Fullerton of that Ilk alias of Corsbie v. Baillie of Adamton and Monkton
Date: 16 July 1697 Case No. No 3.
Wreck and Ware.
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In the debate between Fullarton of that Ilk, alias of Corsbie, against Baillie of Adamton and Monkton, to hear and see it found and declared, that he stands infeft in his lands erected into a barony, with the privilege of wreck and ware, and so has right to debar the defenders from gathering sea-tangle on his ground, it was alleged, wreck and ware was not in the dispositive part of his charter, but only in the clause of the tenendas, and so the littus being inter res communes, and the ware nullius et primi occupantis, they, having wreck and ware in their charters as well as he, had right to gather it on the shore, which was free to all lieges, like the use of the air and water. Answered, My land marches on the sea, and bounds the lowest ebb-tide, whereas you have no lands on the sea-side, and so can claim no interest by your charters, where that clause is adjected of course, and can signify nothing to those whose lands bound not on the seashore; and esto the wreck were inter regalia, I have a better right to it than you, in respect to the situation of my land; and that a barony being nomen universitatis, it needs not express every casualty in the dispositive-clause; and Sir John Skeen, voce Ware, tells of sundry old decisions in 1549, (See Appendix) where one infeft in ware was found to have right to debar other neighbours from gathering it to muck their lands with, or gather cockles, mussells, or other small fish. The Lords found whatever the King might say against this pursuer, yet he had right to debar the defenders from gathering sea-tangle, or other ware, so far as his ground fronts on the sea, but prejudice to the defenders' possession, if they were able to prove use and wont past memory of man; seeing the right to this might be prescribed as well as any other servitude.
