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With an Appendix containing Biographical Sketches and other illustrative documents by James Wilson, Town Clerk of Hawick (1850)
This is another pdf file we're making available and to set the scene here is part of the Preface...
The completion of a line of Railway, to which the metropolis of Scotland and the ancient burgh of Hawick have become respective termini, with certain advantage to the latter, if not indeed to both places,—appeared to the compiler a suitable opportunity for stringing together such notes connected with the history of the town, as he had from time to time entered upon his tablets. Inconsiderate observers may feel disposed to undervalue these " short and simple annals but when it is remembered how completely neglected the topography of our country has been, and how important are the smallest materials which contribute to remedy the defect, the facts hereinafter recorded may appear to be neither uninteresting nor entirely devoid of historical value.
To some individuals, the Record of the Proceedings of the Circuit Court of Justiciary, held at Dumfries and Jedburgh in the years 1622 and 1623, contained in the Supplement, may seem to have no special connection with the town of Hawick; yet it certainly sheds light on the state of society throughout that part of the Borders with which the town is usually identified, during a period when history furnishes but scanty materials for reference; and a collection can hardly be considered altogether insignificant, containing authentic reports of our ancient mode of procedure in trials for crime on the Borders, of a much earlier date than any of a similar character yet discovered.
The Appendix includes several documents hitherto unpublished, calculated to convey to the reader an accurate notion of the municipal constitution of the burgh ; and, with regard to the Biographical Sketches, although the lives of some of the persons may be found elsewhere, these, for the most part, are contained in books not generally accessible to most readers.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...wick/index.htm
Alastair
This is another pdf file we're making available and to set the scene here is part of the Preface...
The completion of a line of Railway, to which the metropolis of Scotland and the ancient burgh of Hawick have become respective termini, with certain advantage to the latter, if not indeed to both places,—appeared to the compiler a suitable opportunity for stringing together such notes connected with the history of the town, as he had from time to time entered upon his tablets. Inconsiderate observers may feel disposed to undervalue these " short and simple annals but when it is remembered how completely neglected the topography of our country has been, and how important are the smallest materials which contribute to remedy the defect, the facts hereinafter recorded may appear to be neither uninteresting nor entirely devoid of historical value.
To some individuals, the Record of the Proceedings of the Circuit Court of Justiciary, held at Dumfries and Jedburgh in the years 1622 and 1623, contained in the Supplement, may seem to have no special connection with the town of Hawick; yet it certainly sheds light on the state of society throughout that part of the Borders with which the town is usually identified, during a period when history furnishes but scanty materials for reference; and a collection can hardly be considered altogether insignificant, containing authentic reports of our ancient mode of procedure in trials for crime on the Borders, of a much earlier date than any of a similar character yet discovered.
The Appendix includes several documents hitherto unpublished, calculated to convey to the reader an accurate notion of the municipal constitution of the burgh ; and, with regard to the Biographical Sketches, although the lives of some of the persons may be found elsewhere, these, for the most part, are contained in books not generally accessible to most readers.
You can read this book at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...wick/index.htm
Alastair