Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This was a petition presented by William Cowper, town-clerk of Kirkwall, which set forth that Peter Sinclair Heddle was town-clerk of Kirkwall from October 1861 till his death in September 1884, and that the petitioner was then appointed; that on entering on the duties of his office the petitioner found that certain deeds specified in a schedule appended to the petition, which had been engrossed in the Register of Sasines while Mr Heddle was town-clerk, had not been collated or authenticated by him and were not authenticated by certificate of registration written at the conclusion of the record, although the certificate had in most cases been written on the deeds.

The prayer of the petition was “to authorise the petitioner to collate and subscribe in the foresaid Register of Sasines the record of the said deed specified in the schedule annexed hereto, and of any other deed or deeds which may hereafter be discovered not to have been so collated and subscribed during Mr Heddle's term of office, and to make, subscribe, and authenticate certificates of registration of such deeds in the same manner and to the same effect as the said Peter Sinclair Heddle might have done himself; and to authorise the petitioner to record this petition and any warrant following thereon in the said Burgh Register of Sasines.”