The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

The Hospital of Invei'ness.
one of his mortifications of 2000 merks left for subsisting of
the poor he appoints the )'early annl. rent thereof to be
bestowed on such poor persons as shall be brought in to the
said house." He also refers to the terms of the Provost's
own Mortification of the Hospital, regarding which, as he
reminds them, " The Provost causes record it in the Hospital
Book, and subscribes it with b.is own hand."
He refers to the instructions given by the Session to
him, on admission as Treasurer, " strict!)' to observe the
will of the dead," and also to his " liaving consulted an
expert ad\-ocat in Edmburgh. how he should obtain
possession of the uppermost storic for which he had applied
to the Magistrates and Council."
He expresses " surprise that while he was in Edinburgh,
discharging his trust, the Session had placed in the lower
storie a man whom they could not pretend to be a bedman"
[evidently the schoolmaster] " and that without waiting for
the ke\- which was in his" [Dunbar's] "house ; and a man
who had latel}- entered a publick charge disagreeable to
your constitution, and \\ithout the legall tr\'all and qualifi-
cation appointed by Act of Parliament and Articles of the
Union," and much more of similar purport.
The Session deferred consideration. At the next meeting
the Treasurer produced Provost Dunbar's papers and
evidences anent the Hospital, which were considered, but
the Session " did not conclude upon an answer till next
meeting." The matter then seems to ha\-e been allowed to
drop.
Enough has been quoted from Provost Dunbar's papers
to show that Treasurer James Dunbar's contention was
perfectly right ; and
all that he stated is confirmed by the
two bonds of corroboration granted by James Dunbar in
1703, which narrate the purposes for which Provost Alex.
Dunbar mortified both the sums of 2000 merks each. On
the occasion of his Protest he thus summarises the purposes
for which they were given, viz., " One of them for subsisting
of the poor, the annual rent thereof to be bestowed on such