PART V.

SCOTLAND.

THE OFFICERS OF STATE, AND OTHER GREAT
OFFICERS OF SCOTLAND.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR.

THE Lord Chancellor was the chief in matters of justice; and in the laws of Malcolm II. he is placed before all other officers; and from these laws it appears that he had the principal direction of the Chancery or Chancellary. He had the custody of the king's seal; and he was the king's most intimate counsellor, as appears by an old ordinance, cited by Sir James Balfour: "The Chancellar sall, at al tymes, assist the King, in giving him counsall mair secretly nor the rest of the nobility, to quhais ordinances all officiaris, als well of the realme as of the Kingis hous, sould answer and obey. The Chancellar sall be ludgit neir unto the Kingis Grace, for keiping of his bodie, and the seill; and that he may be readie, baith day and nicht, at the Kingis command." By having the custody of the great seal, he had an opportunity of examining the king's grants and other deeds which were to pass under it, and to cancel them if they appeared against law, or were obtained surreptitiously, or by false suggestions.

James VI. ordained that the Lord Chancellor should have the first place and rank in the nation, ratione officii, by virtue whereof he presided in the parliament, and in all courts of judicature. After the Restoration of Charles II. the Lord Chancellor was declared by act of parliament, by virtue of his office, president in all the meetings of parliament, or other public judicatures of the kingdom. Although this act was made to declare the Chancellor president of the exchequer as well as other courts, yet in 1663 the king declared the lord treasurer to be president of that court.

The office of Lord Chancellor was abolished by the Union, there being no further use for the judicial part of the office; and a lord keeper of the great seal was appointed, with a salary of 3000l. per annum.

ROLL OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS OF SCOTLAND.

(From the year 1057, to the abolition of the office in 1708.).

1057. Evan; to king Malcolm III., surnamed
Canmore.

1093. Oswald; to king Donald VII.
1094. Earl Constantine; to Duncan II. the
Usurper.

1161. Nicolaus, chamberlain.

1163. Willielmus de Ripariis, prior of St. Andrew's.

1165. Hugo de Morville, lord of Lauderdale.
1171. Walter de Bidun, bishop-elect of Dunkeld.
1178. Roger (son to the earl of Leicester), bishop
of St. Andrew's.

1183. Walterus de Beide, a Frenchman.
1187. Walterus de Vidone.

1189. Hugo de Roxburgh, bishop of Glasgow.
1192. Willielmus de Lundyne.

1199. William Malvoisine, bishop of St. Andrew's.

1202. Florence, bishop-elect of Glasgow.

** Richard, afterwards bishop of Dunkeld. 1211. Willielmus de Bosco, or Wood, bishop of Dumblane.

1214. Willielmus Riddel.

Robert Kildelicht, abbot of Dunfermline. 1216. Walterus de Oliford.

1226. Thomas de Stryvelin, archdeacon of Glas

gow.

LORD KEEPERS OF THE GREAT SEAL OF SCOTLAND.

(From the UNION to the present time.)

THE LORD HIGH TREASURER OF SCOTLAND.

THIS office was established on the return of James I. to Scotland from his long captivity in England. He then made a High Treasurer as well as a chamberlain (whose functions were now confined solely to the government of the boroughs). The king's revenue being entirely in the management of the Treasurer, his business was to examine and pass the accounts of the sheriffs and others concerned in levying the revenues of the kingdom.

In 1617 the Treasurer was ranked by an ordinance of king James VI. as the first officer of state; and, in 1623, when his majesty determined the precedency of his counsellors, he was ranked next to the chancellor in 1663, he was declared president of the exchequer. The office of comptroller, which was sometimes joined with that of Treasurer, and designated computorum rotulator, and that of collector of the new augmentations, both distinct offices from that of the Treasurer, were conjoined into one by James VI., and exercised by the Treasurer until the treasury was put in commission.

1696.

May

24.

