Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

MAGNA CAUTA OF THK KAKT.DO.Nr, 1002. CCXXXV
arc many expressions of the king's gratitude and favour to tlie earl, of whose
loyalty, fidelity, sernces, and sufferings, ho had many testimonies. At the
end of the warrant there is a docquct by the Lords Commissioners of
Exchequer in Scotland fixing the. " composition ane hundretli merhs, in
respect of his father and his awne knawin affections to, and sufferings for,
the kingis service."
The docquet of the secretary of Scotland, which is also appended to the
warrant, is signed by the Earl of Lauderdale, who was a very learned officer of
state, and thoroughly experienced in the affairs of Scotland. Docquets were
intended for the eye of the sovereign before he affixed his sign-manual.
This docquet specially mentions " the Earldom of Annandale and Huvifell,
with the dignity of ane Earle according to the date of James, Eaiie of
Annandale and Ilartfell, and his deceased father, their patents."'
It is not every peer of Scothmd who holds both a formal patent or
diploma of his creation as a peer, and a warrant under the sign-manual for
a charter, and also the charter under the great seal of Scotland, erecting
the landed estate into an earldom of the same name and designation as that
created by the patent. The diploma of the peerage, and the crown charter
erecting the lands of the grantee into an earldom of the same name, in-
cluding the peerage itself to the same heirs, is as valid legal evidence of
the creation as could be devised at the time.
.
But the Earl of Annandale's riglit to the peerage and the territorial earldom
was still further fortified by a special act of the parliament of Scotland on
19th October 1669. That act was passed eiglit years after the valid
creation of the dignity, and the crown charter of the title and territor}'.
During these years the Earl of Annaudak was in the undisputed right and
possession of that peerage both under the diploma and the crown charter.
It was in the second parliament of King Charles the Second, held by John,
Earl of Lauderdale, as commissioner, that an act was passed, titled " Eatifica-
' Annandale Peerage Minutes of Evidence, 1S44, p. 111.