Note 49 — INTRODUCTION.

The title prefixed to the translation of this document by Dean Gule, made for William Sinclair of Roslin, in 1554, calls it:—“A Diploma or Deduction concerning the Genealogies of the ancient Earls of Orkney, drawn up from the most authentic records, by Thomas, Bishop of Orkney, with the assistance of his clergy and others, in consequence of an order from King Eirik of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, to investigate the rights of William Sinclair to the earldom.” But in the document itself King Eirik is spoken of as “our former lord of illustrious memory,” and the date is evidently erroneous. It is probably to be assigned to about 1443. It was first printed by Wallace in 1699, and subsequently by Jonæus in the appendix to the Orkneyinga Saga in 1780; by Barry in his History of the Orkneys in 1805; in the Bannatyne Miscellany, 1848; and by Munch in his Symbolæ, Christiania, 1850.