NOTE. The Lord Treasurer of Scotland had, by the law of that country, a seat in its parliament, in virtue of his office, independently of election; and when the treasury was in commission, the king had a right to name any commissioner to sit and vote as Lord Treasurer in parliament. The members of the treasury board marked thus were so empowered by his majesty.

1426. David Brune. 1429. John Spence.

ROLL OF THE COMPTROLLERS OF SCOTLAND.

1446. Alexander Nairne, of Sanford.
1448. Robert de Livingston.

1458. Ninian Spot, canon of Dunkeld.
1464. John Colquhoun, of Colquhoun.
1467. David Guthrie, of Guthrie.
1468. Adam Wallace, of Craigie.
1471. James Schaw, of Salquhy.
1472. Alexander Leslie, of Warderis.
** Thomas Simson.

1488. Alexander Inglis, archdeacon of St. An-
drew's.

1499. Patrick Hume, of Polwarth. 1506. James, abbot of Dunfermline.

1507. James Riddoch, of Aberladenoche.

1513. Robert Arnot, of Woodmill: killed at Flodden.

1514. Duncan Forrester, of Carden.

1515. Patrick Hamilton.

1516. Alexander Garden.

1520. Robert Barton, of Over Barnton.

1525. Sir James Colvill, of Ochiltree.

1538. David Wood, of Craig.

1543. Thomas Menzies.

1546. William, commendator of Culross.
1548. William, abbot of Ross.

1557. Monsieur de Ruby; to queen Mary the

regent.

1560. Bartholomew Villemore.

1561. Sir John Wishart, of Pittarrow.

1563. Sir William Murray, of Tullibardine.
1567. James Cockburn, of Skirling.

1584. Sir James Campbell, of Ardkinglass.
1585. Andrew Wood, of Largo.
1589. David Seton, of Parbroath.
1597. Walter, prior of Blantyre.

1599. Sir George Hume, of Wedderburn.
1600. Sir David Murray, of Gospetrie, afterwards
lord Scoon.

1603. Peter Rollock, bishop of Dunkeld.
1610. Sir James Hay, of Fingask.

1615. Sir Gideon Murray, of Elibank, was the
last Comptroller to king James VI., in
whose time the office was suppressed,
and incorporated with that of the lord
high treasurer.

ROLL OF THE Lord PresidENTS OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL OF SCOTLAND.

1625. John, earl of Montrose.

1649. John, earl of Loudoun.

1660. John, earl (afterwards duke) of Rothes.

1663. John, earl (afterwards marquess) of Tweeddale.

1672. John, duke of Lauderdale.

1681. Sir George Gordon, of Haddo, afterwards
earl of Aberdeen.

1682. James, marquess of Montrose.
1686. William, duke of Queensberry.
1689. William, earl of Craufurd and Lindsey.

1693. William, earl (afterwards marquess) of Annandale.

1695. George, earl of Melville.

1702. William, marquess of Annandale.
1704. James, marquess (afterwards duke) of
Montrose.

1705. William, marquess of Annandale.
1706. James, duke of Montrose. The LAST Lord
President of the Privy Council of Scot-
land.

LORD PRIVY SEAL OF SCOTLAND.

THIS office was established by James I. on his return to Scotland from his captivity in England. In Scotland, in ancient times, in the attestation of writings, seals were commonly affixed to them in place of the subscription; but from this practice great inconvenience arose, in consequence whereof it became the usage to affix the seal after the subscription, to render deeds, and other papers of importance, the more valid. In writs granted by the king, the affixing of his seal alone gave them sufficient authority, without signing. The seal was kept by the lord chancellor. When, however, business increased, a keeper of the Privy or King's Seal was (as already said) created by James I., who wished to model the officers about his court after those he had seen at the court of England; and the affixing of the Privy Seal to any deed became a preparatory step to obtain the great seal to it; but it was, in some cases, a sufficient sanction of itself to writs that were not to pass the great seal. As most of the writs which were to pass under the great seal were first to pass the Privy Seal, greater opportunity was afforded to examine the king's writs, and so prevent his majesty or his subjects from being hurt by obreption or fraud.