Genealogie of the Sainteclaires of Rosslyn

viii INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.
anceftors, and their heirs, to be their patrons, prote&ors, judges,
or mailers," &c. ; and he thereafter refigns all right " or claim
to be patron, prote6tor, judge, or mailer of the mafons in Scot-
land, in virtue of any deed or deeds made and granted by the
faid mafons, or of any grant or charter made by any of the
Kings of Scotland, to and in favours of the faid William and
Sir William St. Clairs of Rofslyn, my predeceffors." Thus tbe
granter of the deed, who, it muft be prefumed, was better ac-
quainted with the natui'e of his rights than any one elfe could
be, derives his title from the very perfons to whom the two
modern charters were granted by the mafons ; and, in the re-
signation of his claim as patron, &c. exclufively refers to thefe
two deeds, or any grant or charter made by the Crown, not in
favour of William Earl of Orkney, but of William and Sir
William Saintclair, the identical individuals in whofe perfons
the mafons had created the office of patron.
The author of the work juft alluded to remarks, that an
" inconfiftency" arifes from the terms of this deed, becaufe it
is at variance with the alleged grant by James II. No doubt
there is an " inconfiftency," and a great one too ; but it has
arifen in confequence of later writers choofing to found up-
on a charter, which, for anything yet feen, never exifted, and
difregarding the plain and explicit terms in which the refigna-
tion by the patron in 1736 is conceived. Indeed, had there been
even probable grounds for believing in the exiftence of fuch a
Crown grant, the character of thelaft patron affords pretty ftrong
proof that it would not have been overlooked. He had too high
an opinion of the antiquity of his family, and the reputation of