To His Grace, JAMES Duke of Queensberry His Majesty's High Commissioner; And the Right Honourable, Right Worshipfull, and very Honoured, The Lords, Barons, and Burgesses, presently assembled in Parliament; Anna Fowler Relict of Mr. William Arnot late Minister of the Gospel at Ebdie,
THAT Your Petitioners Husband died in the Year 1696. and Left Your Petitioner with five Children, without any mean of Subsistance, except the Summ of Four Thousand and Six Hundred Merks Principal, with several bygone Annual-Rents, which He had secured upon the Estate of Cunichie within the Shire of Fife; And albeit my Right and Securitie be good, Yet by the cunning and unjust practices of Mr. Alexander A [...]eck who married the ap [...]earand Heiress his abstracting o [...] the Writs and conveyance of the Estate, I am not only excluded from the upli [...]ting of the Principall Summ, but likeways [...]rom the uplifting of the Annual Rents of which there is now Twentie four Years Resting; And albeit the Lords of Session before whom the Ranking of the Creditors is Depending, Did appoint your Petitioner to get Payment from James Oliphant present Factor, of an Hundred Pound Sterlit of the bygone Annual Rents, for prosecuting of my Just Rights, and supporting of my Poor Family during the Dependance of the Plea, upon my finding Caution to Refound In caise the same by the Event be not found due; Yet, the Lords of Session their favour is Proven altogether ineffectuall to me, In Respect I am not able to find Caution, whereby I am necessitate to Desert the Prosecution of my just Right, and Your Petitioner and Children Exposed to Starve, The High Court of Parliament being the Supream Judicatory of the Nation, And who have Power to di [...]pence Iustice without being bound to the Particular Forms by which the Inferiou [...] Courts are bound up, And before whom the Cases of the Widow and Fatherless should be Particularly Considered.
May it therefore please Your Grace and Lord slips, to take your Petitioners Case to Your Consideration. and to appoint the foresaid Factor furthwith to pay the Hundred Pounds Sterl modifyed by the Lords of Session without caution, upon Your Petitioners granting Receipt, and Obligement to allow the same off the first and readyes of what shall be found due at the Event of the Ranking, or to remit to the Lords of Session to do the same, upon my giving my Oath that I am not able to find caution.
And Your Petitioner shall ever Pray.