In the spring of 1266 Alexander Stewart lord of Dundonald set his seal to a charter that extended to Melrose Abbey a series of privileges designed to enhance the already broad authority that the abbot and monks exercised over their Ayrshire-based estates. Among these was exemption from the obligation to make suit of Stewart's baronial court and the opportunity henceforth to reserve to themselves the profits of justice arising from the trial of miscreants resident on abbey lands. The monks, however, pressed their benefactor for more still, and secured from Stewart measures that would in future facilitate the trial of persons suspected of theft and other serious offences within their Ayrshire lands. More specifically, the charter provided for the summoning of a jury – here described as a uisnetum – comprised of tenants from both the Stewart lands and those of the monks, who were charged with sole responsibility for determining the guilt or innocence of anyone so taken. In an effort to lend weight to the charter the beneficiaries sought and obtained confirmation of its terms from King Alexander III. The scribe who recorded the agreement chose the specific term uisnetum over several others that he might have used and he did so not merely out of convenience, but rather to signal his grasp of the technical language of contemporary law.