Note 214 — PART II.

Murray’s Edition of the Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 18. In Shetland the kirk-sessions seem to have latterly taken upon them the legal powers conferred by the above Act upon the bishops and other ecclesiastical authorities, as shown by the following extract from the Session Records of the parish of Walls. “Kirk of Walls, December 6th, 1772.—This day the Session being informed that Margaret Abernethy, relick spouse of James Henry, had been, to all appearance, for a considerable time past, deeply tinted with the inveterate scurvy, commonly called the Leprosy in this place, and was now removed to Brabaster in the midst of a number of children, whose parents were in the greatest fear of their being infected with that disease by the said Margaret Abernethy, and that they and others had again and again called upon the Session to convene the said woman before them, in order to be sighted, and also to be set apart, if she should be found unclean, conform to former use and wont, in this and other parishes of the country: Therefore the Session did, and hereby do, appoint the officer to require said Margaret Abernethy to compear before them at this place, next Wednesday, in order to be examined and inspected, as above said.”—Extracted from the MS. Session Records of Walls.