Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

RIGHT REVEREND BISHOP KEITH. lxxi
the Eecords of a public nature carried off by Cromwell were
sent back to Scotland. Bishop Keith, in the first Note to his
" Introduction," observes — "Our public Records were carried
off by Oliver Cromwell, and though after the Restoration of
the Royal Family they were ordered to be returned by King
Charles II. in the end of the year 1G60, yet the ship in
which they were put having been lost at sea, a part of them
only was saved, as will appear by this Act of Parliament."
The Bishop inserts the Act of the Scottish Parliament of
11th January 1661, alluding to a previous Act in favour of
Major Fletcher, narrating the fate of those Records which
were unfortunately lost at sea. Bishop Keith says that
the wrecked vessel belonged to the little seaport town of
Wemyss in Fife, but Burntisland seems rather to be indi-
cated, upwards of ten miles farther up the south coast of
Fife, and which was, previous to the Union in 1707, a
very flourishing seaport. The Act cited by Bishop Keith
was followed by an " Act of Exoneration to Mr John
Young concerning the Public Records of this Kingdom,"
in which it is declared — " The King's Majesty and
Estates of Parliament, considering that the public records
of this kingdom, which have been in England those years
bygone, being by public order put into Major Fletcher's
trust, to be carried hither in his Majesty's frigate called
the Eagle, whereof he is Captain ; and that they were ne-
cessitated] through the violence of a storm, which was so
great as ship and all therein had almost perished, to put
fourscore [and] five of these hogsheads into another ship,
which since is sunk and drowned with these hogsheads and
records in her ; and that it is found by the trial and deposi-
tions of the witnesses taken in the business, that Mr John
Young, who was attending the Registers, did not at all con-
sent to the taking out of the frigate, or putting them into
another ship, do therefore exoner[ate] the said Mr John
Young, and declare him free of any accession to the loss
of these Registers ; and that he carried himself faithfully
according to his trust." 1
1 Acta Pari. Scot, folio, vol. vii. p. 11.