Newhaven.] FISHER FEUD WITH PRESTONPANS 301
men of the town of Edinburgh, and Lady Greenwich,
on one part, and certain fishermen of
Prestonpans on the other. The point in dispute is
certain oyster scalps, to which each party claims an
exclusive right. Accusations of encroachment were
mutually given and retorted. At dredging, when
the parties met, much altercation and abusive
language took place-bloody encounters ensued,
but only occurs in the Tmendas, like hawkings,
huntings, or other words of style.
? After various representations to the Judge-
Admiral, his lordship pronounced an interlocutor,
ordaining both parties to produce their prescriptive
rights to their fishings, and prohibited them from
dredging oysters in any of the scalps in dispute till
the issue of the cause.
November 10, 1786, in virtue of which his lordship
was infeft, interaZia, in the oyster scalps in question.
They also condescended on a charter granted by
King James VI., in 1585, to the town of Burntisland,
which is on record, and which they say establishes
their right. They further contend that the magistrates
have produced no proper titles to prove
their exclusive right to the scalps they have let in
tack to the Newhaven fishermen.
?The charter of King James VI. was resigned
,by the town in the time of Charles I,, and the new
charter granted by the latter, gives no right to the
oyster scalps in dispute. The word ?fishings,? in
was abolished in defiance of the principles of the
Treaty of Union) in favour of the Newhaven men;
but each party had to pay their own expenses.
So far back as 1789 we begin to read of the
encroachments made by the sea in this quarter, and
probably of what was afterwards so long known as
the ? Man-trap,? as the Advertiser mentions that ?? a
young lady coming from Newhaven to Leith fell
over the precipice on the side of the sea,?? and
that within six weeks the same catastrophe had
befallen four others, ?? the road being so narrow
and dangerous that people at night run a great risk
of their lives?
