TRANSACTIONS OF THE EAST .LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND f"'IELD NATURALISTS' SOCIETY EIGHTH VOLUME The Council of the Society gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution from The Carnegie Trust towards the cost of producing this volume. HADDINGTON: PRINTED BY D. AND J. CROAL, LTD. FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY 1960 CONTENTS ~· .,.,,...,. -.:;,: ... : .·,.t.~~< :: •\r-"· .· '!< -•.r, •.,., • .,< •.,,• '· • _,. ...... Page:: DAY BOOK OF-jAMES COKBURN, TREASURER; OF THE BURGH OF HADDINGTON, r574-75 BY JORN IMRIE r EARLY EAST LOTHIAN CHARTERS BY G. w. s. BARROW 39• ELECTIONEERING IN EAST LOTHIAN, r836-37 CONTRIBUTED BY EDITH C. BROUN LINDSAY 46> THE'.PR~:-Rp:FORMATION PARISH CHURCHES OF -EAST LOTHIAN- BY IAN B. CowAN ·• 6r ·CONFORMISTS AND NONCONFORMISTS BY JAMES BULLOCH 70> THE BIRDS OF ABERLADY BAY NATURE RESERVE BY FRANK D. HAMILTON AND KEITH S. MACGREGOR 8_s ·.... ·, .. APPENDIX- 0FFICE-BEARERS, OBITUARIES AND LIST OF MEMBERS f DAY BOOK OF JAl\1ES COKBURN, TREASU.RER, OF THE BURGH OF I-IADDINGTON, I 5 74-7 5. IN Volume VII of these Transactions the late Mr Henry M. Paton published excerpts from seven Haddington Burgh Accounts (r554-74) based for the most ·part.on transcripts m~ade by Dr Wallace James. Among Mr Paton's papers was found a typescript of a text for this present account, which he had ob­ viously intended for publication. On examination, however, this was found to be a copy of anot~er Wallace James transcript, which proved to be both defective and incomplete when compared with the original manuscript now in H.M. General Registe~ House,_ Edinburghl. It was decided therefore to make a fresh transcript of the w?ole account in order to present a complete picture of the disbursements made by James Cokburn as burgh treasurer in the year from November I574. to November :i575. James Cokburn, who had been provost of Haddington since 7th October r5722, was supplanted in that office by John Douglas, deacon of the cordiners, at a head court held on 12th October 15743. Cokburn received the keys of the .''common kist" on the same day, and Archibald Kyle elder, his pre­ decessor as treasurer, made his account and received his discharge on 19th :Novembcr4. Cokburn remained burgh treasurer until 15775; arid this present record ~overs his first year of office. It ends on 24th November 1575 when he ·presented his account. of charge and discharge during the year to thirteen 1. Haddington Burgh Records, 223/1. 2. Burg.h Court &ok. 1571-7·5, 29v. · 3. The ma.gist·rates and -ic;wn coiun:o'J. ·meeting wi:th th:e d~acc.ns od' the craf·t:s in 1~:he tolbcoth were cha·r,ged by the Regent Mo:rtol!'l .to elect Jo1hn Doiugla-s .as provost. They ip'I"O·ce·eded to elect J·~n Se-toiUn a•nd WHHam Bro1un as .baiiJieis and .to choo>Se thiTtee111 rou.ncillolI"s. bwt they refooed to elect any pTovost for the year. Fe:r "fei.r and dred," hO'WevieT. thiey permitted DCJ.uglas to "illLtrus -him" in th.e office -proiv.id:ed his "usu•ripiatioUJll." did JLOt prejUdice ~he burgh's priville1ges anent electi•n,g mia:gis.trates (P.roitocoil Hook of Thomas S~evin, 1565-74, 213v.; Bur,gh Cciu.rt BolOk, 1571-75, 75v.; Tuwn Council Minutes, 1554-80, 78v.). 4. Tpwn CoP.mc.il Mo~nutes, 1554-80, ( = TCM> 80ir. 5. Two copies of h.is day book fu:r 1576-77 are 'Pil"e-ser:vj'!d in the Scottish Re•cord Offi.ce (HacMm13ton Bung.h Re·coTd·s, 223/2; E:xiohequeT iR.eco.rds, Common Goo4 Accounts, 28/2), 'DAY BOOK OF. JAMES COKBhRN elected and sworn auditors who signed the account and exonerated the treasurer (40-41)1. Although the opening rubric runs "Compt of the commoun guid" (1), the amount of the revenue received by the treasurer is given only in the minute of audit. At least one page, hO\vever, seems to have been removed from the beginning of the book, and the sums collected by . Co~,burn from such sources as the two corn mills, the petty customs, the com'm:on measures, and burgess rents and entry .fees, were probably listed there. What has sur­ vived is essentially a diet or day book recording in more or less chronological order the sums paid out by the treasurer on behalf of the town. In physical appearance the book is similar to other contemporary accounts. Sheets ot paper have been folded in half to make pages measuring about 6'~ x 8" and thereafter roughly stitched along the fold into a vellum cover formed from a