Series 3 > Ayr Burgh accounts, 1534-1624

INTRODUCTION
CX1X
particularly liable to fall into arrears 1; already by 1603
(within half a century of the feuing) the occupiers of the
acres of the sands is nocht weill knawin,2 and in 1592-93
only £l, Is. out of £7, 4s. were paid to the treasurer.3
The custom of the firlots was in arrears in the pest yeir
(1606-07).4 Sometimes the treasurer poinded for his
back-rents,5 once, at least, the town’s debtors were warded
in the Tolbooth,6 and, in general, the magistrate was
expected to do his diligence to bring in the dependentis sa
far as gudelie may be gottin 7; only if payment were im¬
possible should the town tak the tinsale thairof.8 There are
actually many instances of the payment of arrears9;
alternatively, a magistrate’s own arrears of rents could be
balanced against his claim for expenditure, or a credit
balance ordered to be defrayed from the redyest
dependentis.10 When really large revenue items were in
arrears—the Dalkeyth ferme-bere (a chronic case), the
Doon fishings, or the mill-ferme—legal action for recovery
was taken11; and the tenants of the valuable farms in the
Barony were put under warning.12 On the other hand,
many petty arrears were liable to be dischargit for evir
for povertie,13 or remitted as alms,14 or written off on
account of death or the visitation of the plague15; indeed,
most of the petty items of the yearly dependentia were
probably bad debts, entered in the compts, allowed by
the auditors, and never again heard of.
I E.g. pp. 37-9, 60-1. 2 P. 221.
8 P. 178 ; supra, xxxv n. 4. 4 P. 232.
8 E.g. pp. 17. 229. 6 P. 87.
7 E.g. pp. in, 134, 154, 189. 8 Pp. 94, 281.
* Pp. 114, 152, 187, 198 n. 1, 213, 238.
10 Pp. 115 {bis), 122, 131, 151, 155.
II (Dalkeyth fermes) pp. 180, 184, 195, 196 ; (Doon fishings) p. 188 ;
(Alloway ferme-bere) p. 200 ; (farmers of mills) pp. 210, 224. Cf. supra,
Ixvii.
18 Pp. 210, 216, 219, 221. 18 Pp. 85, 88, 212, 222.
14 P. 212. 16 Pp. 98, 194, 229.