Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL.
The Fleshers of Ayr v. The Magistrates thereof
Date: 20 July 1694
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The Fleshers of Ayr against the Magistrates thereof, for suspending a fine imposed upon them for choosing a deacon of their trade, contrary to an act of their town-council, cassing and annulling that incorporation from having a deaconry; (which many think should be done through all the kingdom, not only as to the fleshers, but as to the baxters, and other trades that furnish vivers.)
Answered by the Town, That the Act of Parliament 1555 discharges deacons.
The Lords did not regard this; seeing the universal practice of the nation had run in the contrary; only, they desired to know if the custom of this burgh had allowed this trade to be under a deacon, (because several burghs had diversity of customs upon this head:) And finding they had more than a possessory judgment of seven years, they maintained them in their possession, and suspended the fine; but prejudice to the town of Ayr, in a declarator, to exclude them from being a deaconry, if they think fit to insist.
