Murray of Philiphaugh, and Watson, v. Lord Blantyre
Date: 30 July 1746 Case No. No. 145.
Reports of valuation of teinds made by the sub-commission 1632 can be approved of.
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John Murray of Philiphaugh, and William Watson, Writer to the Signet, pursued a valuation of the teinds of their lands of Pilmuir, in the parish of Bolton, in the shire of Haddington, against the Lord Blantyre titular, and produced a decreet of the sub-commissioners of the said parish anno 1632, which they craved to be approved.
Objected for the defender, that the commission under which these sub-commissioners acted, proceeded from the King without any act of Parliament; and it was then thought that commission might overtake the business of valuing all the teinds in the kingdom, which however it did not, and therefore a parliamentary commission was granted 1633, with power to receive the reports of former sub-commissioners, to the end that heritors might have the opportunity of buying their own teinds; but still this was looked upon as a business to be speedily determined, in so much that by the decreet arbitral the faculty of buying was limited to expire at Martinmas 1635.
That a like commission was granted anno 1661, but in those granted afterwards there was no power to receive the reports of former sub-commissioners; and accordingly, from the Restoration to the Revolution, there did not appear any such report approved: And though the commission 1690 was in some respects more ample than those granted before it since 1661, yet with respect to the present question, it only gave power to receive the reports of its own sub-commissioners, and the Lords had now no more power than was competent to former commissions.
Answered, it had been the constant custom of the Court to approve the reports of the sub-commissioners under the former commissions.
The sub-valuation of the Presbytery of Dalkeith 1630 was approved 3d June 1713, at the instance of Sir John Clark and Sir David Forbes.
The kirk-lands of Dunse and lands of Grueldykes 1629, approved 23d June 1714.
The barony of Cockburn and lands of Westshiell, approved 30th June 1714.
Lands of Manderston, 28th July eod.
Hay of Drummelzier against the Earl of Lauderdale, 5th July 1721.
Sir Alexander Cockburn, 29th November eod.
Dukle of Douglas against the purchasers of Panmuir, 16th January 1723.
The lands of the abbey of St. Bachans, in the parish of Dunse, valued 1629, approved 5th February 1724, at the instance of Home of Abbay.
Valuation of the presbytery of Kirkaldy, approved 26th January 1726.
Bothkennar, in the Presbytery of Stirling, approved 3d July 1734.
Replied, that most of these precedents were in absence, or upon consent; and in that of Sir John Clerk, which was the leading case, an objection was repelled, that prescription was run since the sub-valuation, but the objection now insisted on was not made.
