Book Description

Excerpt from Records of the Earldom of Orkney, Vol. 7: 1299-1614 It was originally intended that the material for this volume should include all early available deeds both from Orkney and Shetland, but as the search for documents proceeded it very soon became apparent that there were more than enough for one volume in Orkney alone. Accordingly a certain number of early Shetland deeds, particularly illustrative of the period, have been retained, but the records are otherwise confined to Orkney. Mr. A. W. Johnston was to have been joint editor, and before he withdrew (owing to pressure of other work), he had already made several footnotes to some of the transcripts. These are marked 'A. W. J., ' as are also those made by him and appended to documents originally published under his editorship in the Old Lore series of Orkney and Shetland Records (generally referred to hereafter as O. L. Rec.). Before the inception in 1907 of the quarterly (latterly annual) instalments of these Old Lore Records, the number of printed Orkney deeds of an early date was exceedingly small, and even those were scattered among various inaccessible publications; though in Balfour's Oppressions and Goudie's Antiquities of Shetland, Shetland had been much better treated. The earliest deeds contained in the Old Lore Series, and a few others, have been reprinted here, but the vast majority of the documents appear for the first time. The year of the abolition of the native laws in the islands (1611) was originally fixed as the latest date qualifying a deed for inclusion. One only is slightly later, but the mass of earlier material proved so considerable that very few are actually after the year 1600. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.