Ancient deeds and other writs in the Mackenzie-Wharncliffe charter-chest

MACKENZIE-WHARNCLIFFE DEEDS
seem that Mr. Simeon Mackenzie was in pecuniary difficulties, and had
to beseech bis very dear friend, Mr. Farquhar, to advance money for his
son, who, from the correspondence, would seem to have been in 1649
and 1650 a student at the University of Aberdeen. Mr. Farquhar had
rendered accurate accounts of his intromissions. Nor had he been
unmindful of Mr. George Mackenzie's comforts. His account bears
that he had paid £l Scots for a ' reid nicht cape ' for Mr. George.
The great change which has taken place in the cost of living is well
exemplified by the receipt of Mr. and Mrs. John Lundie for £40 Scots,
being the charge for a quarter's board of the future Lord Advocate.
A sum of £40 Scots is equal to £3, 8s. 8d. sterling, and is a modest
charge for the board of a nephew of the Earl of Seaforth for three
months. Among these miscellaneous papers there is a registered copy
of a lease between Kenneth, Earl of Seaforth, and ' The Right Honour-
able Simeon Mackenzie,' his uncle, dated 1658, by which the earl let to
Mr. Simeon and his heirs lands evidently of great extent and substantial
value. In addition to the payment of a nominal rent, Mr. Simeon bound
himself with regard to certain heritable debts over the earl's estates, and
in this obligation his eldest son, George Mackenzie, was security for his
father. The terms of this deed are peculiar and unusual, and it is not
evident whether it is of the nature of a trust-deed for creditors, or
whether its intention was to preserve the free rental for the benefit of
the earl, or whether it was conceived in the interests of Simeon Mac-
kenzie. Be that as it may, the Earl of Seaforth in 1669 discharged
Sir George Mackenzie as eldest son of his then deceased father of all
these obligations under this deed. From a discharge, dated 1st November
1662, it appears that George, Earl of Seaforth, by bond dated 1641, had
borrowed from John Fairholm, merchant, burgess of Edinburgh, the
sum of 20,000 merks, for which sum Sir Donald Macdonald of Sleat,
John MacLeod of Dunvegan, Thomas Mackenzie of Pluscardine, and
Simeon Mackenzie of Lochslin had been co-obligants, and that Simeon
Mackenzie (who in the latter part of the discharge is referred to as
' sometime of Lochslin ') had paid to Johne Fairholm of Craigiehall
the sum of 4000 merks. There is a discharge by Fairholm to Simeon
McKenzie, of date 1664, of a sum paid by him to account amounting
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