Transumpt by John Gibsone, notary public, made on 4 July 1551 at the request of Alexander, Prior of Pluscarden, of:
(a) A bull of Nicholas V of 12 March 1453/54 addressed to the Abbott of Lindores and the Chancellor and Treasurer of Moray, directing them to investigate a petition of John Benale, Prior of Urquhard, in which the said John urges that, in view of the material and spiritual reductions suffered by the Priories of Urquhard and Pluscarden, the latter having not more than six resident Brethren and the former not more than two, Pluscarden should be freed from its dependency on the Priory of Vallis Caulium in France, which is too remote to give it adequate help and guidance, and adopt the Benedictine Rule, and that the monks of Urquhard should remove to Pluscarden, the two houses uniting there under the charge of the Benedictine Monastery of Dunfermline, to which end the present Prior of Pluscarden, Andrew Haag, has voluntarily and freely proferred his resignation, and
(b) The charter of confirmation of 1233 (PLU/1 above), here twice dated 1237 [sic], but with some differences, thus (references being to the Latin text in Macphail, pp. 201-203: p. 201, last line, after "terra" adds "et foresta"; p. 202, 1ine 4, before "retia" drops "viginti"; p. 202, 1ine 7, after "dicta molendina" replaces "Pischariam de Polfode... de Farnanan" by "et has terras, viz. Fernanand, Tuliduffy, Kep, Kyntesok maiorem per suas rectas divisas cum omnibus pertinenciis suis": p. 202, 1ine 26, after "infra divisas foreste" replaces "supradicte et predicte terre de Hocthertyr" by "suprascripte de Pluscardene et foreste de Hochtertyre"; p. 202, 1ine 28, between "siti in Ploschardin" and "et cum tota" adds "et molendinorum (?si) ibi (?vel, followed by two illegible words) posset"; p. 202, 1ine 28, after " infra divisas" replaces "eiusdem foreste" by "forestarum predictarum", after which "et cum tota decima... Invenietur" (1ine 29) is omitted; p. 202, 1ine 31, after "immunes sunt" has the passages given in the footnote on p. 202 (save that "ut immunes sint et absoluti" occurs for Macphail’s "ut immunes et sint absoluti"), replacing "de prestacione... Animalium suorum"; p. 202, 1ine 38, after "divisas supradicte" replaces "foreste et predicte terre de Hocthertyr" by "foreste de Pluscarden et foreste de Hochtertyre"; p. 203, 1ine 6, after "tricesimo" replaces "tercio" by "Septimo", giving the date as 1237 (not 1233). It is also dated 1237 in line 3.
As the collation above indicates, although (b) purports to be a document of 1237, in actual fact this document, apart from such differences as are noted above, is the confirmation made by Andrew Bishop of Moray, in 1233 (i.e. PLU/1 above). Macphail (p. 107) refers to a transumpt, "very closely written", signed by John Gibsone, notary public, dated at Elgin in 1551 and made at the request of Alexander, Prior of Pluscarden. Containing the bull of Nicholas V "with [which] there is also written the charter of 1237", the two together filling "a large parchment twenty-one inches long by nineteen wide". This might seem to be the transumpt described above; it should, however, be noted that, firstly, the latter, as already mentioned, does not contain the charter of 1237 but the charter of 1233 which is given the date 1237, and, secondly, that the measurements do not correspond; the transumpt described above measures 25.25 x 22.5 inches.