Series 3 > Ayr Burgh accounts, 1534-1624

Treasurer,
1547-48-
104 AYR BURGH ACCOUNTS
The Town’s Hospitality. For wine and money to the Irishmen
that lay at Our Lady lie, £7,10s. For 18 quarts of wine to the counsale
that hard the comptis and eit in the Tolbuith for four days, £l, 16s. For
ale to them (at 4s. 4d. per gallon), £l, 8s. 4d. For 4 dinners and
one breakfast to them, £5, 4s. Wine for the stenters, 4s. Wine
to a French captain who landed here and went on to Hadding¬
ton, 10s. Wine to Lord Glencaim, 5s. Wine to the 3 pursuivants,
6s. For the bailies’ supper at Michaelmas, 13s. 4d.
Total, £17, 16s. 8d.
Legal and Office Expenses. To Henry Prestoun,ybr the ordouring
of the common comptis,x £10. Expenses of Thomas Kennedy and
Adam Wallace in a plea with a Frenchman, 4 crowns of the sun.
For coal, peat and candles during the Common Compt (4 days),
14s. 3d. Candles at the Michaelmas court, the stenting and the
watching of the wine (at Is. per lb.), 2s. For instruments, 2s. 4d.
To arl ships of wine, salt, etc. (4d. or 6d. each), 3s. 2d. To arl a
wine-ship bought from Peirs Masone, 1 crown. Olive-oil for the
knock, 6s. 8d.
Total, £ll, 8s. 5d., 4 crowns of the sun and 1 crown.
Military Expenditure. Rope and pitch for the guns, £l, 13s. 6d.
For 9 st. of cannon powder, £14, 8s. Total, £16, Is. 6d.
The Plague and the Special Watch. To Archibald Jelle, for the
burning of his house and heather stack during the pest, £10. For
keeping the ports in time of pest, 3s. 8d. For keeping the Brig-
port at various times, £3, 9s. For keeping the night-watch, £2, 4s.
Total, £15, 16s. 8d.
Miscellaneous. Refunded to ex-Treasurer Thomas Broun (1535-
1538), for a payment made to Stephen Prestoun and omitted from
his compt, £3. To Stephen Prestoun, for laubouris maid be him, £3.
For watching 42 tuns of wine, £l, Os. 6d. Building the cripples’
lodge, 4s. For two staples to the Brig-yett, 2s. Four loads of coal
(4s.), a load of peat (Is.) and one of heather (8d.), to make a beill
for the Englishmen, 5s. 8d. To John Blair, trumpeter, £l, 3s.
To Andrew Willok, for a bag of blue wool that was burnt
(during the pest ?), £2, 4s. To Nicholas Scherar, £l. To Michael
Wallace and John Kirkpatrik in 1552, £9, 5s. 4d.
Total, £21, 4s. 6d.
Grand Total, £206, 17s. lld.a
All the compts from 1534 to 1547 are in Henry Prestoun’s hand, and
many of them signed by him.
2 If we allow £6 for the 5 crowns, the total would still be only
£182, 14s. gd. This is one of the most slovenly and erratic compts in the
book; no attempt is made to strike a balance.