Comments in refutation of pretensions advanced for the first time, and statements in a recent work "The Stirlings of Keir and their family papers"

48
COMMENTS ON KEIR PERFORMANCE,
The " In-
dentouris "
or contract
in 152",
and iden-
tity of the
two cotem-
porary
Robert
Stirlings
and their
families,
before and
after 1541,
the ma-
terial ele-
ments in
the case.
Drumpellier), by the service (previously contemplated and broached in the
correspondence), 18th April 1818, after its proofs and merits had been keenly
tested, and undeiTvent the united scrutiny of Keir and Glorat, to whom they
had previously, with that fairness and openness which characterised the whole
conduct of the Drumpelliers, been duly disclosed and submitted. Yet in
spite of their opponents — the one in secret, the other open — who here signally
failed, the service of the above date, the merits of which had been subjected
to the severest ordeal, passed without the least demur or challenge. Since
then the status ia question having been fortified by a double prescription of
more than forty years, and admitted on all hands — which constituted of itself
an indefeasible title — it may be unnecessary to recapitulate the evidence in its
behalf And with respect, again, to that grounded upon the " Indentouris"
and contract between the same Robert of Lettyr and Sir John Stirling of
Keir, in 1527, so much in favour of his important Gadder status and
representation — indeed incapable of any other solution — it has been fully
given at the beginning of this chapter ; so what principally remains under
this head is the proof to be adduced of the identity of Robert and his family,
with the cotemporary Robert and his family, who legally in 1541 were
declared, under judicial sanction of the supreme civil comt, by Janet Stirling
of Gadder — the direct Gadder representative — to be immediately to succeed
to her, or, in other words, to be her nearest heirs, " failzeing airis," as she
states, " of my awin body," of whom none now exist. This e\ddence is not
only conclusive in itself, but it is also in perfect keeping with, and corro-
borative of, that just refeiTed to from the contract in 1527.
In this way, admitting the identity in particular, the nearest Gadder
representation, and necessarily descent, wiU be fixed in Drumpelher exclusive
of any competitor ; and certainly Keir, who, independently of being wholly
legally foreclosed and never once a party, is here in the far distance —
even upon the flimsy footing of his pretended Gadder descent, anterior to
1300 — though utterly unestablished, and unduly arrogated to him in the
Keir Performance.
But in support of this remaining and conclusive fact of the identity, the
matter being comparatively reduced to a short issue, though requiring due
and apposite proof and illustrations, the statement of the merits of the Drum-
pellier claim printed in 1818, which was referred to, and that had previously
been submitted to Mr Dundas, the Keir agent, shall next be adduced and