“It is understood, that, in 1649, the Books were transferred to the charge of Mr Andrew Ker, Clerk of the Assembly; and that, in 1652, most, if not the whole, of the originals were for some time entrusted to Lord Balcarras. During the troubles of the succeeding period they were concealed in the house of a private individual till the year 1677, when they were put into the hands of Bishop Paterson (of Edinburgh), who retained them till after the Revolution. The account of their discovery and subsequent fate may be seen in Keith’s History of the Church and State of Scotland; but it appears from a paper preserved in the Advocates’ Library in Edinburgh, and published in the Appendix to Dr M‘Crie’s Lives of William Veitch and George Brysson, that Keith’s narrative is not altogether correct in every particular.

“After the Revolution some of the volumes and papers were delivered up to a son of the former Clerk, Mr Secretary Jhonston, who lent some of them to his cousin, Bishop Burnet, and others to Mr George Ridpath, who, about that time, undertook to write a history of Scottish affairs. Three volumes fell into the hands of a person whose grandfather had been the intimate friend of Sir Archibald Johnston, and had, like him, been executed as a traitor. This person was the Honourable and Reverend Archibald Campbell, grandson of the Marquis of Argyle, and son of Lord Neil Campbell. Mr Campbell was several years known as an Episcopalian Clergyman, and subsequently as one of the non-juring Bishops in Scotland. During the latter part of his life he resided chiefly in England, without being in communion with the Church of England, and without maintaining any intercourse with the Episcopalian body in Scotland, to which he had been originally attached.

“About the year 1733, a correspondence was opened between him and Mr William Grant, Procurator and Clerk of the Church of Scotland (afterwards Lord Prestongrange), on the subject of the records in Mr Campbell’s possession. Mr Campbell offered to surrender these records on certain terms, which did not appear to Mr Grant to be reasonable or equitable. He demanded a large sum of money for the restitution of the volumes to which he never had acquired any right of property, and even this sum he would not accept till the Books had been published, as was proposed, under his superintendence, on the understanding that no member of the Church of Scotland was to be suffered to revise the sheets as they passed through the press.

“It could scarcely be expected that these and other humiliating conditions would be acceded to without hesitation; and while the negotiation was still in progress, Mr Campbell, as he had sometimes threatened to do, took a step which was intended to put the Books for ever beyond the reach of the Church of Scotland, by entering into a deed of trust or covenant with the President and Fellows of Sion College, the terms of which do not appear to be accurately known to any member of the Church of Scotland, but the effect of which has undoubtedly been to detain these Records from their lawful owners for nearly a century past.

“It is unnecessary to add, that the hardship is deeply felt by all the members of the Church of Scotland, who are aware of the importance of these Books, not merely as the only sure and satisfactory memorials of the course of Ecclesiastical affairs in the times immediately succeeding the Reformation, but also because they are capable of shedding additional light on a most interesting and instructive portion of our Civil history.

“In these circumstances, the General Assembly have deemed it necessary, as a last resource, to make an application to Parliament by petition, in the hope that some means may be devised by the wisdom of the Legislature, for relieving the Members of Sion College from the restraint under which they feel themselves, and enabling them to do that which they must, as an act of justice, wish to do,—to restore to the Church of Scotland these ancient Records, which, however acquired by the College, the Church of Scotland still consider to be their own property.

“John Lee, Cl. Eccl. Scot.

“55, Parliament Street, Westminster,
June 20, 1828.”

The authenticity and authority of “The Booke,” as now for the first time fully printed from the copies in the Advocates’ Library, (so far as it exists in a continuous and connected form,) becomes, since the originals are lost, a subject of grave inquiry. It is our purpose, in the Notes and Illustrations to be appended to the present Edition, to collect and point out all the evidence attainable on this point—to supply from other sources the portions which are wanting in the text—and to note any seeming discrepancies among the several transcripts and Abbreviates. This must necessarily be a work of careful research and considerable labour; requiring some time for its accomplishment. In the meanwhile, however, we may state briefly some of the leading evidences of authenticity on which we rely, in concluding, that what is now printed possesses a character of authenticity.

1. The Acts of Assembly, 1638, and subsequent years, (which are of unquestioned authenticity,) approve of, reiterate, and re-enact many of the most important statutes contained in the old Registers, which those Assemblies had in their possession; and these, as re-enacted, coincide, so far as they go, with the terms of the original Acts as now printed.[4]