Series 3 > Papers from the collection of Sir William Fraser

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS
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sichtit in presens of Katherene Hucheson his relict and
being presentlie in hir handis within ye said duelling
hous And in presens of Niniane mcmorane brother to
the said umquhile Johnne, Andro huchesoun James
huchesoun brother to the said Katherene Alexander
makmath mungo makcall merchand burgess of Edinr.
& Alexander Annand servitor to ye said Niniane &
david andersone servitor to adame Lawtie wryter.
Upone ye xvi day of November 1596.
Item, ane manis goune of frenche blak lynit doun ye
lappis with velvet, with ane bar of veluet round about.
Item, ane manis goune of fringe of florence lynit doun ye
lappis with budge with ane bar of veluet round about.
Item, ane cluik of frenche blak lynit with velvet doun
the lappis.
It, ane uther cluik of blak lynit with fegourit velvet
doun ye lappis with thrie pastmentis about ye taile.
Item, ane uther cluik of frenche blak lynit doun the
lappis with grwgrane taffetie.
Macmorran’s head, killing him on the spot. The boys had then succumbed in
horror ; some had fled ; but eight of them had been arrested, including the boy
who had tired the shot—William Sinclair, son of the Chancellor of Caithness.
They narrowly escaped being torn to pieces at once by the mob ; and there was
great excitement over the case for sometime—the magistrates and citizens, with
Bailie Macmorran’s relatives, insisting on revenge and scouting all offers of
money-compensation, while the friends of the culprits, most of them ‘gentle¬
men’s sons,’ exerted themselves on their behalf, and had the sympathies of the
Court The history of the case so far is related in the present petition of the
seven less culpable boys, after they had been in prison for two months and a
half. The result was that all got off soon afterwards, Sinclair included.
Bailie Macmorran seems to have been the same John Macmorran of whom
previous traces may be found in the Register by the index. He had been a
servant to Regent Morton, and a sheriff’s officer or messenger before rising to
the civic dignity. Calderwood, in noticing his death (v. 382), says ‘ He was
the richest merchant of his time, but not gracious to the commoun people,
because he carried victuall to Spaine, notwithstanding he was often admonished
by the ministers to refraine.’ His house and place of business was in Riddle’s
Court in the Lawnmarket, and a very good specimen of the house of a wealthy
Edinburgh citizen in the sixteenth century.
Till the demolition of the Old High School building in 1777 the window
from which he was shot used to be known to the boys as ‘ The Bailie’s
Window.’