THAT where by the old Custome and Constitution of the Brugh, and which is certainly most agreeable to the good Goverment and quiet of all Burghs, the Town Clerks of Edinburgh as being the Townes Servants were only durante beneplacito, untill at first the deceast Sir William Thomson, obtained from the then Magistrates and Council by his extraordinary influence, a gift of the Clerk­ship ad vitam, and then upon his being deprived, and some other Contenti­ous changes, that afterwards fell out to the Towns great Vexation and Expenc­es. The deceast Sir James Rochead did impetrate and elicite from them, an Act dated the 30 of August 1678 years, whereby upon a specious narrative of Right, and the security that Men ought to have for the same, he prevailed with the then Magistrates and Council to statute and ordain in his favours, that no Clerk of Edinburgh for hereafter should be challenged or removed from their office, whatever may be their demerit, but by a certain solemn form of process of his de­vysing, and wherein he was to have a subscribing Answer, and all the proces to be carried on both Scripto and viva voce by Advocats if he thought fit, and by such Intervals and periods, as that it was to last at least four Weeks. By which Act, wherein there is no provision made for the said Good Town, either for debarring Advocation, or excluding Suspension, as might well have been ex­pected [Page 2]after so Cautious a Contrivance for securing of the Town Clerk: The Towns Power and Liberties were in effect stollen from them, and the Clerks who are and ought to be their Servants made more than half Masters, And this when the said Sir James with the said Aeneas came to be admitted and installed in the said office, they were not only admitted Conjunctly, and with a survivance to the longest liver, which is also Injurious to the Liberties of the Burgh, but in their Act of Admission of the date the twenty one of January 1687 years, the same provision of a formal and solemn proces in the Terms foresaid is repeated as a condition, whereby it is evident, that for the Magistrates and Town Council to offer to bring their Servant the Town Clerk to a Tryal before themseves, were only to engage themselves in contentious Pleas & Advocations, & Suspensions, to the great Charges, & disorder and Conusion of the Burgh, during so long a dependence: And therefore the Magistrates and Town Council of Edinburgh, having not only the foresaid Incroachment to complain of. But also a charge of severall Malversations against the said Aeneas Mcleod their present Clerk, do in all humility address themselves to this High and Honour­able Court of Parliament, to whose care and Protection the good order and quiet of all his Majesties Royall Burghs, doth most properly pertain. And as to the said Aeneas they complain.

1mo. That he entered into the said Office of Clerk as conjunct with Sir James Rochead, and now injoyes the same by the sole benefice of an unwarantable survivance, which was granted by the then Magistrates to the prejudice of the true liberties of the Brugh.

2ly During his being Clerk he has neglected the Registers & Records of the Brugh which are for the most part left be hind unfilled up & some of them for so long a time, that they are in hazard to fall in disuse: as first the Dean of Gilds Register of the locked Book which was begun in the 1487 Years, and ever since continued untill the Twenty fourth of February 1669. hath since that time been altogether neglected, & tho' there be Scroll Books & Minus made by the under-Clerkes from the said 24. of February 1669. to this day Yet the fore­said Register and locked Books are not filled up, but have been at a stand since the said year 1669. And these scroll Books are altogether vitiat, and can­not make faith, being all interlined, and many things written upon the Margin.

3ly, There is no Register at all keeped of Jedges and warrands for bound­ing of Lands within Burgh, albeit their are several Acts of the Town Council appointing an Register to be exactly keeped of all the saids Jedges, and warrands granted by the Dean of Gild and his Council.

4ly, The Register of Decreets, whereof the Records are extant, and in good or­der from the third of March 1569 to the 28 of August 1677, have since that time been altogether slighted, & no Decreet Registrate & booked as it ought to be.

5ly, The Register called, the Council Register, and continued with great care from the 1557 to December 1691. is since that time now by the space of three or four years unfilled up, and nelected.

6ly. The Register of Dispositiones and Bonds is carried on very exactly from the 1561 to the 1690, but since that time is likwise unfilled up, and there are also Books of Dispositions from the first of January 1678. And to the year 1686. But all of them incompleat, & brought no farther forward than the said year 1686

7ly. There are Acts of Town Council most confusedly & indistinctly, & in ap­pearance falsely recorded, as particularly, the Act of the Town Council the Day of July 1690 years anent a Bond of three Thousand pound Sterling granted [Page 3]anent the Earle of Melvill, which is begun with one hand, and continued with another: And neither coherently, or at all agreeable to what was re­solved in the said Town Council about that Bond. viz. That it should be given for the imposition which was not then obtained, and not for the pittiful Causes therein set down. And the said Act is also vitiat, and hath words delete in the end, and other words visibly added, and which overrun the Provosts subscription, all which is manifest to ocular Inspection.

8ly, the said Aeneas hath not observed but broken the Trust the Town reposed in him, in so far as Mr William Stirling Writer did upon the third of September, 1690 Years, give a note under his hand, wherein the said Aeneas Mcleod and his Servant John Duncan are witnesses, wherein he obliges himself to make pay­ment to the Tacksmen of the Towns imposition of the the two pennies of Excise owing by Widow Lawries Brewarie for the space therein contained, and de­clare, that a Charter which he got from the Magistrates of Edinburgh should lye consigned in their Clerks hands till he satisfied the same. And yet the said Char­ter is given up to Mr William Stirling upon the fourth of September thereafter as Mr Stirlings Receipt testifies. And the said imposition was not by him pay­ed conforme to the foresaid Note

9ly, And the said Aeneas hath farther abused his Trust, and transgressed the duty of his Office, in so far as he hath given out Decreets of the Town Council without any Subscribed warrand, such as a Decreet of the Town Council of the date the twenty firth day of January last by past at the instance of Maries Chapple against James Buchannan Wtight, for which there is no subscribed Warrand.

And lastly what has been lately done by the said Aeneas as to Mr. Duncan. Robertsons affair, and how he neglected and despised the order of the Com­mittee of Parliament, is best known to the Committee before whom that matter is depending. By all which it is manifest that not only the Towns Rights and Liberties are incroached upon and infringed by the foresaid Aeneas his pro­vision and Act of Admission to the said Office, and by the said other Act to which the same Relates, but also that he has malversed in his foresaid office of trust, for which he ought to be removed and deprived, as also the Towns Liberties ought to be restored, and the foresaids Acts to their prejudice reduced and re­scinded, and all survivances for hereafter perpetually Discharged.

May it therefor please your Grace, and the Right Honour­able the Estates of Parliament, to grant warrand to cite the said Aeneas upon forty eight hours warning, he being within the Town of Edinburgh, to compeat before your Grace and Lordships, to hear and see the premisses verified, and proven, and himself deprived and decerned to remove from the said office & to deliver up the whole seals Re­gisters and others that belong thereto, as also to reduce and rescind the foresaids Acts of Council, and to declare survivancies and gifts of the said Office, to be unlawfull, and to discharge the same in all time coming; according to Justice and Your Grace and Lordships Answer.