Extant Ayre Records

Since so few judicial records produced by sixteenth-century ayres remain extant they can be briefly surveyed here. The most detailed record relating to the sixteenth-century ayres is a court book for ayres held on the northern and western circuits, alongside that of Edinburgh, for the period from November 1524 to May 1531, which partially compensates for a gap in the treasurer's accounts for James V's early personal rule. Whilst provincial ayres sat for relatively brief, clearly defined periods of time, by contrast, the Edinburgh ayre sat sporadically on isolated days throughout the year, June was the only month in 1529 when it did not sit at all. This pattern probably developed to enable personnel of the justiciary court to clear the Edinburgh ayre's business on a regular basis and to keep it manageable, but this was only possible since the justiciary court sat in the home town of this particular ayre. A few further extant sources produced by the ayres themselves date from the 1570s, including approximately half the court book of the Haddington ayre which sat from 21 December 1573 until 21 January 1574. The pledge book of the Aberdeen ayre of 7 August to 5 September 1574 also survives, recording pledges entered for reappearance in court or cases repledged elsewhere. In addition, one register of compositions (fines) is extant, covering the Aberdeen ayre of 1574, the ayres held in Edinburgh in February 1576, Roxburgh in November 1576, Selkirk in December 1576 and Roxburgh in February 1577.

Table 9: Summary of Justice Ayres in Scotland, 1488–1578

Scotland was geographically sub-divided for the purposes of administering justice in a variety of ways during the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, few of these divisions are clearly explained. A clear example of this sub-division took place in May 1517, when cases brought before the session in Edinburgh were ordered to appear in regional groups, ‘for eise of our sourane lordis leigis sparing of greit expensis yt ar maid be personis abiding lang apon calling of ye summonds in ye cession and avoding of confusion groving throw multude of pepill’.