UNTO HIS GRACE HIS MAJESTY'S HIGH COMMISSIONER And the Right Honourable Estates of Parliament.  
The Petition of Sir Robert chiefly present Lord Provost of the Burgh of Edinburgh, John Robertson, George Home, Archibald Rule, and Adam Brown present Bailies thereof, Hugh Blair Dean of Gilled and Patrick Thomson Thesaurer. For themselves and in name of the whole Council and Community of the said Burgh.  
Humbly Sheweth  
THAT where by the old Custom and Constitution of the Brugh, and which is certainly most agreeable to the good Government and quiet of all burgh's, the Town Clerks of Edinburgh as being the Town's Servants were only durante beneplacito, until at first the deceased Sir William Thomson, obtained from the then Magistrates and Council by his extraordinary influence, a gift of the Clerkship ad vitam, and then upon his being deprived, and some other Contentious changes, that afterwards fell out to the Towns great Vexation and Expenses. The deceased Sir James Rochead did impetrate and elicit from them, an Act dated the 30 of August 1678 years, whereby upon a specious narrative of Right, and the security that Men ought to have for the same, he prevailed with the then Magistrates and Council to statute and ordain in his favours, that no Clerk of Edinburgh for hereafter should be challenged or removed from their office, whatever may be their demerit, but by a certain solemn form of process of his devysing, and wherein he was to have a subscribing Answer, and all the process to be carried on both Scripto and viva voce by Advocats if he thought fit, and by such Intervals and periods, as that it was to last at least four Weeks. By which Act, wherein there is no provision made for the said Good Town, either for debarring Advocation, or excluding Suspension, as might well have been expected after so Cautious a Contrivance for securing of the Town Clerk: The Towns Power and Liberties were in effect stolen from them, and the Clerks who are and aught to be their Servants made more than half Masters, And this when the said Sir James with the said Aeneas came to be admitted and installed in the said office, they were not only admitted Conjunctly, and with a survivance to the longest liver, which is also Injurious to the Liberties of the Burgh, but in their Act of Admission of the date the twenty one of January 1687 years, the same provision of a formal and solemn process in the Terms foresaid is repeated as a condition, whereby it is evident, that for the Magistrates and Town Council to offer to bring their Servant the Town Clerk to a Trial before themselves, were only to engage themselves in contentious Pleas & Advocations, & Suspensions, to the great Charges, & disorder and Conusion of the Burgh, during so long a dependence: And therefore the Magistrates and Town Council of Edinburgh, having not only the foresaid Encroachment to complain of. But also a charge of several Malversations against the said Aeneas Mcleod their present Clerk, do in all humility address themselves to this High and Honourable Court of Parliament, to whose care and Protection the good order and quiet of all his Majesty's Royal burgh's, doth most properly pertain. And as to the said Aeneas they complain.  
1mo. That he entered into the said Office of Clerk as conjunct with Sir James Rochead, and now enjoys the same by the sole benefice of an unwarantable survivance, which was granted by the then Magistrates to the prejudice of the true liberties of the Brugh.  
2ly During his being Clerk he has neglected the Registers & Records of the Brugh which are for the most part left be hind unfilled up & some of them for so long a time, that they are in hazard to fall in disuse: as first the Dean of Gilds Register of the locked Book which was begun in the 1487 Years, and ever since continued until the Twenty fourth of February 1669. hath since that time been altogether neglected, & tho' there be Scroll Books & Minus made by the under-Clerkes from the said 24. of February 1669. to this day Yet the foresaid Register and locked Books are not filled up, but have been at a stand since the said year 1669. And these scroll Books are altogether vitiat, and cannot make faith, being all interlined, and many things written upon the Margin.  
3ly, There is no Register at all keeped of Jedges and warrants for bounding of Lands within Burgh, albeit their are several Acts of the Town Council appointing an Register to be exactly keeped of all the said's Jedges, and warrants granted by the Dean of Gilled and his Council.  
4ly, The Register of Decreets, whereof the Records are extant, and in good order from the third of March 1569 to the 28 of August 1677, have since that time been altogether slighted, & no Decreet Registrate & booked as it ought to be.  
5ly, The Register called, the Council Register, and continued with great care from the 1557 to December 1691. is since that time now by the space of three or four years' unfilled up, and nelected.  
6ly. The Register of Dispositiones and Bonds is carried on very exactly from the 1561 to the 1690, but since that time is likewise unfilled up, and there are also Books of Dispositions from the first of January 1678. And to the year 1686. But all of them incomplete, & brought no farther forward than the said year 1686  
7ly. There are Acts of Town Council most confusedly & indistinctly, & in appearance falsely recorded, as particularly, the Act of the Town Council the Day of July 1690 years anent a Bond of three Thousand pound Sterling granted anent the Earl of Melvill, which is begun with one hand, and continued with another: And neither coherently, or at all agreeable to what was resolved in the said Town Council about that Bond. viz. That it should be given for the imposition which was not then obtained, and not for the pitiful Causes therein set down. And the said Act is also vitiat, and hath words delete in the end, and other words visibly added, and which overrun the Provosts subscription, all which is manifest to ocular Inspection.  
8ly, the said Aeneas hath not observed but broken the Trust the Town reposed in him, in so far as Mr William Stirling Writer did upon the third of September, 1690 Years, give a note under his hand, wherein the said Aeneas Mcleod and his Servant John Duncan are witnesses, wherein he obliges himself to make payment to the Tacksmen of the Towns imposition of the the two pennies of Excise owing by Widow Lawries Brewarie for the space therein contained, and declare, that a Charter which he got from the Magistrates of Edinburgh should lie consigned in their Clerks hands till he satisfied the same. And yet the said Charter is given up to Mr William Stirling upon the fourth of September thereafter as Mr Stirlings Receipt testifies. And the said imposition was not by him paid conform to the foresaid Note  
9ly, And the said Aeneas hath farther abused his Trust, and transgressed the duty of his Office, in so far as he hath given out Decreets of the Town Council without any Subscribed warrant, such as a Decreet of the Town Council of the date the twenty firth day of January last by past at the instance of Mary's Chapel against James Buchannan Wtight, for which there is no subscribed Warrant.  
And lastly what has been lately done by the said Aeneas as to Mr. Duncan. robertson's affair, and how he neglected and despised the order of the Committee of Parliament, is best known to the Committee before whom that matter is depending. By all which it is manifest that not only the Towns Rights and Liberties are encroached upon and infringed by the foresaid Aeneas his provision and Act of Admission to the said Office, and by the said other Act to which the same Relates, but also that he has malversed in his foresaid office of trust, for which he ought to be removed and deprived, as also the Towns Liberties ought to be restored, and the foresaids Acts to their prejudice reduced and rescinded, and all survivances for hereafter perpetually Discharged.  
May it  please your Grace, and the Right Honourable the Estates of Parliament, to grant warrant to cite the said Aeneas upon forty eight hours warning, he being within the Town of Edinburgh, to compeat before your Grace and Lordships, to hear and see the premises verified, and proven, and himself deprived and discerned to remove from the said office & to deliver up the whole seals Registers and others that belong thereto, as also to reduce and rescind the foresaids Acts of Council, and to declare survivancies and gifts of the said Office, to be unlawful, and to discharge the same in all time coming; according to Justice and Your Grace and Lordship's Answer.