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Papers Relating to the Scots in Poland (1576 - 1798)
Appendix II - Part 2


On 22nd February 1716 the Noble and Worshipful Magistrates and Councillors of Warsaw elected as Advocate for the current year the Noble and Worshipful ALEXANDER CZAMER, a Councillor of the city, who took the customary oath on election.— Warsaw Archives.

AUGUSTUS THE SECOND, ETC.—We make known, etc., That compearing in person before the Chief Chancery of our Realm, the Noble Alexander Ross presented for engrossment in its Acts Letters of Recognizances and of one Attestation in his favour, craving that they be adopted. Of these Recognizances and of one parchment Writ the terms are as follows:—

My parchment, signed below, is given to Alexander Ross or his representative. That I after an honest reckoning remain in his debt to the real and true amount of one thousand six hundred and five zloty and twenty grosz and one, that is to say 1605 and 21 grosz, in good Prussian money, counting in every zloty at the rate of five six-grosz pieces, which sum of good money, as I cannot pay it out at the present time, I oblige myself, with my successors, please God, in a year from the present date of this parchment, without any delay and counting legal dates, to pay to the said Mr. Alexander Ross, or his bearer, or his plenipotentiary. And if I do not pay him by the appointed date, then for better condition and for his safety I will declare the above-mentioned sum in the Municipal-Council Books of Warsaw in an authentic manner, and declare that debt as a real and true one, giving as security my property, real and move-able, and if I were to sell my personal property, the stone house standing in the Krrywe Kolo, in Warsaw, from the proceeds of that sale I must pay to the said Mr. Ross or his bearers of this parchment, before all other creditors, the above-mentioned sum, and I put myself under the obligation to place upon my successors the duty of fulfilling this obligation, and I submit to all the costs which the said gentleman or the legal bearer of his parchment may incur in connection with this matter. This happened in Warsaw on the 10th of June in the year 1712. (Signed) KRTJSTINA CZAMEROWA, Alexander Leslie (as a witness), John Golanowski (as a witness).

The matter of the other certification is as follows:—I know, from the signature below, that rifles were bought in Berlin from Mr. Alexander Ross. Item, from this same gentleman, for the ordering of 250 carabines in Cekawiec in Cracow I owe nineteen thousand tynfy, which I bind myself to pay, either to the gentleman himself or the bearer of this paper, please God, by the Feast of St. John, upon which I sign my name. This happened in Cracow on the 25th of April 1710. MIER.

The matter of the attestation is as follows:—To all whom it may concern to know: Whereas a difference has arisen in the commercial accounts between Mr. Roberson Lau and Mr. Alexander Ross; Therefore these litigants were agreeable, in the first place, to a friendly decision by means of a compromise, to which they invited Mr. Dupert, General Commissioner of the Republic’s Customs, as chief Arbiter, with a condition to the effect that both parties would agree to whatever the Chief Arbiter with the other Arbiters might decide. We thereupon held conclave to effect a compromise between the adversaries, so that a difference of opinion arose between the Chief Arbiter and the other arbiters, and as a few decided that some of Mr. Ross’s sums were against the laws of the kingdom, therefore the Arbiters could not agree with the Chief Arbiter as to the verdict. Already at a very advanced hour of the night this postponed their deliberations to the next day. And the Chief Arbiter, on account of public amusements, could not determine the meeting for the next days. We likewise cannot stay longer in Warsaw; partly because of the public charges laid upon us and partly because of other private and pressing business we must go away from here. We give our assurance to Mr. Ross that if, by the endeavours of Mr. Law, the Chief Arbiter and the other Arbiters should pronounce a verdict, then this verdict shall be null and void; because without us and our consent, yea, in our absence, it would be by the endeavours of an interested party and because the verdict of an incomplete number of Arbiters should be considered of no effect. This same assurance, for the knowledge and belief of all, we sign with our own hands at Warsaw, 12 May 1712. ALEX. ALLAN, Over-lieutenant of His Majesty’s Army (Place of the Seal). ALEXANDER REID (Place of the Seal).— Warsaw Chief Archives, in the Annals of Old Warsaw.

The Well-famed CHRISTIAN ROSS, merchant and citizen of Warsaw, on the promotion of the Honourable John Rudolf to be Assessor, was elected to the Board of Twenty by the Magistrates and Council. On election he presented himself before them in compliance with a Constitution relating to bribery; but they did not enforce it, and returned to him his deposit, thereafter admitting him to the oath and assigning him his proper seat among the Board of Twenty.

Done at Dantzig on the Saturday before the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, 20th December 1710.

AUGUSTUS THE SECOND, King of Poland, etc.

We made known, etc., That compearing in person before the present Session of the Greater Chancery of our Realm, the Worshipful Alexander Ross, [In 1699, 1701, and 1712, Alexander Ross was registered as a communicant of the Tursk Assembly. A Mrs. Ross is also mentioned as being a member during the same years. In 1719, Alexander Ross, ‘Junior,’ communicated. On March 15th, 1699, the body of William Ross was taken to Tursk, from Cracow, for burial. In the same register is this entry: ‘1707, Easter Saturday. I buried the body of Mr. William Ross, who was killed near Myslenice.’ The annals of the Cracow Protestant Assembly for 1758 mention a legacy left by one Charles Ross, without stating the amount, or the purpose. In a letter dated 1780, written from Dantzig by one Gruszczynski to Pastor Gajewski, notary of the Reformed Church in Little Poland, a will of Charles Ross, by which the little Polish churches appear to have benefited, is mentioned. Ross’s heir was a Councillor Bastyn. The legacy was put into Mr. Tepper’s bank. The amount was 4000 florins.] citizen and merchant of Dantzig, presented and offered for registration our Letters of Protection, to this effect :—

Augustus the Second, by the Grace of God King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, etc., to the governors of the towns of our Kingdom and the Provinces belonging thereto, being above the citizens of the knightly class and all conditions of people who are, by our grace, subjects of our kingdom.

