Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Subject_1 JURISDICTION.
Subject_2 DIVISION IV.

Jurisdiction of the Court of Session.
Subject_3 SECT. VII.

Nobile officium.

The Moderator of the Presbytery of Caithness, and Mr Alexander Pope, Minister of the Gospel in the Parish of Reay, in said Presbytery,
v.
The Heritors of the Parish of Reay

Date: 31 July 1773
Case No. No 171.

The Court interposed in a case where neither the heritors of the parish, nor the Commissioners of Supply, would execute the act 1696, cap. 26. for settling of schools.

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The parish of Reay is situated partly in the county of Sutherland, and partly in that of Caithness. It had no parochial school in terms of the statute 1696. Various attempts were made to obtain that establishment, all which having proved ineffectual, the minister of Reay, with concurrence of the presbytery, raised a declarator, founded on the act of Parl. 1696, c. 26. setting forth, that a citation had been given to the heritors to meet and execute the same, which they had contemned; that, thereupon, the presbytery applied to the Commissioners of Supply, but who also refused to convene, or, being convened, refused to comply with the requisite of the statute. The libel concluded, that the parish of Reay ought to have the benefit of the act 1696; and the refusal or neglect of the heritors of the parish, and Commissioners of Supply, ought not to be prejudicial thereto: And, therefore, it ought and should be found and declared, that, in consequence of such neglect or refusal, this Court hath authority, power, and jurisdiction, to execute the statute 1696; at least, that the heritor ought to be ordained to meet at the parish kirk of Reay, and there to provide a school-house, and settle and modify a salary.

The Lord Ordinary, before whom the action came, adopted the last alternative of the libel, and made a special order for a meeting of the heritors, to obtemper the statute 1696, previous to any interposition or decree of this Court. None of the heritors, however, appeared on the day appointed for the meeting, excepting Mr Innes of Sandside, one of the principal heritors of the parish, who having joined with the pursuer, the minister of the parish, they took under consideration the act and order of the Lord Ordinary, and drew up and transmitted a report thereon to the clerk to the process, inter alia, expressing their opinion, that no less than 200 merks Scots, the maximum allowed by the statute, was necessary to maintain a well qualified teacher in such a remote part of the country. And the pursuers having preferred a memorial in support of the report, and also upon the competency of the Court to interpose in this case, judgment was given in the following terms:

'Find, That 200 merks is a proper and necessary salary for a schoolmaster of the said parish of Reay, and that L. 20 Sterling is necessary to build a proper school-house in the said parish, to be built upon an acre of land called the school acre, given in donation by Mr Innes of Sandside; and remit to the Ordinary to proceed accordingly; and, particularly, to allocate and proportion the said yearly salary, and expense of building the school-house, upon the several heritors liable in payment, agreeable to law.'

Alt. D. Dalrymple. Clerk, Campbell. Fac. Col. No 84. p. 212.