leading personage being the Burgh-Reeve, or Provost, annually chosen, with the Bailies and Bedells, by the community of the Burghers in the first Burgh-Moot held after Michaelmas.[327] Complete self-government, indeed, was conferred, from the outset, upon the Scottish Burghers by a sovereign who was desirous of attracting such a class to his kingdom; and the enlightened policy of David, together with the state of peace and prosperity which he secured for the whole of the North of England, as well as for the settled portion of his own kingdom, soon filled the walled towns, which rapidly sprung up on every side, with a crowd of willing settlers from Southern Britain and Flanders, who were guaranteed the enjoyment of even more than the usual freedom and privileges under the royal protection. They were to be judged by their own chosen magistrates, by “the verdict of their peers”--a privilege shared, indeed, with every Scottish freeholder--and according to the laws and assize of the Burgh, sanctioned by the community, and regulated by the Provost and twelve leading men. As in the case of the Baron’s Court, the crown pleas were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Provost and Bailies, but the royal justiciary, or his deputy, sat in the Burgh-Court; the verdict was given by the “good men and true” of the community; and no summons made by a royal serjeant was valid, unless he was accompanied by the Town Bedell. Every burgher was bound to possess at least one rood of land in the burgh, for which he paid five pence yearly to the king; and to swear fealty to the sovereign, the magistrates, and the community of the burgh--for the tie which bound the burgher was the old fealty of the _Leud_, not the homage of the _Antrustion_ with its attendant obligations; he plighted his troth with his hand upon the Sacred Volume, not placed between the hands of his overlord “after the Frank custom.” In this, and in other points, burgage-tenure much resembled the tenures of socage, and of gavelkind, which approached the earlier allodial custom, looked upon in later times as _Roturier_; but from Merchet, Heriot, and other exactions which had passed, with the principles of service and dependance, into many of the tenures of the age, the Scottish Burgher was exempt; as well as from the wardship which was attached to knight-service. The heir, if a minor, remained with his “chattels” in the custody of his mother’s relatives, the father’s kindred taking the charge of the “heritage;” this heritage being strictly entailed upon the heir, who could stop those deathbed transfers of property which were occasionally suggested by designing personages, whether lay or clerical. Under certain circumstances, such as the fear of starvation, even the Allod might be parted with; and similarly the “Capital Messuage” might be sold, or the property alienated, if the heir was either unwilling, or unable, to relieve his father’s necessities, or