Wedderburn book > History

108 THE WEDDERBUKN BOOK.
Partn - have objected to these records being in private custody. On 17 March 1629 the
provost sent two bailies to David to borrow the books, and on their promise to
return them in a fortnight or pay a thousand merits in default, David gave up the
books. It does not appear if he ever got them back. There is a " memorandum to
pursue the provost " in respect of this matter in his Compt Buik (D.W. 18 e), but it
is doubtful if he ever did so. The books, it seems, were not in the burgh charter room
in 1659 (see inventory vol. ii., p. 206), and when they found their way there is not clear.
David appears to have had further ambitions in the direction of the law. Another
memorandum (undated) in his Compt Buik is " to crave the clerkship of the gild "
(D.W. 19 6), and at one time he seems to have had a provision thereto, but was
debarred from getting it by his brother Alexander. This is one of the many
" Innaturall Iniuries and wrangis " done him by Kingennie, which David enumerated
in another memorandum, a copy of which still exists (J.W. 104, 105/). '
He was executor to his father and mother, whose wills he gave up on behalf
of himself, his younger brother and sisters, 13 May 1587 (Ed.T. 5, 6); and his
Compt Buik contains an account of his executorship, and his distribution to each
of them of his parents' estate (D.W. 12). After his father's death in 1585 he lived
for a time in what had been his home but passed by inheritance to the eldest
son, to whom David paid rent as tenant. He records in his Compt Buik the pay-
ment of the 1597 rent by money and by taking into account a loss he had made on
two barrels of salmon which Alexander had sold him, and which, on being exported
to Flanders by David, turned out to be " all grissillis " (D.W. 12 i'). 2 He had
various dealings in connection with different members of his family. Thus, 17
March 1591, he resigns an annual rent to his brother Peter (D.P.B. 286) ; 26 June
1598, he is cautioner on the confirmation of the wills of his brother Robert and his
first two wives (D.W. 12./; S A.T. 1, 2, 3) ; 2 Feb. 1604, he is party to a discharge
re the estate of his late brother William (S.W. 157), as well as 21 July 1613, to the
curious contract re William's death (R.A.D. 61 ; and post, p. 119). He is named as a
debtor in the will of his uncle Robert, the notary, 7 June 1612 (Br.T. 2), and was
assignee of the children and executors of William Davidson and Janet Wedderburn
(ante, p. 98) for whom he acted, 12 June 1612 (R.A.D. 58) ; 25 March 1618 (D.B.R
404), and to whom he granted a discharge, 26 Oct. 1620 (S.W. 208). He is also
named, 1 6 Nov. 1 61 8, as one of their " mother's kin " to John Blair, son of Catherine
Wedderburn and Thomas Blair (D.B.R. 407 e; ante, p. 74), and 31 July 1619, was
cautioner for Alexander Innes and Janet Wedderburn (R.D. 67, ante; pp. 86, 99, n. 2).
There are many references to lands, and annual rents or charges on land held
by him from time to time, as well as to chaplainries of which he was patron or
chaplain. Thus, 7 July 1586, sasine is given to him " probo juveni " son of the
late clerk (D.P.B. 252) ; 3 March, 20, 26 April 1587, two annual rents are resigned
to him " spectato juveni " (ib. 255, 267 b) ; and, S June in the same year, he got
from Sir James Scrymgeour a charter of another annual rent, out of a Cowgait
land, confirmed to him under the Great Seal, 15 July 1600 (D.C. 40 ; G.S.R. 60).
In 1588 May 21 he was infeft in a land in Dundee (D.C. 34) ; and a little later,
6 Sept. 1588, got an annual rent from his cousin Thomas Guthrie of Kinblethmont
(D.P.B. 266 ; ante, p. n.). He and his wife also got sasine, 21 May 1591, of
properties known as " Logy hauche" and fur bra" (D.W. 11 p ; D.P.B. 287) and had
an interest in the lands of Lumlathin in 1595 (D.W. 11 o). 3 His principal property
in Dundee was one in North Marketgait, of which he and his wife got sasine
18 May 1602 (D.P.B. 347), and which is named 16 Dec. 1612, when David, "pro-
prietor of the great tenement in S. Margaret's Close, North Marketgait," complains
of the condition of the transe or passage through the close and gets a decree for its
repair by the other proprietors (D.B.R. 379). This property he alienated to Charles
Goldman, 11 Nov. 1623 (D.P.B. 429-30), and till long after it is often identified as
the great land once that of David Wedderburn and then of Charles Goldman, e.g.,
24 March 1664, 30 July 1688 (D.P.B. 493; D.B.R. 484). He and his wife also
1 See the account of this memorandum, probably a leaf torn from his Compt Buik, vol. ii., p. 155 (J.W,
105 /), and David's memorandum to " persew " his brother's son and heir (D.W. 19 m).
2 The same thing occurred on another occasion, when David had sent the salmon to France (D.W. 8 b).
3 See also 9 Nov. 1594, when his land is named as bounding the Greneland in North Argylegait (D.B.R.
299) ; 18 May 1596, sasine to him of an annual rent (D.P.B. 307) ; 1 Aug. 1604, his land named
(R.D. 10) ; 9 July 1615, his North Argylegait tenement named (D.B.R. 393 a).