In the next reign, that of James II, about 1450, another Firlot appeared. It was to be ‘a general Mett, according to the Pint and Quart formerly given to the Burgh of Stirling for an universal standard, whereof each Firlot to contain eighteen Pints ... and that none use another measure.’
Which of the Stirling pints was the Standard? The smaller pint of 41 Scots ounces of water, or the Jug, the larger pint, of 55 ounces?
In this case it was certainly the larger pint; for 18 pints of this standard are very nearly equal to a firlot containing a Rhineland cubic foot of water, 1000 Troy ounces = 1886 cubic inches. Except the slight difference between Amsterdam and Scots Troy weight, this firlot was 62-1/2 lb. Scots, just as the English cubic foot was 62-1/2 lb. averdepois. It was 18 pints of 104·2 cubic inches = 1875·6 cubic inches = 54 Imperial pints or 6·76 Imperial gallons. This corresponds very closely to the Himt or cubic Rhineland-foot measure of North Germany, actually = 6·85 gallons.
This was a corn-firlot, and I recognise in it the firlot mixed up with the wine-firlot and only rescued by its stated dimensions corresponding to a capacity so different from the calculated contents of the latter. The dimensions given correspond to a capacity of 1809 cubic inches, a considerable divergence, but the old custom of ordering the gauge of bushel-measures in inches either whole or with simple fractions often caused considerable divergence from the calculated standard of capacity.
Progress through the Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland reveals to us more firlots, with the same anxiety which has been seen in English statutes for unity of standards, with the same attempts to conceal their plurality beneath plausible wording. Under James VI (and I of England) the Parliaments were anxious ‘that the measure and firlot of Linlithgow should be the only firlot for all his Majesty’s liedges.’ It was therefore ordered that the Pint of Stirling be 2 lb. 9 oz. Trois of clear water, and the Firlot of Linlithgow 19 pints.
It has been seen that the Act of James I which ordered the wine-firlot to be 41 lb. in 2 gallons of 20 lb. 8 oz. also stated that it was to contain 2 gallons and a pint; thus making it in one line 16 pints (of 41 ounces), in another 17 pints. The Act of James II ordered the firlot (presumably a corn-firlot) to be 18 pints, of 55 ounces. And then the Act of James VI made the firlot 19 pints, of 41 ounces = 48-3/4 lb. Scots or 53 English pounds. This capacity corresponds approximately to the Schepel of Oldenburg, now = 50 lb.