This week’s poser is taken from the court book of Cunninghame bailliary court (National Archives of Scotland, RH11/19/1 page 65). It features a case where a carpenter took two of his clients to court in 1634 over an unpaid debt.

The writing is small but fairly neat. If you are familiar with secretary hand and the jargon of court proceedings, you should have few difficulties. Otherwise see below under ‘Help’ for advice.

This week’s questions: who was the carpenter, and who were his two clients, and what had the carpenter agreed to build?

Help
For help with reading this poser, the best place to start is with two of our tutorials. The 1-hour basic tutorial introduces you to secretary hand letters and the Glasgow burgh court tutorial covers the legal jargon of court proceedings.


Answer