ABSTRACT

On the last day of April 1547 the Aberdeen town council ordered that Alexander Troup, his wife, ‘barnis and servandis’ be banished from the burgh for one year and a day. To prepare for this move the court gave the household twenty-four hours to collect their ‘gudis and geirs’ and leave town.1 While this particular entry in the Aberdeen Council Register does not specify the action that led to the family’s banishment, an earlier entry suggests that Troup stood convicted of breaking the town’s statutes and ordinances and for disobeying the baillies.2 Despite the severity of the punishment, this case was not that unusual. Similar cases of ‘misbehaviour’ – verbal and physical assault, petty theft, property destruction, statute-breaking, regrating and forestalling, and ‘strublens’ – frequently came before the Aberdeen burgh court.3 Some led to convictions, others acquittals, but virtually all cast light on the concerns, attitudes and beliefs of the burgh community.