Series 3 > Ayr Burgh accounts, 1534-1624

INTRODUCTION
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character, disobeying or failing to assist an officer, for bad
nychtbourheid or seeking the protection of a laird,1 being
fund drukkin or insulting a bailie, selling books without
permission, grinding at extra-burghal mills or blocking
public passages.2 The Edinburgh bailies rendered yearly
compt of their unlaws, which went to relieve the Common
Good, e.g. by maintaining the calsays 3; fines were pay¬
able by maltmen and candlemakers for convening un¬
lawfully.4 Each bailie of Dundee answered for the
fines from his own quarter, and a register was used as
a tally.5 * In 1641 the Glasgow bailies were instructed
to exact full fines from fleshers, and not to take com¬
positions.® The frequent orders to bailies to devote the
profits of justice to objects of common welfare 7 * may reflect
suspicions as to the uses to which they were put. In 1607
a compromise was adopted at Paisley, whereby blood-
unlaws were to be imployit haillilie for the commoun weill of
this burgh, and all others to be paid, two-thirds to the
treasurer, one-third to the bailies for their fees, which
should amount to £20.8 Collectors of unlaws were some¬
times appointed to assist the bailies,9 and many fines were
specifically allocated to the use of the poor.10
The fines formed the bulk of the bailies’ revenues in all
the burghs except the capital, where the complexities of
life brought far more duties to these magistrates than was
1 Aberd. Rees., 1, 380-2. Kennedy, Annals of Aberdeen, I, 86. Lan.
Rees., 242, 251. Edin. Rees., Ill, 77-8 ; IV, 181.
2 lb., V, 58, 222, 278, 305, 324-5.
* Edin. Old Accts., I, 13-4. Edin. Rees., IV, 161, 201, 207, 236.
4 lb., VI, 48, 49. Cf. Marwick, High Constables of Edinburgh, xiv-xv.
* Warden, Burgh Laws, 47. • Glas. Rees., I, 433.
7 Peeb. Rees., I, 157. Lan. Rees., 73. Cf. infra, exxii.
8 Pais. Rees., 284.
* Glas. Rees., I, 239. Lan. Rees., 152-3. Edin. Rees., IV, 265-75, 294,
327. A.P.S., III, 263-4.
10 Warden, Burgh Laws, 15, 33. A.P.S., III, 147. Aberd. Rees., II, 34.
Edin. Rees., IV, 548.
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