Social status and wealth of Aberdeen’s men of law
Whether one chose to pursue one line of practice or to qualify as both a notary and an advocate, it seems that Aberdeen’s men of law made a good living. Booton concluded that, in medieval Aberdeen, notaries maintained a �reasonable prosperity’.112 This observation also appears to be true of legal practice in the early modern period.
With respect to the advocates, Finlay suggests that it was �one of the strongest, and apparently most lucrative, local bars in the country’,113 albeit not as profitable as might be found in practice in the highest courts in Edinburgh.114 Meanwhile, there is evidence of notaries also receiving good wages for their work: William Wat received eight merks �for his fie’ as town clerk in September 1643, twice the fee paid to the court’s officers.115 This standard of wealth among Aberdeen’s notaries is also seen among members of that profession in other Scottish towns: Thomas has likewise indicated that most of Elgin’s notaries were �moderately wealthy’, while some were among the wealthiest men of the burgh.116Several notaries and advocates appear in Aberdeen’s sheriff court records as cautioners for other men’s debts or obligations, which indicates a good degree of wealth.117 A particular example of this is found in the advocate Robert Paip, the patriarch of a notable local legal dynasty, who often appeared as a cautioner in the sheriff court records. This may be the reason for Henderson concluding that Paip �conducted an extensive money lending business’.118
Thomas has further described Elgin’s notaries as being �amongst the burgh’s social elite’.119 This point can also be made of Aberdeen’s men of law. Some notaries and advocates were, for example, admitted as burgesses of the town.120 Some appear to have held substantial quantities of property.121 Indeed, an examination of the god-parentage networks undertaken elsewhere has found that some advocates regarded themselves as members of the landed classes.122 However, after the controversial provostship of the advocate John Cheyne of Fortrie in the 1590s, men of law do not appear to have served on the burgh council.123 In this, Aberdeen can be contrasted with Elgin, in which �the backbone of the burgh council’ comprised notaries – although there is some suggestion that the town may have been exceptional in a Scottish context.124