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

WITH DRUMPELLIEE'S EXPOSITION, &c. 93
13th of December 1541, when the "bairns" of the other Robert Stirling so
precisely figure,* and who, from the proved sense of the term, must have been
equally pupils. They thus all were appositely and exclusively comprised under
the denomination of the " bairns of umquhile Robert Stirling," and hence
clearly identical.
It is humbly submitted, then, that, by reiterated evidence, taken se7nel et
simul, all to the same purport and effect, it has been proved that the bairns of
Robert Stirling of Letter, the Drumpelher ancestor, were those declared by
Janet of Gadder in 1541 to be her nearest heirs, failing herself and heirs
of her body, — which indisputably fixes the identity.
The identity in question has never yet been attempted to be denied, except
what is indeed most insignificant, and out of the pale of law, through mere
assumptions, and gross misrepresentations so risked reprehensively in the Keir
work, and to be exposed in the sequel. To stop to refute the negative, in
the circumstances, would indeed be like fighting with a shadow. But in
order merely to facilitate the better and more ready apprehension of the
identity, it may be here expedient to conclude, under a comprehensive form,
with giving the following tabular statement of the various uniform and
irresistible points of coincidence and parallelisms, with the manifest results
in its support : —
* The year then began on tlie 25th of March.
Table