Teind Court

The Teind Court, also known as the Court of Teinds, was established in 1707 when the functions of Commissioners of Teinds were transferred to the judges of the Court of Session.[1] It deals with the regulation of teinds, (Scottish tithes), which were originally a tenth part of the annual produce of land claimed by members of the clergy for their support.

Prior to the Reformation, the teinds of many parishes had been appropriated to support monastic houses or bishops or had been acquired by laymen. In 1560 no provision was made to endow the reformed church and many of its ministers were lacking in financial support. Therefore, various attempts were made by parliament and the privy council to agree on a fair division of teinds to enable the support of the clergy. In 1617 a committee of Parliament called the Commissioners of Teinds was appointed to settle suitable stipends for ministers.[2] This enabled any heritor to apply to the Commissioners to have his teinds valued and to apply to buy his teinds (except for any bishop’s teinds which were restored in 1662 and then acquired by the crown in 1689 when the episcopacy was abolished). The Commissioners of Teinds could also grant decrees of modification and locality, which fixed the amount of the stipend to be paid to the parish minister from the teinds and who would pay this. In 1707 the powers of the commissioners were transferred to the Court of Session judges who formed the Teind Court.

The jurisdiction of the Teind Court included the valuation and sales of teinds, the augmentation of stipends, disjunction of lands from one parish to another, erection and union of parishes and the building of new churches. After 1866 the Teind Court could also rule on applications for the feuing or sale of glebe lands (the lands whose produce directly belonged to the minister of the parish).[3]

The work of the Teind Court changed in 1925 when the provisions of the Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Act came into force. This ensured that standardised monetary stipends replaced teinds as and when any parish using teinds became vacant. Stipends were standardised on the basis of a finalised teind roll prepared by the clerk of teinds.[4] This meant that over time there was less requirement for the Teind Court and the Teind Office became a branch of the central office of the court.[5]

The records of the Teind Court are held by the National Records of Scotland (reference code TE). Individual decrees of the Teind Court can sometimes be found among the records of church congregations or in the personal papers of ministers or their lawyers, held by local authority archives services or other archives services.

Editor: Elspeth Reid (2023)

Related Knowledge Base entries

Court records

Court of Session

Commissary Courts

Bibliography

Birnie, Arthur, A Short History of the Scottish Teinds (W & R Chambers, 1928)

Black, William George, What are Teinds? An account of the History of Tithes in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1893)

Cooper, Lord, of Culross, ‘The Central Courts after 1532’ in An Introduction to Scottish Legal History ed. by G. H. C. Paton (Stair Society, 1958), pp. 341-49

Elliot, Nenion, Teinds or tithes and procedure in the Court of Teinds in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1893)

Elliot, Nenion, Teind papers: containing an account of tithes in Scotland with suggestions for the amendment of the system (Edinburgh, 1874)

Scottish Record Office Guide to the National Archives of Scotland (HMSO, 1996)

References

[1] Kirk and Teinds Act, 1707 (6 Anne c.10).

[2] Plantation of Kirks Act 1617 (c.3).

[3] Glebe Lands (Scotland) Act, 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c.71).

[4] Church of Scotland (Property and Endowments) Act (15 & 16 Geo. V c.33).

[5] Lord Cooper of Culross, ‘The Central Courts after 1532’ in An Introduction to Scottish Legal History ed. by G. C. H. Paton (Stair Society, 1958), pp.341-49 (pp.348-49).

Synods

The term ‘synod’ has been used by the Christian church since early times, and the original meaning was an assembly or council of the church. Various forms of church government include synods and their constitution and functions differ. In Scotland, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist and Roman Catholic churches have all had synods at various periods. Other churches, such as Baptists and Congregationalists, tend not to use this term.

