About 1571 Laurence Bruce was appointed sheriff or tacksman of the Foudry of Shetland by Earl Robert.Peter D. Anderson, Robert Stewart, Earl of Orkney, Lord of Shetland (John Donald, 1982), pp. 167-8. The foud and foudry was a Norn-Scottish office similar to a bailiff. The word is derived from the Norse term fogde. The foud returned customs and rents due the crown.Gordon Donaldson, Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, 5:2 (Edinburgh, 1957), pp. 186-7 no. 3014. By April 1573, Bruce was "undoubted foud, sheriff depute, and chamberlain of Shetland", displacing the elderly Olave Sinclair.John H. Ballantyne & Brian Smith, Shetland Documents, 1195-1579 (Lerwick, 1999), p. 151 no. 199.
