1815 - 1817 Scroll Book - Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee

a little more for himself than the present cyphers of the Council was elected to the said office
of Treasurer, he was so disgusted at the manner in which things were carried on, and so
convinced that he could not in consisting with his duty to the public, retain the name of an
officer whose functions he was not permitted to fulfil that he absolutely and positively
declined to act longer in the council. And yet notwithstanding the sense this strongly marked
of the illegality of the said Provost Alexander Riddoch’s proceedings and the necessity of an
immediate reform, no step was ever taken either by the Magistrates or Council to place
matters on a more regular and less arbitrary footing that the same system of the grossest
negligence and misrule still continues and so openly is it avowed that the Treasurer has
nothing to do with the Burgh accounts either as to receipt or expenditure that the later
Treasurer was allowed to retire form his office at Michaelmas without a single document
being called in for, a single voucher examined or any account whatever being audited; that
such a gross and unheard of negligence of the public interest is a palpable and direct
malversation in office, and is no longer to be endured, and the more especially as there is now
the most pregnant reason to fear from its continuance and annually increasing deficit in the
Burgh Revenue, and in the end a complete and inevitable Bankruptcy. In these circumstances
therefore I do hereby in name and behalf aforesaid solemnly and under instrument require
that immediate redress be given in the premises and I protest that unless the said Convener
and Deacons be forthwith permitted as formerly regularly to audit and examine the whole
Toun Accounts, and to compare them with the vouchers thereof, and unless the management
of the said accounts be restored to the Toun Treasurer as the only proper and responsible
officer every individual both of the Magistracy and Council who sanctions the docqueting of
any pretended accounts more especially without ever having them read, shall be personally
liable for the consequence of this inexcusable neglect of the public interest and undoubted
malversation in office, and shall be subject at all times personally to account to the Burgesses
and Community not only for any sums improperly expended and not sufficiently vouched, but
likewise for such sums as may have been neglected to be levied, or to be turned to the best
account, and generally for the whole foresaid annual deficit in the Burgh Revenue and
whatever other skaith and damages may be sustained. Thereupon and upon all and sundry the
premises I in name and behalf foresaid take instruments in the hands of William Small
Esquire Toun Clerk this sixth day of October in the year one thousand eight hundred and
seventeen.
(signed) James Gellatly Convener.”
At a Meeting of the Assessors to the Dean of Guild held in the Guild Hall on Tuesday the 14 th
day of October 1817 called by a requisition of the Dean of Guild of which the following is a
copy. “To the Assessors of the Guildry Incorporation Gentlemen You are requested to meet
this evening at eight o’clock. I am Gentlemen Your most obeat Sert (signed) Patrick Whitson
D.G.” list of Assessors annexed to the Dean of Guilds requisition
Messers John Jobson, William Roberts, David Miln, James Blair Junior, William Bisset, John
Peter, Henry Bell, Archd. Crichton, Thomas Watt, John Watt, James Duncan Junior, William
Lindsay, William Cathro. David Jobson, John Croom, John Sturrock, Thomas Mitchell, Henry
Blyth, Thomas Ivory, William Ellet, Thomas Neish Junior, James Soot, Edward Baxter, James
Saunders.
Present
All the above with the exception of Henry Bell, Archibald Crichton, William Lindsay and
with the addition of David Baxter
An apology having been stated for the Dean of Guild who could not attend this Meeting from
indisposition John Jobson Esquire was unanimously called to the Chair.
A Meeting of the Toun Council held on the thirteenth current was read to the Meeting which
the Assessors deemed to be their duty to submit to the General Meeting of the Guildry
Incorporation called by the Dean of Guild and to be held tomorrow at ten o’clock.
The Meeting adjourned.
At a General Meeting of the Guildry Incorporation held within the Guild Hall on Wednesday
the 15 th October Current in consequence of the following Requisition from the Dean of Guild.
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