Proof and Exhibits, For Both Parties, in the Process, Miss Charles Halkerston, Pursuer; Against Captain Ninian Imrie, Defender.

Notes

A rare document of a dispute of inheritance pursued by the daughter of Helenus Halkerston of Rathillet, against the geologist Captain (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Ninian Imrie of Denmuir (d. 1820). Miss Halkerston argues that the releveant deeds executed before her father's death were invalid by reason of his insanity, and apparently James Boswell was approached for an opinion (though he declined). Halkerston had published a short work 'Considerations on man, in his natural as well as moral state' in 1764, 'solving all the phænomena of the animal world, of our moral and physical intelligence, &c. hitherto so much the subjects of dispute' - a subsequent edition of which was appended to 400 pages of land ownership dispute under the new title of 'An appeal to reason' (1778), perhaps evidence for Halkerston's mental state. Indeed, the printer of the latter edition contributes much testimony here.
The ESTC record is based on a single copy, held in Aberdeen, which lacks the title-page and the next leaf, as well as the final leaf - and therefore is catalogued under a different title.