Series 6 > Perth Kirk Session books, 1577-1590

PERTH ELDERS, 1576-1590
479
by this name active in the town in the 1570s and 1580s. He was elected to
the session in 1579 and 1582. He could be the son of the merchant and dean
of guild (in the 1540s) Jhon Mitschell; if so, he was admitted to the guildry
in 1575, though without the title. He left no extant will and did not hold
civic office.62
ANDRO MONCREIF. Baxter burgess elected elder in 1577, 1578, 1581,
1582,1583,1586, and 1587. He was admitted to the guildry in 1567 as the
son of the maltman of this name, who died in 1586 leaving an estate valued
at £450 i2s 3d. Moncrief held considerable rental property in the burgh,
including lands formerly pertaining to the Charterhouse (with annual feu-
mail of over £6 in the Old Rental Book of the hospital) and St Michael’s
altar, both in the old Charterhouse ‘yett’ near the Southgait. He also owned
property in the Northgait.63
JHON MURRAY. Future laird ofTibbermuir, elected elder in 1581. Murray
had been admitted to the guildry in 1565 by right of his mother, daughter
of a merchant burgess (Oliver Maxton) and chosen to the council in 1569.
He may have been the grandson of Patrick Murray ofTibbermuir, described
in his will as an ‘indweller in Perth’, who at his death in 1580 left to his son
(also Jhon) land and goods worth £638. A Jhon Murray admitted to the
guildry as a merchant in 1586 may be his son.64
ALEXANDER OLIPHANT (Olyphant). Merchant burgess elected elder in
1578, 1585, 1586, 1588 and 1590, and father of the elder Patrick Oliphant,
below. Admitted to the guildry in 1543, he regularly held public office there¬
after, being elected bailie in 1545; dean of guild in 1548, 1552 and 1567;
bailie again each year from 1561 to 1564, and in 1568,1569, and 1570; and
councillor in 1569,1571,1585 (December election) and 1586.65
PATRICK OLIPHANT. Merchant burgess elected to the session in 1587.
The son of Alexander Oliphant (above), he was admitted to the guildry in
1577 and was elected to the council in 1593, as bailie in 1594 and 1595, and
so to the council again in 1596. He owned substantial hospital property and
lived in an imposing house in the Watergait. He died in December of 1600,
leaving Margaret Adamson his widow to be executor (together with James
62 GB, 280, 534—35; MRS ms CC8/8/10/68-70 (as witness to the will of Patrick Mitschell
ofTibbermuir, 1580). He may be the Michell noted in the first hospital rental book: Milne,
26, 79.
63 NRS ms CC8/8/16/49-52; Milne, 19, 31, 62, 87, 93, 103; GB, 259, 279-80 (serving as
caution for Robert Moncreif of Easter Moncreif and David Tuly of Kynmonth), 286.
64 NRS ms CC8/8/10/68—70; PKCA ms B59/12/2, fo. 21v; GB, 251, 342.
« NRS ms CH2/521/2, fo. 41v; GB, 152,164-166, 239, 534-535; PKCA mss B59/12/2, fos
4v, 21v, 22v, 35r, 38r, and B59/12/4, fo. 78r.