Not without our great indignation have we learned at manifold times, through the supplications of poor people, that those employed by the treasury of our Republic treat those entering our good kingdom regardless of our laws, and do not indemnify the damage done to our and the Republic’s Treasury, whence, for the sake of extortion, the Customs, at manifold times, unjustly and voraciously fall upon the Crown merchants and other poor people who, unable to bear these unjust charges laid upon them, must avoid the customs; whereby the duties, which might be given to our and the Republic’s Treasury, go into other hands.

Therefore, to prevent all inconvenience and damage to the Republic, whereas we have been told that the noble ALEXANDER ROSS, Elder Citizen and Merchant of Dantzig doth at certain times send his son to certain countries and especially to Hungary for wine, and likewise his apprentice, we take him under our Royal and complete protection in order that he may bring his merchandise without any let, hindrance, or molestation whatsoever. We desire that none of your servants in places set aside for taking customs shall dare to take the least amount more than that prescribed by our laws and ancient usage as duty on his merchandise, and that they should not allow the least extortion or illegal charge upon his merchandise and wine whether by land or whether by water; and this under pain of losing their place at the customs and of paying a penalty of four thousand red zloty, of which our Royal Treasury shall take one half and the other half shall go towards paying the Royal Army. Such is the penalty for violating this letter of ours to be paid by every guilty one, and he shall be instantly brought before our own Royal Court of Justice. And whereas there are those who, forbidden by the laws of the kingdom, still run after some merchants and the others for revenge, thereby hurting the innocent by illegal means; therefore no citizen of noble class on any protest whatsoever shall dare to stand in the way of the above-mentioned Alexander Ross or his apprentice with the object of plundering him, because we shall hold such a one responsible under the rigour of the above command.

This Our letter of Protection we order all the Governors of Our towns to publish and further to give to the above-mentioned Noble Ross their full help and protection.

Given at Dantzig on the 11th day of December A.D. 1710, the fourteenth year of our Reign. AUGUSTUS REX.

[Seal of the Greater Chancery of the Realm.]

These Letters of Protection we have authorised to be adopted in the present Acts, and authentic extract thereof to be delivered to the party demanding the same.

In witness whereof, etc.— Warsaw Archives.

Augustus the Second makes known that in presence of the Session of the Chancery of the Realm, the Noble ALEXANDER ROSS, merchant to the Court, recognised that he appointed the Noble John Iness his Attorney and Mandatary, ‘giving and granting to him full faculty and general power to claim and recover lawfully in a competent court from their successors a certain debt in favour of the constituent contracted by the late Honourable Philip Saccres, Assessor of Warsaw, and his wife, and to uplift the sum due, and to grant them a receipt therefor; and in so far as it might be necessary to institute a process for the said debt, to assume, appoint and substitute in his place another attorney to prosecute this suit, with general faculty to act, prosecute, offer his oath, move for decrees, and to accept them if favourable, but if unfavourable to appeal to a higher court, and pursue the appeal,’ undertaking to accept as valid all lawful acts of the said attorney or his substitute.

At Warsaw on 18th June, 1712. Augustus the Second makes known that in presence of the Session of the Chancery of the Realm, the Noble ALEXANDER ROSS, merchant to the Court, for himself and in name of Sophia French his wife, recognised that he granted to Martin Zamoyski, Captain of Bolechow, in perpetuity, ‘his own stone house built and situate in the centre of the square in the city of Tarnow, called French’s House, acquired by the granter in name of dowry with his foresaid wife, and still possessed by him, with all his proprietary and hereditary rights thereto in their entirety, and all the buildings, furnaces, rooms, vaults, cellars, kitchens and yards of the said stone house, and with the use, enjoyment, profits and advantages, and all the pertinents in general belonging thereto,’ reserving nothing for himself or his successors, and securing the said Zamoyski against all impediments arising from claims to the house by undertaking to defray the costs of such out of his own estate, under penalty of 4000 Polish florins for contravention of this writ.

Inventory and Valuation of the Estate left by the Late Well-famed John Czamer

Augustus the Second makes known that in presence of the Chancery of the Realm the Noble ALEXANDER ROSS, merchant to the Court, recognised ‘that he granted and resigned to the Venerable William Roberson, Clerk to the Canon of Posen, and Secretary to the Chancery of the Lesser Seal of the Realm, two sums, one of 1300 tynfy acknowledged clearly due by the Noble and Honourable Magistracy of Cracow, and liquidated or secured in the registers of that city, for wine supplied by the Granter for the public needs of the said Noble Magistracy of Cracow; the other a sum of 1115 tynfy accruing and due to the Granter from the High-born Stephen Maijchrowicz, His Majesty’s Secretary, and Clerk to the Session of the Lesser Chancery of the Realm,’ renouncing for himself and his successors all title or claim to the said sums. [No note appears as to where these papers about the Ross family were found. Most likely they are among the Warsaw archives.]


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