Missing Aberdeen archives reveal clash with King James I

Newly-discovered extracts from city records lost for more than 200 years have revealed fresh information about King James I’s relationship with Aberdeen.

The third volume from the city’s council registers, which cover the period 1398-1511, had been missing for more than two centuries.

But Dr Jackson Armstrong, a history lecturer at Aberdeen University, noticed a reference to “very curious extracts from the records of the city of Aberdeen, 1398-1658” in a catalogue of the medieval holdings of ancient universities and colleges produced in 1932.

When he tracked down the manuscript, by James Man, he found a number of pages copied in the mid1700s from the missing volume which covered the period 1414-1434.

The extracts have revealed how the city clashed with King James I of Scotland when it refused to support a campaign against Highland chiefs.

Dr Armstrong said the discovery helped piece together a missing part of Scotland’s heritage.

He said: “To find any trace of the missing burgh records after more than two centuries was unexpected but to find that these extracts offer us a new insight into Aberdeen’s royal connections in this period is extraordinary.

“We have found information relating to King James I’s journeys by sea to Aberdeen and Inverness.

“We can also see that in 1428, when the king arrested the Highland chiefs at Inverness, he demanded support of men and supply of provisions from Aberdeen.

“It does not appear that this was forthcoming as other sources show Aberdeen and three other towns were fined by the crown for failing to contribute fully.”