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Page 159:-
The trewes were kept in the form of a country court; six
jurymen were chosen out of Scotland by the Lord-Warden for
England, and six by the Scottish Warden out of England,
which together made a jury of twelve. The form of the oath
administered to them was:- You shall clean no bills worthy
to be fouled; you shall foul no bills worthy to be cleaned,
but shall do that which appeareth with truth, for the
maintenance of the peace, and suppressing of attempts. So
help you God.
They had a law amongst them, that if the defendant would
swear the charge laid against him was false, he was cleared;
and this law is yet retained by the Scots, though exploded
in every code of law besides; both upon a supposition that
no man will swear against himself, and that an oath thus
extorted is inconsistent with the liberties of mankind. The
oath was horrible, and runs this:
The Oath.
"You shall swear by heaven above you, hell beneath you, by
your part in paradise, by all that God made in six days and
seven nights, and by God himself, you are whart out sackless
of art, part, way, witting, ridd, kenning, haveing or
recetting of any of the goods and chattles named in this
bill. So help you God."
The Plaintiff's Oath.
"You shall leile price make, and truth say, what your goods
were worth at the time of their takeing, to have been bought
and sold in a market, taken all at one time; and that you
know no other recovery but this. So help you God."
Mr Bell goes through the whole proceedings at a day of
trewes, but being, as I said before, nearly the same as is
at present made use of in our courts of judicature, I shall
omit the greatest part of it.
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Debatable Land
dun cow
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The debateable ground, as I said before, was a kind of
entercommon between the two kingdoms, whereon the subjects
of each claimed a right of depasturing their cattle, but not
to have them levant and couchant thereon; it was about eight
miles long, and four broad, and was inhabited by a dangerous
set of thieves and plunderers. The story of King James's
favourite cow is well known, that not liking her
accommodations in England, she found her way back to
Edinburgh! which the King said he did not so much wonder at,
as how she got through the debateable ground without being
stolen. It is remarkable, she was the only one of that
King's followers that ever tried the experiment.
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border reivers
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Notwithstanding the appointment of the Lord Wardens, and
their power to quell disturbances, frequent incursions were
made by both kingdoms, and many prisoners taken, which were
ransomed at prices according to their abilities, and the
takers had the ransom. To illustrate this , I shall insert
the copy of a letter wrote by Sir Thomas Wharton,
(afterwards Lord Wharton) deputy Warden of the West Marches,
to King Henry the VIII. after the battle of Solway Moss.
Copy of a letter from Sir Thomas Wharton to the King's most
Excellent Majesty, the 10th December 1543.
'Please your most excellent Majesty to be advertised, that
your gracious and most noble letters, of the date at your
Highness's Honour at Hampton Court the last day of November,
was delivered unto me at Newcastle, the 4th of December,
being repaired thither with divers noblemen and gentlemen,
Scottish prisoners, according to the Right Honourable my
Lord of Hertford's letters of commandment unto me so to do:
Humbly advertising your Majesty, that the contents of your
Highness's said gracious and most noble letters, shewed by
me, and read in that part to the gentlemen your Highness's
servants and humble subjects there, pre-
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sent,
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