Adam Masterton of Grange (died 1695)
Tutor of John Philip
Adam Masterton of Grange was author of a petition to parliament in 1690 on behalf of John Philip, to attempt to recover lands lost by his uncle John Philip, minister of Queensferry, who had been imprisoned on the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth in 1683, and died there. During this time, the Bass Rock was a State Prison and was used to imprison covenanters, many of them ministers.
Genealogy
Adam Masterton was a member of the family of Mastertons with their family seat at Easter Grange in Fife, probably related to the Mastertons of Parkmill. He was the son of John Masterton of Easter Grange. For a fuller genealogy of the Mastertons of Grange, click here.
Petition for John Philip and Adam Masterton of Grange
To his grace their majesties' high commissioner and the three estates of parliament, John Philip, nephew and heir to the deceased Mr John Philip, minister at Queensferry, and Adam Masterton of Grange, his tutor.
Humbly shows,
That upon 15 March 1683 there was a decreet pronounced by the late privy council against the said Mr John Philip, whereby, for one few scandalous words and which were only proven by Theodore Montgomery and Captain Kennedy in Ayr, men of ill fame and most suspect, the said Mr John was fined in £2,000 sterling, payable within the space of 15 days, under the pain of being processed to death; and was sentenced to be perpetual prisoner in the Bass, where he died through extreme grief and great hardship. And that the said Mr John paid £500 sterling of that fine to Sir Adam Blair of Carberry, and for the remainder of the fine the said Mr John's lands were first adjudged and then gifted to [John Leslie], lord Lindores, who at present possesses the same. And seeing that by the Claim of Right it is provided that the imposing of extraordinary fines is contrary to law and such fines should be considered and the damaged parties should be redressed, and also seeing it is known to various members of the honourable parliament that your petitioner is an orphan and destitute of all means of livelihood, and that the said Lord Lindores, without any just right and title, does possess the lands of Ormiston and others now pertaining to the petitioner as heir to his uncle,
May it therefore please your grace and lords to call for the said decreet of council and grounds thereof, and, upon consideration of the same, to reduce and rescind the said decreet with the gift and adjudication and all that has followed thereon. And at the least that your grace and lords will be pleased to remit your petitioner's case to the commission or committee of parliament for fines to be considered by them, with power to them upon finding of the verity of the premises to grant warrant for possessing your petitioner in his uncle's lands and estate, and also appointing them to report their opinion to your grace and lords or to this or the next session of parliament. And, in the meantime, to grant warrant to cite the Lord Lindores, the donator, to the said adjudication on six days' warning.
And your petitioner shall ever pray, etc., Adam Masterton
19 July 1690
Their majesties' high commissioner and the estates of parliament do remit to the commission appointed for fines and forfeitures to consider this petition and to report to the next session of this or any other ensuing parliament.
[William Lindsay, earl of] Crawford, president
Edinburgh, 30 July 1690
The commission appointed for fines and forfeitures, having heard the case, do grant to the pursuer as apparent heir to Mr John Philip against the Lord Lindores upon actuation of 15 days to compear before the said committee, to the effect the fine imposed on the deceased Mr John Philip and dispenses following thereupon may not burden the lands which did belong to the said Mr John Philip to grant to his apparent heir.
Crawford, president
The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707
K.M. Brown et al eds
St Andrews, 2007
A1690/4/31.
www.rps.ac.uk
Date accessed: 2 August 2008.