In Presbyterian church government, synods are one of the four main church courts, sitting between the general assembly and the presbyteries. Each synod consists of all members of the presbyteries within their bounds, along with any corresponding members appointed by neighbouring synods. Presbyterian synods elect a moderator from amongst their membership, to hold office for a year, and also appoint a clerk. Generally, Presbyterian synods supervise the schemes of the church and they act as a court of appeal from presbyteries. Note, however, that some Presbyterian churches omit synods from their structure, and that the largest Presbyterian church, the Church of Scotland abolished synods in 1992. Some smaller Presbyterian churches only have one synod and therefore do not need a general assembly.[1] The National Records of Scotland holds records of Church of Scotland synods and some other Presbyterian church synods.

The Roman Catholic church uses the term synod for meetings of bishops, held either in Rome, or in the context of national, or provincial and diocesan locations throughout the world. These meetings are held to discuss and decide matters of faith, morals or discipline. Scottish bishops have and continue to attend ecumenical or general synods called by the Pope, generally in Rome; and they have held national synods, such as the Provincial Synod held at Fort Augustus Abbey in 1886. Scottish dioceses have held diocesan synods since the late 19^th century, and each diocese generally has held no more than a dozen since then. Records of these synods will be kept in diocesan or national church archives, and the decisions and outcomes are usually published. Records up to 1965 will likely be written in Latin.

Synods in Episcopalian churches are meetings within one of the levels (deanery, diocese and province) of Episcopalian church government. The Scottish Episcopalians gradually formed a separate communion after 1689, but for decades there were no regular general or diocesan synods, although some local meetings of clergy resembled the pre-1689 presbyteries. From 1720 the bishops constituted a ‘college’ and met in synod, but internal divisions remained until a concordat in 1731 enabled an acceptable form of diocesan governance. Among other measures, the Canons of 1743 provided for Episcopalian synods to meet, presided over by a bishop with a casting vote elected as ‘Primus’. Elected deans could attend synods, represent their clergy and discuss matters, but had no vote. In 1811 a General Synod was established, with a house of bishops and a second house of deans and representative clergy, to decide upon doctrine, worship and discipline. From 1828 the occasional diocesan synods of clergy and bishops were to be held annually, and in 1863 these synods admitted a lay representative from each congregation to vote for bishops. In 1890 the General Synod became the Provincial Synod, reflecting the Scottish Episcopal Church’s place within the Anglican communion. In 1905 lay representatives were included in a Consultative Council on Church Legislation, and from 1961 a third house of lay representatives was added to the Provincial Synod. Alongside this a Representative Church Council was established in 1876 to deal with church finance and general administration, consisting of bishops, clergy, lay officials and lay representatives from every congregation. In 1982, the Provincial Synod and Representative Church Council were merged into one General Synod, which consists of the bishops and elected members, comprising an equal number of clergy and laity and dealing with all areas of church governance, meeting annually, and conducting business through committees in between meetings.[2] The National Records of Scotland holds the records of the College of Bishops, Provincial Synod, Representative Church Council and General Synod.

In Methodism, the name synod was given to district meetings from the 1890s. District meetings began in 1791 as committees of the annual Conference and membership was initially restricted to preachers. The Wesleyan Methodists included laity from 1817 onwards, and other methodist churches also included laity at later dates. District synods set policy and liaise between circuits and the connexion (the central leadership). Records of Scotland District are held in the National Records of Scotland and records of Shetland District are held in Shetland Museum & Archives and copies are held by the Methodist Archives and Research Centre, University of Manchester

Compilers: Elspeth Reid (2024); Tristram Clarke (2024); Andrew Nicoll (2024)

Related Knowledge Base entries

Churches – Presbyterian churches in Scotland

Churches – Episcopalians in Scotland

Churches – Methodists in Scotland

Kirk sessions

Presbyteries

Bibliography

Cox, James T., Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland (Church of Scotland, 1934, 1948, 1964, 1976)

MacLean, Marjory A. (ed.), Legal Systems of Scottish Churches (Edinburgh University Press, 2010)

Weatherhead, James L., The constitution and laws of the Church of Scotland ( Board of Practice and Procedure, Church of Scotland, 1997)

References

[1] Marjory A MacLean, ‘Presbyterian Governance’ in Legal Systems of Scottish Churches ed. by Marjory A. MacLean, (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) pp. 1-12.

