The speeches and judgement of the right honourable the Lords of Council and Session in Scotland, upon the important cause, His Grace George-James Duke of Hamilton and others, pursuers; against Archibald Douglas, defender / Accurately taken down and published by William Anderson.

  • Scotland. Court of Session.
Date:
1768
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The speeches and judgement of the right honourable the Lords of Council and Session in Scotland, upon the important cause, His Grace George-James Duke of Hamilton and others, pursuers; against Archibald Douglas, defender / Accurately taken down and published by William Anderson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    other grounds of fufpicion; fuch as imprudent jouniies, changing of fcrvants, neglecting to provide nurfes, and other fuch circumftanccS as have been laid hold of in this cafe. If fuch fufpicions and conjectures fliall be held fufficient to prove a birth fappofititiousr no man Will have any fecurity, fo long as there are witneffes in life who know any thing concerning his birth. But happy it is, that the property of mankind does not Hand on fo precarious a footing They Hand fe- cure upon that important principle of law. That the legal preemption, founded on the acknowledgement of parents, efpecially where, as in this cafe, it is corroborated by pofitive and circa: proofs of filiation, cannot be de¬ feated, either by the innocent fniftakes of witneffes, or by a proof of inconclufive facts, which are not inconfiftent with the legal pre- fumpticn or direct proofs brought on the o- ther fide. These are the reafons which induce me ta think, that the proofs brought by the purfu-' ers are by no means fufficient to defeat the legal preemptions joined to the pofitive and direct proofs brought by the defender; and I am ftrongly confirmed in this opinion, when I coniider the improbability of the whole