E106/31/5/1

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EXTRACT from the Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the Commissioners of Supply of
the County of Stirling, held at Stirling, upon the 30th day of Spril, 1832 years.

There was given in to the Meeting the following Report from the Committee appointed, a considerable time ago, to prepare a New Valu-
ation Roll of the County, viz.:- "The Committee appointed to prepare a New Valuation Roll of the County beg to report, that they found
already existing two Valuation Rolls, one bearing date 1691, which appears to have been certified to Exchequer in 1698, and another dated and
certified to Exchequer the 11th day of November, 1802. As to the former, the Committee possessed no means of ascertaining its accuracy, in
regard to the disjunction of the various Lands in the County at the period of its date, there being no Record of the proceedings of the Com-
missioners prior to 1693; but, with respect to the second of these Rolls, it appeared, from an examination of the Records, that it did not contain
any accurate or detailed statement of the disjunctions of Valuation which had taken place since the date of the Old Roll, and that it was merely
a transcript of the Book kept by the Collector of the Cess, wherein the different Valuations had been entered, not according to the disjunctions
in the Record, but, from time to time, in arbitrary manner, so as to render the collection of the Cess more easy to the Collector himself. In
these circumstances, it appeared to the Committee, that, in order to obtain a correct Valuation Roll of the County, shewing the present state of
the Valuation, it would be absolutely necessary minutely to examine the Records from 1693 downwards, and after extracting therefrom all the
disjunctions made during that period, to select those which should be found still subsisting from such as had been superseded by later disjunc-
tions or subdivisions, and thereafter to classify and apply this selection to the several names or heads in the Old Roll, of which they formed
parts. This, although a Work of great labour and difficulty, Mr Robert Campbell, the Clerk of Supply, under the directions of the Committee,
has been enabled to effect, and, in almost every instance, precisely to connect every one of the names contained in the Old Roll, with the Valu-
ation of the Lands comprehended under such names, as it now stands disjoined. In a few instances, indeed, where several of the parcels in the
Old Roll have been thrown into one Cumulo Valuation before being disjoined, and where such disjunction comprehended a part of more than
one of these parcels, it has been found impracticable precisely to apply the several disjunctions to the specific parcels of the Cumulo Valuation
from which such disjunctions have been made; but the correctness of these, and of all the other disjunctions, as well as their connection with
the different heads in the Old Roll, of which it has been assumed that they form parts, has been proved by the amount of both being found to
be the same, and where any difference does exist, a satisfactory reason has been, in general, assigned.
The Committee also found great difficulty in ascertaining the Proprietors of the different parcels of Land, as they at present stand dis-
joined, in consequence of the prectice which had so long prevailed in collecting the Cess, not separataly from every Proprietor or Property liable,
but from certain individuals who had been in use to pay, whose names alone stood in the Collector's Book, and who, when necessary, collected a
proportion from others; and, also, because the Proprietors of diffferent Lands appeared in the Collector's Book, as liable for Cess, upon a certain
sum of Valuation, without any specification of the particulars of which such sum was composed, or of the Lands to which it referred. But, by
personal application to the Clerks of the Heritors in the different Parishes, and a careful collation of the lists of Valuation in their possession, by
which Parish Assessments were in use to be imposed, with the Valuation as it appeared in the Record, and, by information collected from other
intelligent persons, the names of the Proprietors have been ascertained with considerable accuracy, although, from the transfer of Property
which is daily occurring, farther alterations, of a recent date, may have taken place.
It was farther considered desirable, in order to render the information, afforded by the present Work, more complete, that the names of
the Crown Vassals, or Superiors, of the different parcels of Land, should be given, which, from the difficulty of obtaining the attention of
Proprietors themselves and their Agents to the matter, proved the most tedious part of the labour. This, however, has also been at last accom-
plished, and, perhaps, with more accuracy than the Committee could have expected, although the publication of the Work has been thereby
delayed for a much longer time than had been anticipated, and the importance of this species of information may now be considered as mate-
rially diminished.
The Committee have further to state, that, in the former Rolls, they found the Valuation of the Parishes of Falkirk and Polmont, as
well as Lecropt and Logie, united; but, conceiving that it would be an improvement were the Valuation of each of those Parishes stated sepa-
rately, they hace so disjoined them in the Roll now made up.
In conclusion, the Committee have to report that they have printed 300 Copies of the Valuation Roll, prepared upon the foregoing
principles, wherein the Roll 1691 has been assumed as the text, and the present state of the Valuation of the Lands, or different parcels thereof,
stated opposite, together with the Dates of the several Disjunctions, and the names of the Superiors and Proprietors of the Lands, as the
Valuation Roll, 1831; and although, from the nature and extent of the Work, it is next to impossible, altogether, to guard against inaccuracies,
yet the Committee trust that the labour bestowed upon it may be found useful, and may meet with the approbation of the County." Which
Report, being considered by the Meeting, they approve thereof, and of the Valuation Roll now laid before them; divide and disjoin the Valu-
ation of Polmont from that of Falkirk, and Lecropt from that of Logie, as therein stated; and find and declare that the Valuation contained
in the said Roll, 1831, is the true Valuation of the County of Stirling; and direct the Clerk to deliver a Copy of the said Valuation Roll to
every Heritor in the County, whose Valuation amounts to £100 Scots, and upwards, and another to the Collector of the Cess, and to retain the
remainder, to be disposed of as the Commissioners of Supply may hereafter direct.
Extracted from the Minutes of the Meeting, by
(Signed) ROBERT CAMPBELL, Clerk of Supply.