The following documents illustrative of the Oppressions of Orkney and Zetland in the Sixteenth century, are now for the first time presented to the public, and have been carefully transcribed from the original MSS., or from contemporary and authentic copies.

I. The First Articlis given in against Lord Robert Stuart of Orkney, 16th December 1575, are printed from an official copy of the same period, preserved among the very curious collection of Scottish State Papers in the possession of the Right Honourable the Earl of Hopetown, whose ancestor was Lord Advocate in the next reign, and I owe the knowledge of its existence to the information and courtesy of Mr. Joseph Robertson of the Register House.

II. The Complaintis and Probatiounis of the Inhabitantis of Zetland, against Laurence Bruce of Cultmalindy (February 1576), are printed from the original MS., authenticated by the signature of the Royal Commissioners, Mudy and Henderson. This curious State Paper was shown to me about twenty years ago by a late Sheriff of Orkney, and I then made two transcripts, one of which, with the original, I gave to him, retaining the other, which, at one time, I feared might be the only existing copy of so interesting a document. On his death the MS. disappeared till 1856, when it was offered for sale to Mr. David Laing, to whom the Antiquaries of Scotland owe so large a debt of gratitude, and to whose kindness I also am indebted for the opportunity of collating my transcript with the Original.

III. The Commission to Sir John Maitland, the Chancellor, and Sir Lewis Bellenden, Justeis Clerk, and to Sir Patrik Ballentyne 1587, to “enquire into the complaints against Lord Robert Stewart, lait Erle of Orkney, and James Stewart of GrÆmsay, his natural son,” is printed from the original MS., authenticated by the signature of Andro Elleis, Clerk to the Privy Council. This Commission was previously published in the Antiquarian Magazine, October 1848, by Mr. George Petrie, the most diligent and useful of Orkneyan Antiquaries, but by his kind permission is again presented to the public in a form more lasting and accessible.

IV. The Supplication to the Parliament be the Gentilmen of Orkney and Zetland (1592), is printed from a Doubill of the same period among my own papers, and is inserted, not so much for the sake of any information derivable from the statements of these Udack pretenders to Odal^[1] rights, as to illustrate the ignorance which so rapidly effaced all Odal traditions even in Orkney, and to share with others my enjoyment of the pleasant “Measure for Measure” exhibited in the complaints of Laurence Bruce as a victim of oppression.

I have endeavoured to elucidate a subject so interesting to my countrymen, but so inaccurately understood even by those best acquainted with the general history of Scotland, by prefixing some introductory notices, adding an explanatory and etymological Glossary of unusual terms, and appending the Complaints of the Orkneyans against David de Meinars (Menzies of Weem) 1427, from the Orcades of TorfÆus, and a Sketch of the early Survey and Valuation, Rentals, Weights, and Measures of the Islands.

I had intended to add a number of documents illustrative of Odal Law, Succession and Pedigree; of Things, Oaths, and Umbothskap; of the Conveyance, Assedation, Impignoration, and Redemption of Land; of the Transition from Norse to Scottish law, language and thought; and of the Oppressions and Assumptions of the Stewart Earls of Orkney. But the growing mass of such materials, and the difficulty of rejection or selection, where all seemed to me so interesting, have compelled me to forego so large an addition to a volume already unduly extended.

Balfour, 31st December 1858.