Series 2 > Miscellany of the Scottish History Society

INTRODUCTION
209
but of the baron’s factor ; and the jury, so far as appears
from the minutes, did nothing but put in an appearance
at the opening of each Court, and did that only till 1658,
after which there is no further mention of them. Juries,
it may be added, were part of the machinery of our Baron
Courts long before 1654 ; at Carnwath they in 1523 and
onwards were present at every sitting and gave their
verdict on each case ; their regular form of finding an
offender guilty is, they cannot quit him, which suggests
a reminiscence of the ancient form of compurgation. In
the court of Forbes the Bailie trying those accused of
breaches of the peace regularly refers the question of fact
to the jury ; but in the minutes of the courts held at
Tolmaads (see below) there is no mention of them. It is
quite probable that different courts followed different
practices in this matter.
Before going into further detail as to the Baron Court of
Forbes, it will be convenient to describe the MS. of which
its minutes form the greater part.
That MS., preserved in the Forbes charter chest and
liberally put at the disposal of the Scottish History Society
by the present Lord Forbes, consists of 146 leaves (not
counting blank leaves), viz. 66 leaves containing rentals
of the Forbes estates, and 80 leaves containing proceedings
of the Baron Court. The earliest rental, epitomised in
Antiquities of Aberdeen and Banff (Spalding Club), and
noticed at some length in Innes’s Scotch Legal Antiquities,
is dated 1552, and deals with the baronies or estates of
Kearn, Forbes, Alford, Abergardin (parish of Glengairn),
Tough, Cluny, Tolmaads (parish of Kincardine-O’Neil),
Fodderbirs (parish of Birse), Fiddes (parish of Foveran),
and some lands in Buchan ; the leases being in every case
granted for five years. In 1557 there is another rental
o