This poser is an eik, recorded in Edinburgh Commissary Court register of testaments in 1697 (Crown copyright, National Records of Scotland, CC8/8/80, page 541).
An eik was an addition to a testament, usually consisting of an item or items which had been left off an inventory of movable goods. Some were recorded separately in testamentary registers and some – if they were short enough – were added to the margins of the original testament, as in the example below.
Invariably a marginalised eik like this one over-writes some of the original text, and this makes it difficult to differentiate between some of the words in the eik and some of the words in the original testament.
In this case the testament is that of Thomas Adam, morocco leather maker, burgess of Edinburgh, recorded on 16 November 1697. The eik was added on 5 July 1698 and concerned money owed to Adam (consisting of a principal sum, interest and a penalty – presumably for late payment) in a bond of 1675.
Questions: who was the debtor, what did he owe and who became cautioner?
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Abbreviations
17th century alphabet
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