[2] A.B. Wilkinson ‘Scottish Episcopal Church: polity, law and governance’ in Legal Systems of Scottish Churches ed. by Marjory A. MacLean, (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) pp. 43-55.

Commissary Courts

Before the Reformation, the church, rather than the civil courts, had jurisdiction in cases concerning marriage and legitimacy, confirmation of testaments and inheritance of moveable estates, oaths, defamation or slander, and cases involving the clergy or benefices. Bishops were responsible for exercising this jurisdiction, but much was delegated to clerics called officials and commissaries who seem to have operated on a geographical basis within each diocese and heard cases on consistorial courts.[1]

Following the Reformation, the Privy Council appointed commissaries in Edinburgh and by 1566 commissary courts had been re-established. In addition to covering Edinburgh and the Lothians, the principal commissary court at Edinburgh dealt with marriage, divorce, separation and legitimacy and with the confirmation of testaments of people who died outside Scotland or who had no fixed domicile. Local commissary courts dealt with the confirmation of testaments and related matters, and with defamation or slander, aliment and debts under £40 Scots.

In 1823 all commissary courts apart from Edinburgh ceased to be separate courts and their jurisdictions effectively transferred to the sheriff courts with each sheriffdom becoming a local commissariot.[2] At the same time the debts jurisdiction was removed from the Edinburgh commissary court to the sheriff court. In 1830 cases relating to marriage, divorce and legitimacy were transferred to the Court of Session while aliment cases were transferred to the sheriff courts.[3] In 1836 the Edinburgh commissary court ceased to exist and its jurisdiction transferred to the sheriff court of Edinburgh.[4] The commissariots were finally abolished in 1876 and the duties of commissary clerks transferred to sheriff clerks except for the commissary clerk of Edinburgh. Thereafter, sheriff clerks were required to provide a quarterly list of confirmations to the Edinburgh commissary clerk, creating a central register of confirmations. The Edinburgh commissary clerk also continued to deal with the confirmation of testaments of people who died outside Scotland.[5]

The records of the Commissary Courts are held by the National Records of Scotland (reference code CC). Further details about the history of the commissary courts and the types of records they generated can be found in the NRS online research guide <https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/research-guides/research-guides-a-z/commissary-court-records.> Information on the history of divorce in Scotland, and the records these created, can be found in the relevant NRS guides: <https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/research-guides/research-guides-a-z/divorce-records > and <https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/guides/divorce-records/finding-divorce-records> [all accessed 26 April 2024]

Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2023)

Related Knowledge Base entries

Court records

Court of Session

Sheriff Courts

Bibliography

Cooper, Lord, of Culross ‘The Central Courts after 1532’ in An Introduction to Scottish Legal History ed. by G. H. C. Paton, (Stair Society, 1958) pp. 341-49

Donaldson, Gordon ‘The Church Courts’ in An Introduction to Scottish Legal History ed. by G. H. C. Paton, (Stair Society, 1958) pp. 363-73

Scottish Record Office Guide to the National Archives of Scotland (HMSO, 1996)

Walton, F.P., ‘Courts of the Officials and the Commissary Courts, 1512-1830’ in An Introductory Survey of the Sources and Literature of Scots Law (Stair Society, 1936) pp. 133-53

The Laws of Scotland: The Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia 2^nd re-issue Vol 6 (Butterworths, 2023)

References

[1] Gordon Donaldson, ‘The Church Courts’ in An Introduction to Scottish Legal History ed. by G. H. C. Paton pp. 363-64.

[2] Commissary Courts (Scotland) Act 1823 (4 Geo.IV c.97); Donaldson ‘The Church Courts’ p. 371.

[3] Court of Session Act 1830 (11 Geo. IV & 1 Will IV c. 69).

[4] Commissary Court of Edinburgh, etc, Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 41).

[5] Sheriff Court (Scotland) Act 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c.70).