.M. Wilson, Scottish Legal History, volume one: 1000–1707, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017, esp. chs 7, 9, 15, 17.

77 Henderson, History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen.

78 Ibid., p. ix.

79 A.L.M. Wilson, �Men of law and legal networks in Aberdeen’, in M. Lobban and I. Williams (eds) Networks and Connections in Legal History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp. 33–59, at pp. 38–45. See also, Finlay, �Pettyfoggers, regulation, and local courts’, p. 43.

80 Wilson, �The “Authentick Practique Bookes” of Alexander Spalding’, pp. 178–9.

81 Wilson, �Men of law and legal networks in Aberdeen’, p. 39.

82 Cairns, �Lawyers, law professors, and localities’, p. 305.

83 Finlay, �Pettyfoggers, regulation, and local courts’, p. 53.

84 Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions’, pp. 108–14.

85 Ibid., pp. 114–9.

86 Cairns, �Lawyers, law professors, and localities’, pp. 328–30. On law teaching at King’s College from 1680 to 1750, see ibid., pp. 309–28.

87 Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions’, pp. 114–9.

88 Ibid., p. 101.

89 Cairns, �Lawyers, law professors, and localities’, p. 314.

90 AUL, MS 558, and Wilson, �The “Authentick Practique Bookes” of Alexander Spalding’.

91 Wilson, �Men of law and legal networks in Aberdeen’, p. 44.

92 Ibid., pp. 40–45.

93 Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions’, p. 99; Wilson, �Men of law and legal networks in Aberdeen’, p. 48; and A. Hope, �Sir Thomas Hope, Lord Advocate to Charles I’, in MacQueen, Miscellany Four, pp. 145–53, at p. 147.

94 Finlay, Admission Register of Notaries Public, vol. 1, p. 23.

95 Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession’, pp. 49–51.

96 Finlay, Admission Register of Notaries Public, vol. 1, p. 1.

97 Wilson, �Men of law and legal networks in Aberdeen’, p. 44.

98 Finlay, Men of Law, pp. 136–46.

99 Wilson, �Legal practice and legal institutions’, p. 99; Wilson, �Men of law and legal networks in Aberdeen’, p. 48; and Hope, �Sir Thomas Hope, Lord Advocate to Charles I’, p. 147.

100 Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, p. 279. George Anderson does not appear to have taken up the office, however, as it eventually passed to Patrick Chalmer (William Anderson’s son-in-law). Ibid., vol. 2, p. 537.

101 Wilson, �Men of law and legal networks in Aberdeen’, pp. 45–52.

102 Notaries working as court pleaders is also seen in fifteenth-century Aberdeen (Booton, �John and Andrew Cadiou’, p. 18 and Booton, �Burgesses and landed men’, pp. 209–10), but it is unclear whether any formal recognition of their advocacy skills was required at that time. It should be noted that several other men, who were neither notaries nor advocates, also pleaded in the local courts at this time (ibid., p. 240). See also the writers in Edinburgh who further qualified as advocates in the Court of Session (Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession’, pp. 43–6), although there was little evidence of dual qualification as notaries and advocates in Edinburgh (Finlay, �The history of the notary in Scotland’, p. 408).

103 Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, pp. 354, 433, 451, 476.

104 Ibid., pp. 437, 481.

105 Ibid., p. 538; Henderson, History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, p. 116.

106 On this requirement in Edinburgh, see Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession’, p. 47.

107 Finlay, Admission Register of Notaries Public, vol. 2, p. 2.

108 Littlejohn (ed.) Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, p. 220.

109 Ibid., pp. 335, 336.

110 Henderson, History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, p. 222, and Littlejohn (ed.) Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, p. 343–4.

111 Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, pp. 406, 410, 501.

112 Booton, �Burgesses and landed men’, p. 211.

113 Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession’, p. 49.

114 Compare similar comments for a later period, Cairns, �Lawyers, law professors, and localities’, p. 312.

115 Munro, Records of Old Aberdeen, vol. 1, p. 73. See also on fees charged, Finlay, �The lower branch of the legal profession’, pp. 55–8.

116 Thomas, �Elgin notaries in burgh society and government, 1540–1660’, pp. 23–4.

117 See, for example, the notaries William Jack, Alexander Chalmer and Alexander Gordon, and the advocates Alexander Irving, James Irving and Andrew Clark (Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, pp. 16, 109, 161, 166, 244, 246).

118 Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, pp. 54, 90, 112, 142, 181, and Henderson, History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, p. 289, n. 3.

119 Thomas, �Elgin notaries in burgh society and government, 1540–1660’, p. 27.

120 See, for example, the notary James Ross (Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, p. 237) and the advocates William Lumsden (Munro, �Aberdeen Burgess Register, 1631–1700’, p. (371)) and Andrew Clark (Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, p. 246). For discussion of notaries being admitted as burgesses in the medieval period, see Booton, �John and Andrew Cadiou’, pp. 17–18 and Booton, �Burgesses and landed men’, p. 208.

121 See, for example, the advocate William Lumsden, who had lands in Hedderwick, Tillocorthie, Blairton and the Chanonry of Old Aberdeen; Littlejohn, Records of the Sheriff Court of Aberdeenshire, vol. 2, pp. 292, 326, 411, 435. See also on this point regarding the medieval Aberdeen legal community, Booton, �Burgesses and landed men’, pp. 217–23.

122 Wilson, �Men of law and legal networks in Aberdeen’, pp. 56–58.

123 Kennedy, Annals of Aberdeen, p. 163 and S. Dropuljic and A.L.M. Wilson, �Elections and local governance in early modern Aberdeen’, in A.M. Godfrey (ed.) Miscellany Eight, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 2020, p. 130. On Cheyne, see Henderson, History of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen, p. 121, and Munro, Memorials of the Aldermen, pp. 118–19.

124 Thomas, �Elgin notaries in burgh society and government, 1540–1660’, pp. 24, 27–9.