liturgical fragment, possibly of local provenance2. Th.e. paper used is of French manufacture and bears a distinctive watermark consisting of a right hand, laced at the wrist, with fingers closed and thumb extended and with a cinquefoil rising on a stem from the middle finger3, a design. similar .to that found on an account of 15584. The handwriting of two different scribes can be clearly discerned. Thomas. Stevin, who had received a grant of the common clerkship for life on 29th November 15715, wrote the minute of audit and exe1-uted notarially for those auditors (including the provost)· who could not write (40). Stevin was probably also responsible for a number of rather 1. Odginally the m:anus·cript .was nieithe:r pa1ge!d 111.1or foliated. Modern penci-I paiginati.on hiais bee-n fo.Ilowed hen~. 2. The Rev. W. J. Arud:e:r&on, M.A., ousitodian od' the Blaii<rs A'Dchives, !has k.iridly gJ'Vleai me the benefiit o,f hls expert oipin.!icill on ·t'he.natune• a<nd pos5j.bJe pr(we:n.anc·e od' 1JhiJs fra;gme'Ilf.. Lt 'CQ•nSiS'ts od' a sing1'e leiaif o.f a Cistel'C'i•a.n Breviairy <:ontaini11ig part od' the F·easrt; of St. Laun•nce (August 10tih). The iptiace· 'atrud da.te of writJ-ng :aire m:a•t~ers o·f conj1e1otuire only, but Jt is !l10i ·the product.oil' a .greiat scmpitc1ril\lJIIl and ·1t may quite we.11 have be:e<n written in Scotland .in the laite nnt•e•en.th oir ie·a•rLy sixteenth •century. Since the Dsterdan ntilltS :had .m i.!m'P'Qlrtant iho1USe in Haid!d'irugton . .iJt i-s ;r.easo1Ira!X.e to assume that <the Bl'eviary belonged to them. · · ·' 3. I am inqebted to T. I. Rae, Esq., M.A., Assistant Keeper, Depairtment of Mianuscripts, Naitiional Library o•f Scotl<!>nd, fur the followti!ng ·i1nfoirmaitio.n regair.chng 1t'his ,walbermairk. It belongs to a class de·scribed by C. M. Br~quet <Les Filigranes, iii, p. 573). .Alfuo'lllglh a cfo:oidy defined styJJe, i·t seems to ha'Ve bee<n. •used by a lar.g.e numheT o.f ma11iu.faiotu.rers. 'I1he papers oo mar~eld were made in 11he noirth west 0 1f Fira1Illce (No:run:a11id·y, J?irJ.ttany), and are dli1stributed ·alol!lig the norlh co1as·t od' F.rance and eiast as far a.s Hiaimbu~g and Lubeck. One is described by Briquet as having been used in Scotland in 1568. The earlie·st use of ithis styile o.f wai~e.r11nark was .im 1526; nearly aill the· e:icamples ·a·re prioir in date to 1580. 4. Haddington Burgh Records, 220. 5. TCM, 62v. l>AY BbbK b~ JAMES CbKBtJ'RN ·hastily-scrawled alterations and emendations. The bulk of the entries are . written in a small but very legible hand which is almost certainly that of 'Alexander Symsone, notary in Haddington, who was appointed in I58I to . assist Thomas Stevin because of the latter's "greitt eild"1. The standard of · bookkeeping is no more than fair as a number of the dates entered are demon­ strably V\-rong2 and the summations at the foot of each page of the manuscript . are occasionally suspect. No. analysis has been attempted of the subjects of expenditure; and the entries have generally been left to speak for themselves. Many of the topics have aileady been touched upon by historians of the Burgh3, and it is hoped .that the detailed information provided here for the year I574-75 will serve to supplement their narratives. Since entries in accounts must by their nature be short and often cryptic, additional information from other sources, particul­ arly the town council minutes, has occasionally been supplied in foot-notes. In this connection, it may be emphasised that the council minutes constitute the primary record since these contain the authority for the treasurer's dis­ bursements. There can be no doubt that a comprehensive publication of the earlier court and council records of Haddington would be of great value not only for the historian of the Burgh but also for burgh historians generally. p.I Compt of the common guid of the Mertymes tcrme in the yeir of ·Go<l lxxiiii yeris and Witsonday lxxv yeiris be James Cokburn thesaurar., jt~m on Wednesday the xvii, xviii, xix, and xx, xxi, xxii, xxiii, xxiiii, thay aucht dayis of November to the four wachmen that keipit the portis in tyme of the pest4 William Young, Jhone Gray, Thomas Wylsone, Jhone Rykilltoun ilkane of thame xx d. in the day summa iiii merkis Item xxv, xxvi, xxvii, xxviii, xxix, xxx of November and the first and the secun.d of December thay aucht dayis the samyn four men iiii merkis 1. TCM, 114r. 2.