Series 5 > Miscellany [of the Scottish History Society] XIII

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MISCELLANY XIII
Folio A, however, deals largely with gild finances; and in the volume, in
its restored state, the accounts that are recorded from 1435 to 1479 are
drawn together as folios 99-108. This folio might, therefore, be placed
after folio 98 (which is blank), where it would be in the main corpus of
gild accounts; and, indeed, be the first entry in this section of the book.
The main body of the folio lists sums of money being given to the
gild. Some gild members are paying for their entry to the fraternity,
which is an indication that they were not the sons of gild brethren nor
married to the widow of a member. Although the decision had only
recently been made to purchase paper and commence writing the gild
book, as is seen in the accounts for 1435 (f. 99r.), folio A recto makes it
clear that the gild was accounting for its money before this time, probably
on a parchment roll now lost. This may have been the practice since the
gild was first established between 1365 and 1399, or even earlier.1
An incomplete entry, in the same hand, refers to the gild court being
held in the tolbooth by the alderman and dean. This is a reminder of the
close intermingling and overlap of functions of officials who were
specifically ‘of the town’, such as the alderman, as head of the burgh, and
‘of the guild’, as the dean, as head of the guild.2
The final paragraph of A verso is highly illuminating. Not dated, the
handwriting, however, immediately indicates that, although on fifteenth-
century paper (since the bulk of the handwriting is identical to that on
water-marked and dateable paper in the body of the volume), this entry is
of sixteenth-century date. This is confirmed by the members named in
this entry—Walter Baxter, John Smith, Master George Hackett and John
Cowan. More precisely, mention is made of Master George Hackett
functioning as Robin Hood. This was specified to be his role in April
1551 (f. 49r.); and, later in the same month, John Cowan and John Smith
were admitted to the gild (fos 49r. and 49v.). Walter Baxter was a
member of the gild from 1548 until at least 1563. As reference is made to
Walter Baxter and John Smith adopting roles previously held by the other
two, this may, in all probability, be dated to 1552/3. This entry is clearly
an insertion of information in a blank space of the Gild Court Book, as
happens elsewhere; but, although a small, misplaced recording, it is very
telling.
1 A grant during the abbacy of John, possibly of Stathmiglo, (1365-99), by the abbot and
monks of Dunfermline to the burgesses of Dunfermline that they might have a gild
merchant, may have been confirmatory, as reference is made to the gild property held ‘of
old’: Registrum de Dunfermlyn (Bannatyne Club, 1842)., no. 595* (Appendix iii).
2 Torrie, Gild Court Book, p. xx.