Scottish Text Society publications > Old series > Richt vay to the Kingdome of Heuine

xlii
INTRODUCTION.
at the west entrance of the Old Ship Close—and claims to be de¬
scended from the old Galls, but can tell nothing about them.—Yours
faithfully, Robt. Scott Fittis.
In Parker Lawson’s ‘Book of Perth,’ p. 166, under date 10th Janu¬
ary 1586, mention is made of Margaret Gall. At p. 93 of Maidment’s
‘ Chronicle of Perth,’ under date of 9th December 1623, mention is
made of the death of Andrew Gall in Muirtown ; and at p. 46, under
date 9th June 1657, of the death of Patrick Gall.
After the above notices of the Gaws of Perth were in type, Mr Dick¬
son, of the Register House, most kindly sent me the subjoined notices
relating to one or two persons bearing the name of Alexander Gaw,
and living in the first half of the sixteenth century, and possibly con¬
nected with Perth. The first of these notices relates to an Alexander
Gaw who was chaplain at Finhaven from 1499 to 1513, and whose
salary, allowed by the king out of the “burgh fermes” of the town of
Forfar, is regularly entered in the Exchequer Rolls of these years.
The following is the first entry:—
“Compotum ballivorum burgi de Forfar redditum apud Edinburgh
per Jacobum Graunt, unum eorundem, sexto die mensis Julij anno Do¬
mini, etc., quingentesimo primo, de omnibus receptis suis et expensis
per firmas burgales dicti burgi a die octavo mensis Novembris anni
Domini, etc., quingentesimi usque in diem hujus compoti. . . .
“ Idem onerat se de viijli. xiijs. iiijd. per firmas burgales dicti
burgi ex assedatione domini regis facta communitati ejusdem in
feodo ab antique de duobus terminis hujus compoti.
“ De quibus allocantur compotanti per solutionem priori de Restinot
percipienti annuatim quadraginta solidos de dictis firmis. . . . xls.
“Et capellano, celebranti in Fynevin, percipienti annuatim decern
marcas ad manus proprias ex tollerantia domini regis per antiquam
infeodationem, domino Alexandra Gaw capellano per suas literas
fatente solutionem de anno compoti et anno elapso vjli. xiijs. iiijd.”
—(Excheq. Roll., No. 320.)
The last entry in which the name of Alexander Gaw appears is the
account of the bailies of Forfar for the period from 24th July 1512 to
13th July 1513. In the following account, rendered 12th July 1514,
John Michelson takes his place, and continues to hold it till 1523-24.
The other notices are from a protocol book of Alexander Gaw, kept
between the years 1538 and 1558. “The interval between the Alex¬
ander Gaw of the Exchequer Rolls and him of the protocol book,” Mr
Dickson says, “is considerable, but still not sufficient to show that
they were different persons, apart from other evidence on the subject;
for the book in question is in a small cramped hand, such as to
suggest it may be that of an aged man. Of course, if the Gaw of
Fynhaven and of this book are one and the same, he must, ere the
book was finished, have been upwards of 80 years of age.” He was
not only connected with the county of Perth, as chaplain at Abernethy,