Click here to view a pdf copy of this documet : PDF Copy
Certain Port-Glasgow ladies and gentlemen, having, after the example of their betters, convened in the house of John Allason baker, for a dance; the conversation happened to turn upon the said Elizabeth Symmond, who was not present; and Allason having dropped certain expressions that gave Mrs Scott ground to think, that he thought said Elizabeth handsomer than her, Mrs Scott thereupon said, Did he compare Symmond to her? and fell into a passion, and gave her very opprobrious names, saying, that (Fleeming) her father had been a footman, and that her mother had kept a bawdy-house, and that if she did not cuckold her husband, it was not her fault, &c.
But, upon Allason's saying, that he would report this to Mr Fleeming, Mrs Scott said she blamed him, for he had put her in a passion; and added, what she had said of Mrs Fleeming was all lies, and that she had no ground for saying it; and, in a few days thereafter, she was also heard to repent of her having uttered the said expressions, and to wish Mrs Fleeming might be reconciled to her.
Allason was nevertheless indiscreet enough to report to Mrs Fleeming the defamatory expressions which Mrs Scott had uttered; whereupon Mrs Fleeming and her husband brought a process of scandal against Mrs Scott before the Commissary of Glasgow, concluding for damages and a fine, and proper palinode, for that the expressions were scurrilous and malicious; and the defender, along with her answers, gave in a fresh declaration, that she was sorry for the expressions she had uttered, that she had no just cause for them, but was moved by passion.
The Commissary, upon advising the proof, which he had allowed before answer to either party, and which came out just as is above related, “Assoilzied the defender from damages and fine, and ordained her to compear on a day and and hour certain, in the house of the said John Allason, and there, in the presence of the bailie of Port-Glasgow, and of the persons who were present at uttering the expressions, or others whom the pursuer might call, acknowledge and declare she had no just cause for the said expressions, and beg the pursuer's pardon, all under the penalty of L. 5, to affect the defender's part of her husband's executry, if incurred.”
The pursuer presented a bill of advocation, which the Ordinary, upon advising with the Lords, ‘refused;’ and the pursuer having reclaimed, “the petition was refused without answers.”
Fol. Dic. v. 3. p. 178. Kilkerran, (Delinquency) No 17. p. 165.
