Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER, LORD FOUNTAINHALL.
Town of Edinburgh v. Sir William Thomson
Date: 20 February 1665
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The Council of Edinburgh, without the concourse of the crafts and their extraordinary deacons, having deposed Sir William Thomson, their clerk, for this fault, that the excise of their Town being farmed to three or four brewers by way of tack and contract, wherein the Council subscribes their part of the tack, and remits to Sir William to see the fermorars subscribe for payment of the duty, and he neglecting to get their hands thereto by the space of year and day; and at the expiring of the tack the fermorars craving ease of the duty, and being threatened with a charge of horning, the town finds the tack not subscribed; and they having ordered Sir William to see it done, and committed it to him by an act of their council; they representing to him his fault, he submits his censure to the council, who immediately deposes him, without either citation, libel, or any other solemnity: he thereon raises reduction, upon four reasons, which are set down at large in the informations.
The Lords, at the advising of the cause, fell, 1mo, on the relevancy of the cause of his deposition. After some debate anent the method to be observed, they found the cause of his deposition relevant, unless he could prove the tacks were yet subscribed. The reasons moving the Lords were, 1mo, That so great a neglect was a presumption of dole on Sir William's side, though he offered to make up the damage sustained by the town through the fermorars their not subscribing. And, 2do, they thought that though the way of procedure was somewhat illegal against a clerk, provided ad vitam to his place, yet that multa fieri non debent quæ facta valent, especially betwixt a master and a servant. The dispute I have at large.
Act, Wedderburne, Sinclar and Lockhart.Alt, Wallace, Cunnyghame and Mackeinzie.
Advocates' MS. folio 53.
